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China News Service, July 22 (Lin Wansi) With the arrival of the dog days of summer, high temperatures continue in many places. Many netizens have reported that not only do people melt due to the heat outdoors, but their mobile phones also crash, causing overheating, freezing, slow network speeds, black screens, etc. "The mobile phone is simply unusable when you go out. I'm really afraid that the phone will explode."

When mobile phones are exposed to the sun and crash, people look for various "magic tools" to cool down their phones, such as ice stickers, cooling stickers, ice packs, etc., which cost only a few cents each. Some cooling "magic tools" have sold hundreds of millions of pieces. What do mobile phone manufacturers say when mobile phones heat up or even crash?

“The internet freezes and slows down once you’re outside”

Since June, users of various brands of mobile phones have reported on social platforms that their phones were burned like soldering irons when used outdoors. "I was taking pictures outside yesterday and the camera became unusable," "The picture automatically went dark after I took a while with the camera," "It was so hot that I almost died when I connected a video, and the screen went black for no apparent reason. I took half an hour to turn it on, thinking the phone was broken," "The interface was so hot that it couldn't be fixed and the picture was delayed," "It took me half a day to open a link, and the battery drained even faster."

Some netizens also said, "Not only is it hot when you go out, (the phone) is also hot indoors."

Why do mobile phones frequently experience the above problems in summer? Is it related to the hot weather? Recently, China News Service called the customer service of Apple, vivo, OPPO, Huawei, and Honor as a consumer to consult.

Apple technical support said that taking the latest iPhone 15 Pro Max as an example, it has a titanium shell, which has higher thermal conductivity than a glass shell. If the phone is left outdoors for a long time, the temperature may be too high and the phone may overheat, triggering its own protection mechanism. The phone will automatically reduce the screen brightness to reduce the phone's energy consumption.If an application is connected to the cellular network and keeps running, in this case, the cellular network will always try to connect to a better signal, and the network speed will also be slower when the phone's power consumption is reduced.

"If you use your phone outdoors, especially when using map navigation software, the cellular network constantly tries to connect to a stronger signal, while the location needs to be updated in real time. The combination of the two will cause the phone to consume power faster, and the higher the temperature of the phone, the less useful other features will be," said the above-mentioned Apple technical support.

The customer service representative at Huawei's consumer service hotline said that in order to protect the battery and related functions, the phone may have a black screen.However, the customer service denied the claim that high temperature caused the lower Internet speed, saying, "Internet speed is generally related to the signal and should not have much to do with temperature."

In addition, the customer service of OPPO, Honor, and vivo official websites also stated that if the temperature of the mobile phone is too high, a temporary black screen and slow network speed will appear. "In summer, the heat dissipation of mobile phones is slow. If you use high-power consumption software, such as shooting videos and video chatting, it may cause the power consumption of the mobile phone to increase further, exacerbating the heating of the mobile phone." OPPO official website customer service said.

Cooling "artifact"? Brand customer service does not recommend it

In hot weather, mobile phones become "hand warmers" and cause various problems, so consumers are looking for various "magic tools" to cool down their phones. "Use two cooling patches alternately, apply them, take them off and let them air dry, and use this method to live broadcast for 2 hours without shutting down the phone." "A few dollars of ice patches can solve the troubles of thousands of dollars of mobile phones." "Take off the phone case and spray alcohol on paper to wipe the screen and back. While wiping, blow with a fan, and the phone will no longer be hot." "Put the phone case in the refrigerator, and take it out and put it on if it's hot."

　　Social media screenshots

In addition to restoring the phone's normal temperature, the cooling "magic tool" is also inexpensive and easy to take outdoors.

China News Service Jingwei saw on the 1688 website that the transaction volume of ice patches and cooling patches sold by some manufacturers reached 11.191 million pieces, with the wholesale price of one patch ranging from 0.25 yuan to 0.45 yuan; another manufacturer's wholesale price of a pack of two was as low as 0.07 yuan, and 2.98 million pieces were sold; some manufacturers also sold self-absorbing ice bags, and the price of the ice bags ranged from 0.08 yuan to 0.78 yuan depending on the specifications, and 150 million pieces have been sold so far.

However, cooling tools such as ice packs are not necessarily safe. One netizen said, "I used an ice pack wrapped in a face towel to cool my phone, and today the official after-sales service told me that this would cause water to enter the motherboard."

The customer service of the aforementioned mobile phone brand also suggested that cooling the phone should be mainly based on software settings and avoiding high temperature environments. They are unclear about the extent of damage to mobile phone devices caused by third-party products and cannot make guarantees to consumers. They do not recommend using ice stickers, ice bags, ice rings, etc. to cool the phone.

Apple technical support recommends that you activate low-power mode and automatically adjust the brightness when your phone is not in use to minimize its energy consumption. Also, do not place your phone in high-temperature enclosed spaces such as bags or cars exposed to direct sunlight to reduce damage to the battery.

"Cooling methods such as ice packs are not recommended. The battery is a chemical consumable. If the phone is kept in an overcooled state, the chemical substances in the battery cannot move. Therefore, it is not recommended whether it is overcooled or overheated." Apple technical support said.

vivo customer service also explained that when the temperature of a mobile phone is high and ice cubes or a cooling patch is suddenly attached to it, the water vapor inside the phone may condense and liquefy, producing water droplets, which may affect the operation of electronic components.

Honor customer service recommends that if you urgently need to cool down your phone, place it indoors and turn on the air conditioner, or place it on a cool iron table or a place with a slightly lower temperature, and let it sit for 3 to 5 minutes before you can use it normally.

In addition, several mobile phone brand customer service mentioned that small fans, heat dissipation back clips and other radiators can be used for cooling. China News Service saw heat dissipation back clips for sale in the official malls of OPPO and vivo, with prices ranging from 100 to 200 yuan.

Mobile phone heat dissipation faces new challenges

The "heat" of smartphones is due to the new challenges that lighter and thinner bodies, more powerful performance, and localized operation of large models pose to mobile phone manufacturers in terms of terminal power consumption management and heat dissipation efficiency.

A research report released by Minsheng Securities in July this year showed that the most commonly used heat dissipation materials in mobile phones are graphite heat dissipation film and VC heat sink.

The above research report explains that graphite film has good flexibility, high and low temperature resistance, chemical stability and excellent horizontal heat transfer ability, and is effective in eliminating local hot spots in miniaturized smart electronic devices. Graphite is currently the most mainstream heat dissipation method. Apple's entire product line uses pure graphite heat dissipation solutions, and other mobile phone brands have a mixed solution of pure graphite/graphite + VC heat sink. In addition, the heat dissipation effect of graphene film is better than that of graphite. Since it was used by Huawei in the Mate 20 series in 2018, graphene film has gradually become one of the mainstream heat dissipation solutions on domestic flagship phones and game consoles.

The customer service of OPPO's official flagship store stated that the OPPO A3, which was launched in July this year, uses graphite heat sink technology, which can quickly and evenly transfer heat to various positions of the graphite sheet and diffuse it outward.

The aforementioned research report also shows that VC heat spreader has higher thermal conductivity and heat dissipation efficiency, can quickly and evenly diffuse heat to a larger area, and can integrate to solve the heat dissipation needs of multiple high-power consumption devices.

"VC is currently developing towards ultra-thinness to save internal space in mobile phones. It is widely used in flagship models such as Samsung, Huawei Mate60, and OPPO. The cost is higher than graphite, but the heat dissipation effect is better." Minsheng Securities research report pointed out.

vivo and OPPO released the iQOO Neo9S Pro+ and OPPO Find X7 Ultra in July and January this year respectively. The former has a built-in 6K sky-screen VC liquid cooling system, and the latter has a 7930mm VC cooling area and uses dual steam channel liquid cooling to quickly dissipate heat for SoC chips.

An in-depth research report on the communications industry released by Huachuang Securities in July this year showed that the power consumption of AI mobile phones may increase. Currently, flagship smartphones mainly use large pieces of graphite for heat dissipation. With the increase in heat dissipation requirements, the penetration rate of graphene and VC heat sinks may be expected to increase.

The Honor Magic V3, which was launched in July this year, used titanium as the VC substrate for the first time. The internal vapor space of the VC was increased by 15%, and the heat dissipation performance was improved by 53% compared with the previous generation.

(The views in this article are for reference only and do not constitute investment advice. Investment is risky and you should be cautious when entering the market.)

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Editors: Chang Tao and Luo Kun