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Phone Repair Wollongong

Phone Getting Hot: When It Matters

Phones get warm doing hard work, and that is normal. What is not normal is heat while idle, heat that stops it charging, or a phone too hot to hold. Here is how to tell the difference and what to do about each.

What to do

  1. Notice what it was doing when it got hot

    Warm during navigation, gaming, a long video call or fast charging is the phone working as designed. Hot while sitting in your pocket doing nothing is not, and that is the one worth looking into.

  2. Take the case off and get it out of the sun

    A thick case is an insulator, and a phone on a car dashboard in an Australian summer will hit its thermal limit on its own. Both are worth ruling out before you assume a fault.

  3. Check what is running in the background

    One misbehaving app pinning the processor is the most common cause of idle heat. Check battery usage in settings for anything using a share that does not match how much you used it, and force-close or remove it.

  4. Stop charging it if the heat is at the charger

    Heat concentrated around the charging port, or a phone that gets hot only while plugged in, points at the battery or the charging circuit. That is worth bringing in rather than continuing to charge — a swollen battery is a genuine hazard and it does not get better.

Still stuck? Bring it in.

We are at Unit 6/61 Market St, Wollongong, open 7 days. Walk in without an appointment, or check an estimate first.

0466 446 461Book a repair
Unit 6/61 Market St, Wollongong Open 7 days

Questions

Is it normal for a phone to get warm while charging?
Yes, especially on fast charging. Warm is fine; too hot to hold comfortably is not, and neither is heat that continues after it is unplugged.
Does heat damage the battery permanently?
Yes. Heat is the main thing that ages a lithium battery, which is why a phone left in a hot car repeatedly loses capacity faster than one that is not.
My phone is bulging or the screen is lifting.
Stop using it and bring it in today. That is a swollen battery, and it is the one phone fault worth treating as urgent.
The phone shuts down when it gets hot.
That is the thermal cutout doing its job. Repeated shutdowns mean something is generating more heat than it should — usually the battery, sometimes the board.

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