iPhone's Liquid Sensors Can Be Triggered By Wintertime Use

An anonymous reader writes "The Polish website Moje Jabluszko ran an experiment that proves the poor reliability of the liquid contact indicators (original, in Polish) installed by Apple in the iPhone. They performed three different tests to challenge the LCIs, which they recorded as a movie. They decided to mimic regular usage of the iPhone — meaning, you go outside where it could be cold or warm, then move inside in a building where temperature might be dramatically different, but still within covered conditions. So, they placed the iPhone in its box for one hour outside at -11 C, then moved it inside at room temperature for 24 hours. They repeated the experiment 3 times, and after the third cycle they could show that the LCI located in the audio jack plug started turning red! This is a clear proof that LCIs are not reliable and could turn red while the iPhone has been used under the defined environmental requirements defined by Apple. Here, only the condensing water could have been in contact with the sensor. In other words, even moving in and out during regular winter time will make you iPhone LCI turn red!" (In the tech specs for the iPhone, Apple rates the non-operating temperature range as -20 to 45 C.)

Comments

Only -20C??

[onosson]

Wow - why do they even sell them here in Canada, then? Am I not supposed to take it outside below -20C? That's almost every night for half the winter! In fact, though, I've had my iPod Touch (1st Gen) for about 3 years, and I take and *use* it outdoors in -30 to -20 temperatures all the time - no problem. It's actually survived a dunking in the bathtub, too.

Re:Only -20C??

[biryokumaru]

Likewise, in much of the US the specification of 35 C is much too low for use during a large portion of the summer.

Re:non-operating temperature range...

[WizardX]

The specs say differently:

Environmental requirements

Operating temperature: 32 to 95 F
(0 to 35 C)
Nonoperating temperature: -4 to 113 F
(-20 to 45 C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)

You have got to be kidding me!!!

*Minimum* operating temp of 32 F?!?!?!

How the F can they sell this phone in northern climates? I live in WI and in Feb I will frequently go outside on a nice day to take a conf call and get some fresh air. A nice day being, at least, in the upper 20's.

Seriously dude, WTF?

/First /. post in like 5 years
//Apple makes some very nice products, but their arrogance is huge.
///Jobs was born is SW WI.

Re:Doubly unreliable

[NormalVisual]

No, it's not

He said "to most people", and this is the absolute truth. The vast majority of people have no knowledge that mobile phones are equipped with these sensors, and there's absolutely zero on the packaging or the user documentation to indicate such in almost all cases when it would be trivial to do so, which is prima facie evidence of the manufacturer's intent to conceal the presence of the sensors from their customers. It's just like the practice of putting a Tip-N-Tell inside a crate containing expensive equipment in addition to the ones placed on the outside, to reveal if the shipper has mishandled the package and tried to cover it up - you want to make sure the shipper is honest, but you don't want the shipper to know you're watching him.

Just the same, I don't necessarily disagree with Apple or anyone else using them (even covertly), as long as they're absolutely reliable - warranty fraud is a real problem, but so is having a legitimate warranty claim denied just because you live in Florida and it got cold one day.