Why is my Galaxy S4 getting so heated?

[Adam Beardsley]

Heat from galaxy s4

I am new to having a smartphone in general, and new to the samsung galaxy products, and I have a question about the phone heating up. When I use the phone for a decent period of time, the top half of the screen, especially the top quarter, and the back of the phone in the same area, near the camera, heats up, sometimes to the point of being somewhat uncomfortable to touch the screen, I have a case so holding the phone is not a big deal. I have noticed this since I got the phone, and after nearly 2 weeks of use (2 weeks on Saturday) I finally started to do research, and realized that this was a common problem for the s4. I did a factory reset and only reinstalled the necessary apps, plus an app to track the battery usage and temperature. I used my phone moderately, using the facebook app, snapchat, no pictures taken, no videos watched, no games played, and the battery heated up to nearly 95 degrees F (33ish C) with a battery optimization, and I am guessing that the top half of the phone got hotter than that (at least 100 by my estimate). I am running the newest version of Kitkat.

I have two questions about this. First, is this heat causing the battery to perform more poorly than it should? Also, will this heat be damaging to the phone in the long run, both for performance and battery life. I should also say that while the phone has been heating up, the performance has not seemed to lag or get worse. However, the battery is not lasting quite as long as I think it should, but I am new to smartphones and don't know what a normal battery life is like.

Second, if this is too hot and is affecting battery and potentially affecting performance, I should probably replace the phone. Would it be better to get another S4, or should I get a different phone, and if so, what phones stay cool better/have a better battery life?

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Heat from galaxy s4

Welcome to Android Central! What do you mean by "battery optimization"? Is that a phone setting, or are you running a 3rd party "battery optimizer" app? Be cautious if you are, because many of those kinds of apps can be counterproductive.

There can be various reasons for a device heating up. Most devices will heat up to a certain degree during normal use--most notably, when you're doing something that is more processor intensive. Since you say that you weren't really doing much, there's also the possibility that an app is working excessively in the background, which could be abnormal. It may help to look at the Settings>Battery menu to see if any app seems to be using an unusually large percentage of battery.

Also, how is the cell signal? Poor signal makes the cell radio work harder to latch on, which can lead to heat generation as well.

Temps in the 90s shouldn't affect the phone's performance or health. I would worry if they're getting up into the 110-120 range.

A failing battery can generate excess heat, which might correlate with your suspicion that the battery life isn't that good. It would help to see more stats. Charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20-30% with normal usage, without charging in between. Then show us:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which shows Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).

http://forums.androidcentral.com/am...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html

 

[Adam Beardsley]

Re: Heat from galaxy s4

I am running the phone down, I charged it to 100% last night then turned the phone off. It was at 96% when I turned it on this morning. I am optimizing by turning the screen down to the lowest setting and quit out of all apps while I am not using them. I will post screenshots of how my phone is doing once it is at 20-30%. When I got the temperature, I was using an app that took the temperature of the battery, and it never got higher than 95 F or so. I do think the top part of the screen got hotter than that, but I only got a reading for the battery. I can also post a picture of the graph that shows the heat over the time my phone has been on too.

 

[extraclass]

Re: Heat from galaxy s4

I find my phone warm sometime I look for a couple things. Apps running that does not stop when closing all apps. Music players and some games are guilty of this! Weak signal on wifi or network. if you are in an area that has a week signal on either the phone will keep trying to connect. If you are using a Bluetooth device it still could be connected! I usually do a RESTART and this stops all apps, then check the signal level on wifi and network.

Hope this helps.