Since electronics generate heat, which will warm air in the enclosure and around the part, we might get all sorts of situations depending on whether a turned off device cools faster than the surrounding air, and depending on how fast the air cools.
The parts I worked on had immense heat sinks, and I don’t have a lot of experience with low power parts.
My phone’s screen died after a day walking around in -28 degrees C temperatures in Harbin, China.
When I took it to the service center they said there was signs of water damage, but I had never got the phone wet; and Harbin’s climate is actually very dry. And there was zero moisture in the phone.
Being fair though, it may not have been an ad hoc BS justification for not honoring the warranty: warm air can hold more moisture so it’s possible the extreme difference between indoor and outdoor temperatures caused there to (briefly) be condensation inside. I’ll plug the ports next time I need to go to somewhere that cold.
What about if you took the battery out and placed the phone in the rice?
Also, I assume that car manufacturers of hybrids and EV’s that use huge lithium ion batteries have them designed in such a way to tolerate higher operating temperatures, like driving a Prius in a desert for hours?
When my employer first went to digital meters 25 years ago, I had the opportunity to work on an outdoor gantry crane in -20F temps one night. We found that after about 20 minutes or so, the LCD meter screens would slowly fade out. We thought they died. Since we had multiple meters we’d swap out for a different one. After putting the meters inside for 1/2 hour or so, they worked fine. I also had the screen on my early generation flip phone stop working in cold like that too.
This is a bit of a rehash of what others have said, but anyway…
When you are designing a system, each component will have an “operating temperature range” and “storage temperature range” specified by the manufacturer. Many off-the-shelf components will fall into one of three classes for operating temperature range:
Commercial: 0 °C to 70 °C
Industrial: -40 °C to 85 °C
Military: -55 °C to 125 °C
So let’s say you design a piece of equipment using nothing but mil-spec electronic components. Does it mean the system (after assembly and tuning) will work from -55 °C to 125 °C? No. For one thing, you must also consider the temperature ratings of the non-electronic components in the system. As an example, if all the mil-spec components are soldered to a printed circuit board made from FR-4 (which is very common), you’ve got a problem. Because FR-4 has a temperature range of -50 °C to 110 °C. (Oops.) Another example is wiring insulation. If you used PVC-insulated wire inside the chassis, you may be screwed because PVC wire is only good up to around 105 °C. (Oops.)
Another thing is the temperature dependence of parameters for each electronic component. Every parameter of every component is affected by temperature to a greater or lesser extent. As temperature increases, resistance values (usually) increase, insulation resistances decrease, voltages in semiconductor components decrease, and currents in semiconductor components increase. So even though all the mil-spec components might have a temperature range of -55 °C to 125 °C, the system will likely have a more limited temperature range due to certain parameters drifting here and there. As an extreme example of this, I have a Fluke voltage standard that is built using commercial and industrial electronic components. But the operating temperature range for the device is 18 °C to 28 °C.
Mostly, they design the car & the battery pack so that the batteries do not overheat. Most electric cars and PHEVs have liquid cooling systems for the battery packs, while others (like the Nissan Leaf) rely on cooling fans.
Although GM says the “nickel-rich lithium ion battery” used in the Chevy Bolt can run at a higher temperature than conventional li-ion batteries.
I learned back in the early 90s that a turbographx-16 will melt in about 3 hours in 100 -110 degree heat …
it still worked and booted games up but the case was all caved in …
I generally can’t use my iPhone outside when the temperature drops below 0 Celsius. The battery stops working and it behaves as if it has 0% charge.
Once it warms up, it starts working normally again.
I use a digital timer when I’m jogging/exercising outdoors. Last winter, on a very cold day (about 5 F) it went ‘crazy’ after about ten minutes outside. As in, the display showed only randomly lit bars of the digits, and it wouldn’t respond to pressing any of the start/stop/reset/mode buttons. Later, after it had been sitting around inside the house for an hour or two I noticed the display was showing all eights – all bars of all the digits lit up – which is what it does when new batteries have been installed. It seemed to run normally again as far as setting the clock, starting and stopping and so on went.
The following day was again frigid, and again the timer ‘died’ after a short time. But this time it didn’t recover even after a day or more at house temperatures.
I replaced the timer with one on a lanyard that I wear against my skin instead of over my clothes. Less convenient for checking, but at least it keeps working that way.
Well, so much for the notion of super-conductivity at super-cold temperatures! 
Yikes! I would have too.
It’s actually not that bad; like I say the air is very dry, so as long as you don’t do anything crazy, like take off your gloves, you’re golden.
Oh and don’t buy chopped fruit from a outdoor stall. Unless you’re smarter than me and realize it will be deep frozen :smack:
is it a 6S? there’s a warranty extension on the battery for this symptom. I had mine replaced free by Apple last winter.
I’ve been skiing the last week or so in single-digit (deg F) weather. I’ve noticed that my iPhone 7 will just stop playing music if it gets too cold, even if it’s in a jacket pocket.
Speaking of low temps,
I couldn’t find the cite, but as I remember it, NASA built their rovers to withstand a minimum temperature of -132 deg F. That isn’t operating temp, but standby temp. And they use heaters in the electronics box to keep it warm enough. Mars gets cold at night.
I assume that is the lowest temp they could build any electronics to handle even on standby.