How to cool your Xiaomi phone: The complete guide

High temperature of the smartphone body is a common problem faced by owners of Xiaomi, Redmi and Poco devices. Often the gadget gets hot during fast charging, long gaming sessions or shooting high-resolution video. Heat generation is a natural physical process of the processor, however, excessive heating can lead to trottling (decreased performance) and accelerated wear of the battery.

Modern models like the Xiaomi 13T or Poco F5 use powerful chipsets that require efficient heat removal. If you notice that the phone is warming even in downtime, this may indicate background processes or software failures of the MIUI or HyperOS shell. Understanding the causes of overheating is the first step to solving the problem without going to the service center.

There are many software and physical methods to quickly reduce the temperature of the device. In this article, we will discuss proven methods, from simple system settings to the use of external accessories.

Diagnosis of overheating: norm or pathology

Before you panic, you need to determine if the current temperature is normal for your situation.The Snapdragon and MediaTek series processors can heat up to 40-45 degrees Celsius under intense load, which feels like intense heat to the touch. However, if the temperature is above 50 degrees in simple tasks like reading the news or listening to music, this is an alarm bellwether.

The MIUI has built-in monitoring mechanisms that users often ignore. When critically heated, the system forcibly reduces the screen brightness and frame rate to protect components. Ignoring these symptoms can lead to battery bloating or unfeeling the display from the case.

Third-party utilities like CPU-Z or AIDA64 can be used to accurately diagnose the battery and processor in real time, and if the sensors show consistently high values without an active load, it may be a “severe” system upgrade or a motherboard malfunction.

⚠️ Warning: If the phone heats up in the camera area during the shooting 4K-But if the bottom of the device (where the battery is) gets hot in standby mode, check the background apps immediately.

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Heating above 45°C in simple tasks is considered critical, requiring immediate user intervention.

Programming methods of reducing temperature

The fastest way to cool a smartphone is to optimize the operating system. The Android shell on Xiaomi devices often accumulates background processes that load the CPU. The first thing to do is to close all active applications and clear RAM through the built-in accelerator.

Visuals and high refresh rates have a significant impact on heating. If you have a 120Hz model, try temporarily lowering it to 60Hz in the screen settings, which will reduce the GPU load and reduce power consumption, which will directly affect temperature.

Also worth paying attention to is the memory extension feature, which, although it increases the amount of RAM, constantly writing and reading data from flash memory creates additional heat load, and disabling this option in the Settings → Expanding memory can help in hot weather.

• 📱 Disable unnecessary functions: GPS, NFC Bluetooth, if not in use right now.
• 📉 Reduce the brightness of the screen or turn on autobrightness to reduce the load on the backlight.
• 🔄 Restart the device to reset the system processes and cache that have been suspended.

Optimizing game mode and performance

Gamers often face heat during long sessions in PUBG, Genshin Impact or Call of Duty.The built-in Game Turbo in Xiaomi devices allows for performance control, but by default it can be set to maximum power, causing overheating.It is recommended to set up a profile for each game separately.

In Game Turbo settings, you can limit frame rates or reduce the quality of graphics within the application itself. Often the built-in graphics settings in games are too high for stable operation without external cooling. Decreasing the quality of textures from Ultra to High gives a noticeable increase in temperature stability.

Keep in mind the Close Background Apps feature in game mode, which frees up CPU resources by directing them exclusively to play, but if the phone continues to warm, it may be worth turning off vibration when touching in-game, as the vibrator also contributes to the overall heating of the case.

Physical ways to cool the device

When software is exhausted, physical heat removal comes to the rescue. The easiest and most affordable option is to remove the protective case. Tight silicone or leather cases act as a thermal insulator, keeping the heat inside the case. When you're charging or playing, you'd better use your phone without protection.

Put your smartphone on a hard, cold surface, such as ceramic tiles, glass or metal trays, which are highly thermally conductive and will quickly take away excess heat. It is strongly advised not to put the hot phone on soft tissues, blankets or pillows, as this will aggravate the situation.

For a radical solution, you can use external coolers for smartphones, which are connected via USB or battery-powered, create a forced airflow or use the Peltier effect to actively cool the back cover, and this is especially true for owners of Black Shark or Poco game models.

⚠️ Warning: Never put your smartphone in the fridge or freezer! a sharp temperature drop will cause condensation inside the case, which is guaranteed to lead to oxidation of contacts and short circuit.

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Use a metal ruler or coin by attaching it to the back of the phone while charging.The metal works as an efficient radiator, removing heat from the battery.

Effect of charging on battery temperature

Xiaomi’s HyperCharge fast charging technology (67W, 90W, 120W and above) is inevitably accompanied by heating.It’s a normal physical process involving the passage of large current through the batteries. However, if you charge your phone in a case or in the sun, the temperature can reach critical values, and the system will artificially slow the charging.

To minimize heat, try not to use your smartphone while charging, especially for resource-intensive tasks.The screen and processor, combined with the charging current, create a double heat load. If the phone gets too hot, the system can pause charging until it cools.

It is recommended to use original cables and power supplies. Cheap analogues can misallocate the voltage, causing local overheating of the power controller or USB-C connector. It is also useful to activate the option “Optimized Charging” in the battery settings, which learns your habits and reduces wear.

System maintenance and software update

Often the cause of abnormal heating is software errors. Xiaomi developers regularly release security updates and patches for MIUI, which fix memory leaks and unoptimized code. Make sure that your device has the latest version of the firmware installed through the Settings → About phone menu.

After a major system update, the phone can warm up more than usual for 1-2 days, during which time files are indexed and applications are optimized in the background, during which time it is better to give the device a rest and not load it with heavy tasks.

If the problem occurs after installing a particular application, try to remove it or find an alternative. Some poorly optimized programs can create endless loops in the processor, causing it to constantly run at high frequencies even in sleep mode.

When you need to contact the service

There are situations where self-cooling doesn't help, and the problem lies in the hardware. If the phone is warming up at the top (where the processor is) even after being completely reset to factory settings, it could indicate a malfunction of the thermopast or heat sink system inside the case.

Bloating is another big reason to visit the service, and if you notice that the back cover or the screen has started to move away from the body, or the phone has stopped lying steady on a flat surface, stop using immediately.

Also, the reason for contacting specialists is constant heating in the area of antennas or SIM-card, which is accompanied by rapid discharge and communication problems, this may indicate a short circuit in the radio module or oxidation of contacts after moisture enters.

⚠️ Attention: Self-opening of the case of the Xiaomi smartphone will lead to loss of warranty.If the device is in warranty service, any manipulation of screws and seals is prohibited.