As you probably already know, high temperatures are one of the biggest enemies of electronic devices, and logically the sun contributes a lot to generating heat. But beyond that, leaving a laptop out in the sun for long periods of time can have disastrous consequences for your hardware.
The sun and the laptop, staunch enemies
The first harmful consequence for your laptop is that, logically, it will heat up more than necessary, even if you have left it turned off. The high temperatures generated by the sun, especially now in summer, can cause objects that are in direct exposure to exceed 60ºC, despite the fact that the ambient temperature is lower (in Spain you will already know that we are around 40ºC at this time). In fact, even if it’s not too hot, you should always avoid leaving your laptop in direct sunlight, and you’ll soon see why.
The first consequence is that high temperatures, despite the fact that, as we have mentioned, you already have the laptop turned off, can cause the drums it overheats too much, and can even explode, something that would leave your laptop to throw it directly in the trash (not to mention the danger that this can pose due to the explosion). However, even in the best of cases you will be reducing battery life.
In extreme cases, leaving the laptop forgotten in the sun can also cause the temperatures to literally melt some components of the laptop, such as the exterior plastics or even some internal solders. Plastics and sunlight are not exactly friendly, and even in the best of cases I know will deterioratethey will lose color and crack or bow even if they do not melt.
Another aspect to take into account is the screen; Normally, if you leave your laptop forgotten in the sun, you will do it with the lid closed, but the heat can also cause the layers that make up the screen to see their softened adhesive and let them spoil. The laptops with LCD they would have a worse consequence that is known as “sweating”, and that makes the pixels explode and break the glass that covers them (this is in cases of extreme temperature, yes).
Never leave your devices in the sun
In short, both laptops and any other electronic device (such as a smartphone, which we all have today) suffer greatly from high temperatures, and even more so under direct sunlight. For this reason, the recommendation is to avoid taking your devices if, for example, you are going to go to the beach, but if you do, it is advisable to worry that they are always in the shade, that they are never directly exposed to sunlight.
In fact, we would recommend making sure that the devices are covered to avoid possible risks of reflections; In the image above you can see an example of a laptop that was receiving sunlight reflected in a window, making such a magnifying glass effect that it melted several keys. Little joke.