Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Lowest Radiation Android and iOS Phones

All mobile phones, including smartphones, emit radio waves from their antennas in order to send/receive voice calls and data. Our body absorbs these waves and if they are too powerful, they will have negative effect on our health. The rate at which such radiation is absorbed by the human body is called Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) and is measured in watts per kilogram (W/kg). A mobile phone is approved for release only if its radiation level is below a certain threshold, which is 1.6 W/kg in the US and India and 2.0 W/kg in Europe. The lower the SAR value, the less radiation the phone emits. This article compares the SAR values of popular Android and iOS smartphones, so read on to find out which ones of them emit the lowest amount of radiation.

Each phone is categorized by two radiation level measurements - one at head level (SAR Head) and one at hip level (SAR Body). The table below shows the SAR values of many popular Android and iOS smartphones in W/kg using the US measurement method. I've chosen it over the European one because it imposes a lower SAR limit (1.6 W/kg instead of 2.0 W/kg). The table is sorted in ascending order by the average value of the head and body SAR, i.e. the smartphones that emit lower amount of radiation come first. You can use the check boxes below to hide and show smartphones from different vendors and years.

 

Smartphone ReleasedSAR HeadSAR BodyAverage
LG G3 2014 0.39 0.48 0.435
HTC One M9 2015 0.56 0.35 0.455
Sony Xperia Z5 2015 0.55 0.59 0.570
Samsung Galaxy S8 2017 0.44 0.75 0.595
HTC 10 2016 0.66 0.55 0.605
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 2014 0.37 0.88 0.625
Huawei P9 Lite 2016 0.88 0.53 0.705
Google Pixel 2016 0.89 0.56 0.725
Samsung Galaxy S5 mini 2014 0.63 0.82 0.725
LG G4 2015 0.72 0.75 0.735
Google Pixel XL 2016 0.92 0.58 0.750
Sony Xperia Z5 Compact 2015 0.97 0.61 0.790
Samsung Galaxy S8+ 2017 0.67 0.97 0.820
Motorola Moto Z 2016 0.54 1.14 0.840
LG G5 2016 0.52 1.24 0.880
HTC One M8 2014 0.94 0.83 0.885
Huawei P10 Lite 2017 0.89 0.91 0.900
LG G6 2017 0.65 1.23 0.940
Motorola Moto X Style (Pure)2015 0.49 1.43 0.960
Sony Xperia Z3 Compact 2014 0.95 1.00 0.975
Huawei P10 2017 0.96 0.99 0.975
Motorola Moto X Play 2015 0.80 1.23 1.015
LG Nexus 5X 2015 0.91 1.20 1.055
Motorola Moto G3 2015 1.06 1.12 1.090
Motorola Moto G 2013 1.17 1.06 1.115
Apple iPhone 6s Plus 2015 1.12 1.14 1.130
Apple iPhone 6s 2015 1.14 1.14 1.140
Motorola Moto X4 2017 1.12 1.16 1.140
Samsung Galaxy J5 2016 1.14 1.16 1.150
Samsung Galaxy S6 2015 1.15 1.16 1.155
Sony Xperia X Compact 2016 1.08 1.25 1.165
Apple iPhone 6 2014 1.18 1.18 1.180
Apple iPhone SE 2016 1.17 1.19 1.180
Apple iPhone 6 Plus 2014 1.19 1.19 1.190
Apple iPhone 7 2016 1.19 1.19 1.190
Apple iPhone 7 Plus 2016 1.19 1.19 1.190
Samsung Galaxy S4 2013 0.85 1.55 1.200
Huawei P9 2016 1.49 0.96 1.225
Motorola Moto X Force 2015 1.38 1.13 1.255
Motorola Moto G4 Plus 2016 1.09 1.48 1.285
Motorola Moto Z Play 2016 1.45 1.15 1.300
Motorola Moto Z2 Play 2017 1.46 1.24 1.350
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 2016 1.17 1.59 1.380
Samsung Galaxy S5 2014 1.20 1.58 1.390
Samsung Galaxy Note 5 2015 1.53 1.28 1.405
Samsung Galaxy S7 2016 1.40 1.59 1.495

Sources: GSM Arena, Phone Arena, Device Specifications

The values in the table are the maximum values I was able to find for each phone. Fortunately, all of them are lower than the allowed limit of 1.6 W/kg, although some phones come close to the limit. Note that these are the maximum values and in most cases the SAR value of the phone will be lower. It depends on many factors such as network coverage, network type, exact phone model number and variation, distance from the head/body and so on.

The easiest way to reduce your exposure to radio waves from your mobile phone is to use headphones or simply hold your phone at a little distance from your ear while talking. The power of the emitted waves is affected by the inverse square law, so it decreases very fast when increasing the distance to the phone.

See also:

5 comments:

  1. It's nice to see that you are back. Will you keep on blogging?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, yes I will. I have some ideas for new articles, so you can expect more interesting readings in the near future.

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  2. Really useful table. Thank you for posting. Samsung used to be the best but with the s7 they seem to have regressed.

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  3. Pavel,

    I just checked your rating on Samsung galaxy note 5. It is completely out of mark. The highest has t-mobile, head 0.62 and body 1.07 ATT has 06.62 and 0.78 I do not know where did you take the numbers. Mine are from official Samsung website when you plug in a specific model number. You need to correct it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, I check the SAR ratings of each phone published on several websites and I publish in the table the largest values I have found. In the case of Galaxy Note 5 I have found the largest SAR values published on GSM Arena's website. It is possible for your smartphone when connected to your mobile network carrier, the SAR ratings to be lower than the ones published in the table of this article.

      Delete