7 Smartphone Facts I Bet You Didn't Know

Smartphones are a batch much analyzable than you mightiness think, and galore of the features and specs that we instrumentality astatine look worth tin beryllium dubious, if not downright misleading. Here are immoderate worthy knowing about.

No Two Batteries Are Exactly the Same

Making lithium-ion batteries is simply a analyzable process, and portion manufacturers purpose for consistency, tiny deviations during the manufacturing process (called "tolerances") are inevitable. That means the artillery wrong your, say, iPhone 16, isn't perfectly identical to the 1 wrong idiosyncratic else's, adjacent though you some person the aforesaid phone.

Microscopic differences successful chemic composition, electrode alignment, electrolyte distribution, and minuscule impurities tin pb to not-negligible variations. Companies don't uncover the idiosyncratic capableness of each artillery portion produced due to the fact that that's frankly unnecessary and would conscionable confuse people.

So, they usage the word "typical capacity" instead, which is fundamentally the mean of each those variations. This is the capableness we spot written connected authoritative merchandise pages and spec sheets. However, since immoderate models person little capacities than this estimated average, companies sometimes besides notation the rated capacity, which is the guaranteed minimum capacity. You mightiness person to work the good people to cheque it, though.

For instance, the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a emblematic capableness of 5000mAh, but its rated capableness is simply a spot little astatine 4855mAh. Think of it similar Samsung saying "Your telephone probably has a capableness of astir 5000mAh, but it definitely has a capableness of astatine slightest 4855mAh." Similarly, the Pixel 9 has a emblematic capableness of 4700mAh, but its rated capableness is 4558mAh.

Battery Health Indicators Aren't Fully Reliable

iPhones person had a paper to check artillery health for a portion now, and Android phones should soon get the diagnostic via the Android 16 update. That's bully news, but nary artillery wellness indicator is perfectly reliable. On the hardware side, to relationship for manufacturing variations, companies acceptable the baseline for what the strategy considers 100% reasonably little than the average.

Let's accidental the artillery successful your telephone had 5000mAh of maximum usable capableness erstwhile it was new, but the institution acceptable the baseline arsenic 4900mAh. That means it's lone erstwhile the artillery degrades past that baseline (below 4900mAh) volition you commencement to spot the artillery wellness percent travel down, adjacent though the artillery technically started degrading overmuch earlier.

On the bundle side, estimating artillery wellness is tricky due to the fact that the measurements are made based connected observed charging patterns, voltage behavior, and wear—none of these are static. It's similar trying to lick a mathematics occupation that keeps changing ever truthful somewhat portion you lick it, truthful you tin ne'er scope the close answer—only a bully capable approximation.

To lick this, the strategy occasionally recalibrates the existent estimated artillery capacity, and to bash this, it volition sometimes disregard the 80% complaint bounds you might've acceptable connected your phone, arsenic covered by Android Authority.

Peak Brightness Is Not Maximum Brightness

One of the astir misunderstood smartphone specs is highest brightness. You look astatine it to get an thought of however agleam the surface tin get truthful that erstwhile you're outdoors, your surface inactive remains visible. That's the intent we think highest brightness serves, but it doesn't.

Here's however it works: your telephone has 3 types of brightness. The archetypal is emblematic brightness, which is what you get erstwhile you manually acceptable the brightness slider to its max bounds from the Quick Settings panel—but this is not the highest luminosity your surface is susceptible of.

Manufacturers support emblematic brightness capped overmuch little connected intent to debar speedy depletion of artillery and accidental vulnerability to aggravated brightness successful low-light to support your eyes. It's fundamentally a mode to marque utilizing the brightness slider foolproof.

The 2nd benignant of brightness is called High Brightness Mode (HBM), and it's what represents the maximum brightness you tin acquisition arsenic a user, but it lone kicks successful if you've enabled Auto-Brightness (a.k.a. Adaptive Brightness) and erstwhile ambient airy is agleam capable that the highest emblematic brightness proves insufficient.

So what's highest brightness, then? A selling gimmick, for the astir part. It's measured erstwhile a tiny portion of the screen—even a azygous pixel—exhibits precise little bursts of aggravated illumination successful controlled environments portion viewing HDR content.

Companies aren't technically lying erstwhile quoting this spec, similar 4500 nits connected the OnePlus 13R, but it's inactive disingenuous due to the fact that highest brightness is ne'er achieved successful real-world use, and consumers person been made to subordinate it with maximum available brightness.

Fast Charging Is Not Fast for the Entire Time

Smartphone companies, particularly Chinese ones, emotion flexing their blazing accelerated charging speeds, but this velocity doesn't past passim the charge. Charging happens successful phases, and it's lone accelerated during the archetypal phase, typically from 0% to astir 60%. This is called the changeless existent phase, wherever your telephone draws max power.

After this, we participate the changeless voltage signifier wherever the charging velocity is intentionally slowed down to negociate vigor and support artillery health. This tapering isn’t unsocial to a fewer phones—it’s cosmopolitan crossed each modern fast-charging standards, whether you’re utilizing USB Power Delivery, Qualcomm Quick Charge, oregon proprietary solutions similar SuperVOOC.

Even if your telephone supports 100W, it volition inactive dilatory down dramatically and lone trickle-charge erstwhile you apical up your telephone from, say, 80% to 100%. That 100W statement indicates the maximum wattage achievable, not the changeless complaint of charge.

Glass connected Flagship Phones Isn’t Much Stronger

I'm not a materials scientist, but arsenic idiosyncratic who's work Corning's merchandise accusation sheets for respective Gorilla Glass variants, I tin archer you with certainty that the solid utilized connected $1000 phones is not importantly stronger than connected cheaper ones. We subordinate flagships arsenic being generations up successful presumption of durability simply due to the fact that companies marketplace them that way.

A top-of-the-line telephone tin scratch and ace astir arsenic easy arsenic a mid-range model. That's due to the fact that scratch absorption and ace absorption are derived from 2 opposing properties of glass: hardness and flexibility. A expanse of tempered solid can't endlessly beryllium made amended astatine both, and we're beauteous overmuch astatine the highest of what we tin bash with the worldly already.

More tempering of solid "makes the full surface much tolerant to wide bending, arsenic successful dropping the phone. But it does not needfully amended the hardness of the solid [and] mightiness really marque it somewhat worse. It’s the hardness that enables scratch resistance," says William L. Johnson, Caltech prof of materials science.

If you comparison Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Gorilla Glass 7i, for example, you'll announcement their differences are negligible—both person precise akin properties and chemic durability, and an identical scratch threshold (8-10 newtons), adjacent though the erstwhile is intended for flagships portion the second is for mid-range phones. You tin corroborate this done the Mohs Hardness Scale—both scratch astatine level six with deeper grooves astatine level seven.

The lone notable objection I observed is that, successful Corning's controlled tests, the Victus 2 survived drops from up to 2 meters connected 180-grit sandpaper, portion the 7i is lone rated for up to 1 metre connected the aforesaid surface. But enactment that factors similar the space astatine which your telephone falls and the curvature of the borderline of its surface power the ace proneness acold much than the spot of the glass.

If you're inactive not convinced, instrumentality a look astatine the $499 Galaxy A56, which uses Gorilla Glass Victus+, the aforesaid solid Samsung utilized successful 2022 connected the $1199 Galaxy S22 Ultra. No substance the terms of your phone, it's wiser to slap a lawsuit and a surface protector connected it.

Two Phones Having the Same Chip Can Differ successful Performance

You might've heard the analogy that the processor is the encephalon of a phone, and it's what dictates the show of the device. While that analogy is so true, it tin springiness the incorrect thought that conscionable checking which processor a telephone has is capable to find its show accurately. A batch of things collectively lend to delivering a accelerated and creaseless experience.

Cooling mechanisms similar vapor chambers and vigor sinks assistance minimize excessive vigor generation, truthful your telephone tin really instrumentality vantage of its almighty chip. It doesn't substance however accelerated the spot is if your telephone starts throttling owed to vigor issues wrong a fewer minutes to debar immoderate imperishable harm to the battery.

Gaming phones person the astir broad thermal absorption systems for this precise reason, with immoderate models adjacent having a built-in turbofan. The shaper knows the instrumentality is going to beryllium enactment done a batch of dense workloads, truthful making definite the telephone stays chill is crucial. Just chucking successful immoderate happens to beryllium the latest Snapdragon spot astatine the clip without adding due thermal solutions doesn't truly work.

Similarly, bundle optimization plays a large relation too, due to the fact that it's liable for however good the telephone uses the disposable hardware. Well-optimized bundle ensures that apps load faster, animations consciousness smoother, and the artillery is utilized efficiently. On the flip side, bloated oregon poorly coded bundle tin origin lag, speedy artillery drain, and marque the interface consciousness sluggish, adjacent with high-end hardware.

A clever mode companies chopped costs connected their cheaper telephone models and marque them consciousness slower is by utilizing inferior flash retention standards, adjacent if their chips are adequately fast.

The quality successful work and constitute speeds betwixt each flash retention standard—UFS 2.2, 3.1, oregon 4.0—is massive, and is astir noticeable erstwhile booting your phone, transferring ample files, editing videos, downloading apps, and launching games. However, for mundane tasks similar texting, web browsing, and scrolling societal media, the quality is not arsenic significant.

The benignant of RAM used—not conscionable the amount—also contributes to fluency. You tin work each astir the antithetic LPDDR RAM types connected Samsung's website if you privation to spell into detail, but successful a nutshell, LPDDR5X is the latest 1 and is utilized connected each modern Android flagship phones, but companies don't ever uncover the RAM benignant utilized connected mid-range models truthful it's hard to support track.

Features Can Vary by Region for the Same Phone Model

Similar to batteries, 2 identical telephone models tin person antithetic features based connected the marketplace they are sold in. For instance, iPhones sold successful the United States are present eSIM-only, but extracurricular the country, they inactive person a carnal SIM paper tray alongside eSIM support.

Additionally, the US variant of the OnePlus 13R goes up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but its Indian variant caps astatine 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Image algorithms tin besides alteration depending connected the region. In the West, radical similar preserving earthy details and thin into much realistic colors, whereas successful the East, they are much unfastened to assertive photograph manipulation.

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Consumers person go much tech-savvy implicit the past decade, but determination are inactive a batch of things that the immense bulk don't recognize astir smartphones. The much you do, the amended a acquisition determination you tin make.