Check Radiation level (SAR) of your Smartphone by USSD code *#07#

Smartphone has so much penetrated in our daily life that now no one can think of without it. Excessive use of smartphone may cause health problems but if you are even using less a smartphone with bad SAR, that is most dangerous.

Here SAR stands for Specific Absorption Rate which is a measure of the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted limits for safe exposure to radio frequency (RF) energy  which is  1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg).  Any smartphone  at or below this SAR levels is “safe” to use.

You can check Radiation level in terms of SAR of your smartphone by dialing a USSD code*#07#, if results shows SAR below 1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg) then it is OK otherwise you are advised to change your smartphone immediately.

Here are SAR level of some popular smartphones in the market.

iPhone 6:>>  1.59 W/kg
LG G3:>> 0.99 W/kg
LG G2:>> 1.44 W/kg
Samsung Galaxy Note 2:>> 0.42 W/kg
Samsung Galaxy Note 3:>> 1.07 W/kg
Samsung Galaxy Note 4:>> 1.20 W/kg
Samsung Galaxy S5:>> 1.28 W/kg
HTC One (M8):>> 1.29 W/kg

Interestingly iPhone 6 have just 0.01 below the threshold level of SAR.

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The jury is still out on whether phones cause cancer or not, with so far researchers finding no conclusive evidence that smartphones can damage body at cellular level. But smartphones do emit radiation with all their antennas and gadgetry inside them. Now a report says that when it comes to the radiation from smartphones, measured in Specific absorption rate (SAR), Xiaomi and OnePlus phones are usually on the higher side while the Samsung phones are at bottom of the list. The iPhones are somewhere in the middle.

Statista, an online statistics and marketing research portal, has created a list of 16 smartphones that emit the higher amount of radiation. The list is created based on the SAR of the each phone, which by regulation the phone companies must declare for their devices.

Update: Xiaomi has this to say on this report- "All Xiaomi smartphones sold in India comply with the laws for SAR values and are well under the limit. Mi A1 has a SAR value of 1.26 W/kg (head) and 0.17 W/kg (body) in India. Values shared in the said report have been obtained from tests in Germany (where the conditions and standards for SAR testing and values are different from those in India) and thus cannot be compared to SAR values in India. For reference, India has a maximum limit of 1.6 W/kg while in Germany, the limit is 2.0 W/kg."

The Xiaomi Mi A1 with 1.75 W/kg SAR value is found to be emitting the highest amount of radiation followed by the OnePlus 5T which has 1.68 W/kg SAR value. The Xiaomi Mi Max 3 and the OnePlus 6T take the third and fourth spot with 1.58 W/kg and 1.55 W/kg, respectively. The list is dominated by Xiaomi and OnePlus phones with four phones from each brand. The OnePlus 6 is on the 13th spot with SAR value of 1.33 W/kg.

The other devices in the list of smartphones that emit the highest radiation are HTV U12 Lite, Mi Mix 3, Pixel 3 XL, OnePlus 5, iPhone 7, Xperia XZ1 Compact, HTC Desire 12/12+, Pixel 3, iPhone 8, Redmi Note 5 and ZTE Axon 7 mini.

Statista has not clearly explained whether these SAR values are for the head (radiation while the phone is in use when you are holding it near your ear) or for the body, which is radiation while the phone is in your pocket. But a look at specs of the phones included in the list hints that the values are for SAR head.