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Seven Myths About Smartphones
Now almost everyone has a smartphone. We can successfully use our mobile phones, and it may seem that we know everything about them. For people who are not technology savvy, even trendy devices can be shrouded by various myths and untruths.
If you still honestly believe that a phone must be fully discharged before the first use or that the number of processor cores affects the gadget’s performance, this article is for you. Let’s consider the most popular myths on smartphones many people believe in. And if you need to write a paper about smartphones, you can always consider using the best custom writing service.
1. Discharging Your Phone Fully before Using It
This statement was true about 10 or 15 years ago. Those cell phones had iron-nickel and nickel-cadmium batteries, which were recommended to be completely discharged and fully charged then. Otherwise, serious chemical changes could occur and affect the phone’s capacity badly. For instance, if a user charged the phone at 40% the first time, the device “remembered” the 60% level as its full charge, and, ultimately, the operation time of the gadget was reduced.
The use of lithium-ion batteries has changed the situation. Modern batteries haven’t got such memory effect, and, on the contrary, it is not advised to discharge the batteries of this type completely. The matter is that the number of full discharges is limited. Therefore, you don’t need to wait until the device is completely discharged. Just charge your device more often, not allowing it to drop below 20%. In this way, the battery will serve you longer.
2. Smartphones Worsen Your Eyesight
Many discussions and disputes revolve around this subject. Scientists from the University of Toledo even proved that blue light from displays of smartphones and other gadgets is harmful to eyes. Many contemporary models have an eye protection mode that filters the harmful spectrum of light.
Almost all modern smartphones have light sensors, and they can adjust brightness according to ambient lighting. Also, it’s not the smartphones that are harmful to our eyes, but the prolonged exposure to a blue-light source. So, modern devices cannot worsen your vision, if you don’t use them excessively. It is recommended not to hold gadgets closer than 8 inches (20 cm) from your eyes and take breaks when using them.
3. The Higher Resolution, the Better Picture
At present, smartphones are becoming larger and “shed” their frames. Each manufacturer aims to place as many pixels on every inch of the screen as possible. Many gadget users hold a popular misconception — more pixels give a better image on the phone display.
Nevertheless, a human eye is able to recognize no more than 338 pixels per inch. Further increase in pixel count does not make the picture better, and you will not see any difference. Therefore, as much as marketers would like to promote the next generation of smartphones with 5-inch displays and a 4K resolution, there is no point in such a “toy.” Displays with such resolution only create additional load on the processor, affecting its performance and shortening one-charge lifetime.
4. The More RAM, the Faster the Gadget
It is another widespread myth that was imposed on us by experts in marketing. Users are striving to buy smartphones with a more considerable amount of random access memory (RAM), but they often don’t know why they need more of it. If 2 or 3GB of RAM were recently the top limit, now devices with 4 and even 6GB are becoming the norm. Therefore, when choosing a smartphone with more RAM, you should take into consideration several points.
First, the high level of the device’s performance depends mostly on system optimization. Secondly, even 2 gigabytes of RAM are enough to solve everyday tasks with your smartphone. And then, extra memory is needed only if you are planning to play a lot or going to install apps that demand substantial amounts of RAM.
5. Every Smartphone Needs an Antivirus
Every week we can see new posts with shocking statistics of malware getting into smartphones. This is done purposely for boosting up the users’ desire to purchase antivirus software.
Let’s look at this issue closer. The Android platform works on the Linux kernel, which operates all processes in your smartphone. Each app uses an ID and comes into a specific directory of the phone memory so that this app is safe. Therefore, even if a virus gets into your phone, it will gain access to data on the memory card only. In this way, it is not the viruses, but malicious apps that can get access to your data. The best protective solution would be keeping the default settings of the phone, as well as avoiding third-party apps from unreliable sources. As statistics shows, Google Play doesn’t have malicious apps (or does it?).
As for iOS, the situation is even better. Viruses on iPhones were seldom detected due to Apple’s tight policy regarding security. Usual antivirus apps are not available on the App Store, but there are various safe browsers, storage, etc. Thus, to ultimately reduce the risk of getting a virus on iOS, update the device, do not jailbreak it, and do not open suspicious links.
6. The More Megapixels, the Better the Photos
Cameras are still featured by megapixels — a stereotype invented by big manufacturers. However, only the image resolution, that is, its size depends on the number of pixels. Pixels directly affect the color rendition, dynamic frame range, and the amount of light captured. Many enterprises producing smartphones began to pay attention to the number of pixels and aperture — many new devices have a decreased resolution of the matrix which doesn’t result in the worse quality of photos.
The practice shows that not only hardware affects the quality of pictures, but also specific processing algorithms, which enable you to make excellent photos even with a less sophisticated camera. For instance, the well-known Samsung Galaxy S9 has only a 12-megapixel camera, but the quality of the pictures it takes is much better if compared to “more megapixeled” competitors.
7. The More Processing Cores, the More Performance
Many cores and their high frequencies attract buyers, but these characteristics of smartphones are often worthless. A compelling example is a 10-core processor Helio X-20 by MediaTek, which works with an increasing frequency and uses three types of cores. Anyway, customers did not notice any increased productivity of this model. This model did not produce any stir. Moreover, a few contemporary apps and games don’t require more than 8 cores. Then, many tests proved that processors with 2 or 4 cores by Apple are significantly more effective than 8 cores in devices from other manufacturers.
