Whenever you are buying a smartphone, most of the users may actually figure out what is the processor used and maybe how much RAM and storage it has but they rarely figure out what are the sensors which are present on the smartphone.
Trust me, it is very important to know what kind of sensor your smartphone has because the functionality of the phone will depend on the sensors it has.
In this blog, I am going to talk about various sensors. You will find almost all the sensors on a high-end smartphone but in mid-range and budget segment, the manufacturer tends to skip most of the sensors.
Proximity Sensor
This is the most common sensor which is present on every smartphone starting from the entry level to the high-end flagships. It is generally placed close to the earpiece.
The thing that it does is that it blackouts the screen when we bring the smartphone near the ears.
The thing that it does is that it blackouts the screen when we bring the smartphone near the ears.
Actually, it senses when the body is in the close proximity and then turn off the screen to prevent the accidental touches while taking calls.
Ambient Light Sensor
It measures the light intensity around the smartphone and changes the screen brightness accordingly. For an example, if you move outdoors in direct sunlight then it boosts the brightness of the display and again if you move indoors in low lighting condition or at night it decreases the brightness so that it won't hurt your eyes. It does this thing automatically and hence it is also called as an auto-brightness sensor.
The main purpose of the ambient light sensor is to decrease the battery consumption and to provide better viewing in diverse lighting conditions. Mostly all the smartphones have it but some mid-range devices skip this, such as Samsung ON 7 Prime which does not have it.
The Lux is the unit for illuminance and hence sometimes it is also called as LUX sensor.
Accelerometer Sensor
It measures the speed of the movement on the phone, for an example, if you rotate your phone from portrait to landscape then the screen changes its orientation accordingly this is due to the accelerometer.
The games like Temple Run and Subway Surfers is totally based on this sensor where you tilt your phone to move the character in it.
This is generally found on every device out there in the market.
The games like Temple Run and Subway Surfers is totally based on this sensor where you tilt your phone to move the character in it.
This is generally found on every device out there in the market.
Pedometer Sensor
Generally, this sensor is not found on most of the devices. It detects the footstep count of the person holding the phone. This can be useful if wish to stay healthy by monitoring your daily steps count. This is not the must-have sensor but if it is present then it is good. It is found on Huawei and Honor devices.
Gyroscope sensor
This will be an important sensor if you want to enjoy virtual reality, augmented reality and the 360-degrees video on your smartphone.With the gyroscope sensor, the smartphone will know the x, y, and z-axis, for example, while watching a 360-degree video if you move your smartphone to left, right, up and down, then with the help of this sensor, the content will be shifted accordingly.
Unlike the accelerometer, it measures the angular movement of the smartphone while accelerometer measures the linear movement.
It also helps in image stabilization.
Barometer Sensor
It measures the altitude of the place where the smartphone is present. Basically, it assists the GPS chip inside the smartphone to get a faster lock by providing instant altitude data. It can help to provide the "floors climbed" data to phone's health app.
Compass Sensor
It is also called as the magnetometer and it can detect the earth magnetic field at any point where the smartphone is.
The data from magnetometer and accelerometer together determine which way is North and which way is South. It also helps in the automatic rotation of the map in the Navigation apps like Google Maps.
GPS(Global Positioning System)
GPS is not a sensor, it is a chip which is present on every smartphone out there in the market. There is two navigation system one is standard GPS owned by the United States and other is GLONASS navigation owned by Russian Government.
Standard GPS chip is generally found on every phone and it gets the job done but for more accurate positioning the manufacturers are using both the chips for standard GPS and GLONASS.
Fingerprint Sensor
There is mainly three type of fingerprint sensor namely optical, capacitive, and ultrasonic sensor. Most of the phones have the capacitive sensor. This scanner or sensor has an array of charged capacitors and the charge stored in the capacitor will be slightly changed when your finger's ridges placed over conductive plates, while valleys having air gap will leave the charge unchanged, hence a unique pattern is recorded which will be utilized for future login verifications.
Fingerprint sensor can be mapped to different gestures like swiping up or down and press & hold to perform some tasks such as taking calls, clicking photos, browsing gallery, and much more. This type of functionality is provided on certain phones like Honor, Xiaomi, and Google Pixel 2 etc.
"If you have any questions or suggestions then leave them in the comment section below. I'll get back to you."
No comments:
Post a Comment