What Happens If You Put a Magnet on Your Phone?

Putting a magnet on your phone or your phone on a magnet will cause physical damage to the phone. Your screen, touchscreen, and personal data will remain intact. However, since there are magnets and magnetic sensors in smartphones, the field generated from the external magnet may interfere severely with your phone’s internal compass, possibly rendering it useless for navigation.

History of Phones

No history of phones is complete without mention of the mobile phone, which has been referred to by many names, including cellular phones, cellphones, handphones, and several others. In recent years following the development of the smartphone, most users have forgone their mobile phones and replaced them with other smartphone brands. However, even smartphones have their origins in mobile phones, their predecessors.n

It has been said that the result of any war is technological advancement. While war may leave death and destruction in its wake, it also brings about revolutionary technology that often changes human life. The mobile phone is one such technology as the struggle to create portable telephone devices started after World War II. Before this time, the radio communication devices available to humans were analog radios on trains and ships.

Late John F. Mitchell, an American electronics engineer and Motorola’s ex-Chief Operating Officer, was the first to demonstrate a handheld cellular mobile phone in 1973. The handphone weighed two kilograms. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone launched the first commercial automated cellular network in 1979, and the mobile phone was first made commercially available in 1983. It was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x. Digital networks did not appear until the 1990s, and the first company to launch 2G digital cellular technology was Radiolinja in Finland. The 2G network, or GSM, has since evolved into 3G, 4G, and 5G–the G meaning “generation.”

Mobile phones reigned until the middle 2000s. From the mid to late 2000s, Symbian phones, popularised by Nokia, ruled the phone market, and Symbian remained the most popular operating system (OS) until 20210. Then in the late 2000s to early 2010s, manufacturers started letting go of the physical keyboards and keypads and adopted full capacitive touchscreens instead. The first phone to ever feature capacitive touchscreen technology was the LG Prada, released in December 2006. The first iPhone came shortly after in January 2007, bringing more features than its competitors. Phones have since adopted this form factor as manufacturers compete to outdo one another in screen size, thinner frames, software capabilities, and camera performance, among others.

Types of Phones

Phone manufacturers have expanded their research and advanced mobile phones from what they used to be in 1973 and what they are now. Phones have advanced so much that they have been classified into feature phones and smartphones.

• Feature Phones.

The term “feature phones” refers to the older versions of mobile phones. They are typically limited in functions and functionalities. They offer voice calls, text messaging, internet services, and other features. They do not run on an operating system. Instead, each phone comes preloaded with a proprietary interface developed by its manufacturer. While some feature phones may have a limited screen touch feature, they usually feature a physical keypad.

• Smartphones

The major distinction between smartphones and feature phones is the screen size. Smartphones have always had bigger screen sizes than feature phones and have always been screen touch-enabled. Another distinction between smartphones and feature phones is that smartphones typically run on a mobile operating system such as Android OS, Kai OS, Android KitKat OS, iOS, and Windows Phone OS, among others.

Also, smartphones have more features and are capable of performing more advanced functions than feature phones. They include digital photo snaps, high frame-rate video recording, active Mobile-Broadband subscriptions, and others.

Symbian phones are among these two, which are much better in features but also fall short of the “smartphone” title. These phones run on the discontinued Symbian OS, sold exclusively on ARM processors. Nokia used the Symbian OS more than any other brand. Still, some other manufacturers, including Samsung, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu, Sharp, and Mitsubishi, also used the Symbian OS in their devices.

Components of a Phone

Display: This is the facial panel that renders information processed in the device. It is mainly an output component, but displays with digitizers in smartphones also serve as an input component.

Processor: the processor handles the transfer and exchange of information and execution instructions on the phone. Every component in a smartphone is connected to the processor to transfer and receive data and information from it.

Memory: the two types of memory are read-only and random access. Both are essential for the phone to store and process data.

Camera: all smartphones have front and rear cameras, functioning as any camera would. In recent times, smartphones sport between 2 and 4 rear cameras.

GPU: the graphics processing unit helps the device process and render graphic content such as photos and videos. The quality of the graphic displayed depends on the GPU and the display.

Battery: the battery is the component that supplies an electric current to the phone since it needs to run on a power source.

Sensors: i.e., the sensors common to smartphones include a compass, gyroscope, proximity, facial recognition, fingerprint, temperature, and camera.

Operating System: the OS is the bridge between humans and digital devices. It is the framework on which other applications run. Typically, the OS accesses every feature the phone has and sends and receives information as needed.

Application of Magnets in Phones

Receiver Magnets

The receiver describes the phone’s mic. Originally, smartphone receiver magnets were single-magnet concepts, but they are now commonly two-magnet. Likewise, the two-magnet idea is simply an outcome of the smartphone-thinner concept.

Using neodymium magnets in the receiver makes it possible for a greater dynamic range to be attained, delivering high-fidelity sound reproduction.

Neodymium Speaker Magnets

Similar to the receivers, phone speakers were initially made with a single magnet. However, smartphones have gotten thinner, while consumers demand higher-quality sound and integrity. Smartphone speakers now consist of as many as five magnets to keep up with consumer requirements to provide high-quality, consistent audio.

Since these magnets are glued into an assembly that goes through heat during production, engineers choose magnetic grads that can endure such environments. Often, N48 and N52 are the magnetic grades of choice as they can withstand high temperatures during the manufacturing procedure and are also the toughest available grades for effectiveness.

Earbuds, Earphones, and Headsets

In the past few years, earphones have become more advanced and better. That is a result of NdFeB magnets. Each set of earbuds and earphones contains as many as four magnets. Neo magnets have made it possible for earphones to become smaller in size while at the same time substantially improving sound quality.

Vibration Motors

When you set your phone to vibrate, the vibration motor is the silent ring motor that notifies you of a call or text. Vibration motors use one magnet.

Auto-focus Motor

Autofocus smartphone cameras generally use voice coil motors (used in speakers) because they are fast and accurate over short distances and are fashioned to move a loudspeaker dome the same way camera lenses move. Autofocus motors use between 2 to 4 magnets per camera.

Voice coil motors in smartphones use Neo magnets because even a tiny magnet is powerful and can move the auto-focus mechanism in a split second.

How Many Magnets Are in a Phone?

There are several small neodymium magnets in a typical smartphone. Since cameras and speakers have between 3 to 5 magnets per unit and the taptic engine also has one, a phone can have between 13 and 17 magnets depending on the number of cameras, speakers, and receivers.

How Will Magnets Affect Your Phone?

Putting your phone near or close to a magnet will not wreak any physical havoc whatsoever on the phone. However, placing your phone in a strong magnetic field magnetize some of the metals in your phone. If any of these metals is close to your magnetometer, their magnetic fields may interfere with the phone’s magnetometer such that it malfunctions.

Also, suppose you expose your phone to a magnetic field that opposes the fields of the magnets in your phone. In that case, it may demagnetize the speakers, cameras, receiver, and taptic engine magnets, rendering them useless.

How to Destroy a Phone Using a Magnet?

While magnetic fields may affect your phone in some ways, it is implausible that a magnet will destroy a phone such that it no longer functions. Although the magnet may affect some of the functions of the phone, the phone will power on and perform tasks like browsing the internet, playing video games, and others that are not affected by a magnetic field. However, you may successfully use a large magnet to hit the phone until it stops working.

Do Magnetic Phone Holders Damage iPhones?

No. Magnetic phone holders have been tested and approved to be used with iPhones or any other smartphone model, for that matter. Besides, the field and strength of the magnets in phone holders are too weak to cause any damage, however little.

Conclusion

Placing a random magnet close to your phone will most likely not affect it in any way, as long as the magnet doesn’t on the phone’s display.

If you are looking for a supplier of high-quality neodymium magnets, look no further than ROBO Magnetic. We are a long-term supplier of powerful NdFeb magnets to the mobile phone and smartphone industries. We supply magnets for earbuds, speakers, taptic engines, and other parts in different sizes. Contact us to order high-tech neodymium magnets in bulk.