Mobile Hardware

Mobile hardware refers to the physical parts of a phone or tablet that can be touched and held. This includes the screen, buttons, speakers, microphone, and camera. The processor and battery are also part of mobile hardware, but they're not as easy to see or hold.

Most people think only of apps when they think about their phone's capabilities, but great apps wouldn't be possible without great mobile hardware. Mobile hardware lets users interact with their phone in ways that weren't possible before. Swiping, pinching, and tapping are all made possible by advances in mobile hardware.

The first thing you'll notice about a new phone is usually its screen size and resolution. Modern screens are large and clear, with resolutions high enough to make even small text look sharp. But it's not just the number of pixels that counts—the way those pixels are lit up can also affect how clear and bright the screen looks.

Some newer phones have OLED screens, which use organic light-emitting diodes to create images. These screens can display very deep blacks and extremely bright colors for a beautiful picture. They're also more power-efficient than LCD screens, so your battery will last longer if you have an OLED screen.

One criticism of OLED screens is that they may suffer from "burn-in." This happens when an image is displayed on the screen for so long that it becomes permanently imprinted into the display. However, this isn't usually a problem unless you leave the same static image onscreen for extended periods of time—for example, if you always have your home screen set to the same photo wallpaper  Most people don't need to worry about burn-in on their OLED phone screens.

Buttons used to be one of the most important ways you interacted with your mobile device—after all, before touchscreen smartphones were invented, what else could you do but press buttons? Nowadays we tend to think of them as secondary controls—we might use them to turn our phones on or off , take photos , open apps , or go back Home . But there are still some phones out there without touchscreen displays—especially so-called "feature phones" aimed at developing markets—and buttons remain an important way of interacting with these devices.