Almost everyone uses one daily, but most people don't know much about how smartphones really work.
Instead there are lots of half-truths and falsehoods floating about concerning mobiles. Many stem from the early days of these devices. Here are some of the myths:
- Modern smartphones need to be charged every night. This is only partially true. So-called phablets with a diagonal screen size of five inches or more are becoming increasing popular and their larger casing can hold a larger battery.
These can last two days, says Monika Klein, deputy editor of Germany's Connect magazine.
The best mobiles can give 10 hours of continuous use before needing a recharge and with breaks, the period is significantly longer. For smaller devices six or seven hours of continuous use is the norm.
- Smartphones don't get viruses. Not true. "The creators of malware are now even more active on smartphones than they are on desktop computers," according to Professor Eric Bodden from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.
Although Android devices are particularly affected because of their widespread use, there are also viruses for other operating systems. Users can protect themselves by using virus scanners and common sense.
"The main source of smartphone viruses are unofficial app stores," says Bodden. Therefore users should only install apps downloaded from official platforms.
- Good apps are only available for Android and iOS. Not true. The two market leaders among mobile operating systems do not necessarily have better apps, just more of them. Windows Phone offers a reasonable alternative to them.
"The basic apps for everyday life are also available for Windows Phone," Klein says. "App junkies who need a wide choice however will quickly reach their limits."
- Your smartphone gets slower over time. Not necessarily true. "There is a lot of psychology here," says Falko Hansen from German telecommunications portal Teltarif.de. "A new smartphone is nearly always faster than the old one, and there's a 'wow effect.'"
But that feeling disappears over time. Of course more and more apps and data can slow a smartphone down a bit. In that case there are clean-up apps available or, even better, a return to factory settings.
- A smartphone camera is only good for snapshots. Partially true. Under good lighting conditions a smartphone can take truly great photos, says Klein. "But when it gets darker, the wheat is quickly separated from the chaff."
Not surprisingly the best photos are taken by the most expensive smartphones such as the iPhone 6, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Huawei P8, but even so they can't compete with top-end SLR cameras. "Technically that is simply not possible."
- What I don't upload to the cloud is safe on my smartphone. Not true. Most people don't think about the fact that many apps save data on a server. This is convenient for users, as their information is synchronized across multiple devices, but the downside is security.
"We've found that the data in the cloud is often poorly protected," says Professor Bodden. There's not a lot that app users can do about this - the best protection is to carefully read app permissions before agreeing to them.
By Tobias Hanraths
