Apple said it would release an operating system update to address fears about iPhone 12 radiation levels in France, although it claimed the complaints stemmed from French regulators’ testing procedures.
On the same day Apple launched the iPhone 15, the ANFR watchdog ordered a halt to sales of the 2020 device and threatened a full recall of every iPhone 12 sold in the country if the problem wasn’t fixed with a software update.
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Apple had initially told regulators that the phone was within the legal limit for radiation absorbed by the body during use, citing procedures used by the French when testing the device as the problem. Not the phone itself.
Apple repeated this line in its statement Reuters, maintaining that there are no security concerns regarding the phone. However, the company still plans to release an update to bring emissions into line with the “special protocol” used in the channel.
The statement includes the following statements: “We will release a software update for users in France to comply with the protocol used by French regulators. We look forward to the iPhone 12 being available for sale in France,” Apple said in a statement.
“This relates to a specific testing protocol used by French regulators and is not a safety concern.”
The issue was related to the iPhone 12’s Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), which relates to the speed at which the body picks up radio frequency when the phone is held to the ear or kept in a pocket, for example.
So how much radiation is too much radiation? The specific absorption rate of the iPhone 12 when held close to the body (i.e. held to the ear in a pocket) is apparently 5.74 watts per kilogram above the legal limit.
Since the iPhone 12 has been replaced by three more generations, the pause in sales was unlikely to impact the company’s bottom line too much. But a recall would be a huge pain for le derrière.
