SAR – the Specific Absorption Rate – is a measure of how much energy is absorbed by the human body from the radio emissions from phones. Various wireless authorities do strict testing to make sure that manufacturers stay within limits and as France’s ANFR found out, sometimes phones exceed the limit.

During the first half of 2018, the authority tested 51 handsets and of those 43 passed. The other 8 did not. Check out the table below to see the offenders. Note that the value in the table are measured at the waist, but ANFR also measures the absorption at head level.

Anyway, the issue was corrected via a software update for 6 of the phones, the remaining two were pulled from the market.

<b>Phone</b>
<b>SAR (measured at hip level)</b>
<b>Manufacturer's decision</b>
<b>SAR (measured at hip level)</b>
<b>Link to the press release</b>

Orange HAPI
2.1 W / Kg
Withdrawal from the market, recall of copies sold
not applicable
See

NEFFOS X1 TP902
2.52 W / Kg
Withdrawal from the market, recall of copies sold
not applicable
See

Huawei Honor 8
2.11 W / Kg
Software update
1.45 W / Kg
See

Echo Star Plus
2.05 W / Kg
Software update
1.41 W / Kg
See

Alcatel PIXI 4-6''
2.04 W / Kg
Software update
1.58 W / Kg
See

Wiko Tommy2 Bouygues Telecom
2.46 W / Kg
Software update
1.66 W / Kg
See

Hisense F23
2.13 W / Kg
Software update
1.46 W / kg
See

Wiko View
2.44 W / kg
Software update
1.34 W / Kg
See

The acceptable maximum SAR is set at 2W/kg by law, though most phones don’t go anywhere that high. Of the 43 phones that passed, the average value was 1.16W/kg, though some measured as low as 0.6W/kg.

You can find the SAR values measured by ANFR over here. We try to include SAR readings (both the US and EU standards) where data is available, but manufacturers are not always forthcoming with this.

Source | Via (in French)