Android Phones - Flashlight Apps

50Twuncle

Are these Flashlight Apps OK to use on Android Phones ?
Surely the (xenon ?) bulb is not designed to be run for extended periods and will "burn out" - prematurely ?

Stupefied

They've been around for four or five years now, and some people use them a lot, so if they were phone wreckers I think we would have heard more about it.

For a few minutes here and there I think there is nothing to worry about. Any longer than that buy a torch

Overheating the phone/battery is the biggest problem I think. Some of the newest thinnest phones are glued together and have started to come unstuck ...

Strider590

I don't know of any android phone with a xenon flash, they're all LED.
You can't run a xenon flash constantly anyway, they work on a joule theif type circuit, which boosts the voltage to get the flash to work.

RumRat

They are, as said LED lights and are quite capable of prolonged use.
I've seen one used in a tent with a Jar over the phone to make a fairly useful lamp. that was on for quite a while until the battery gave out. Solar charged the next day and used again on the second the night....

forgotmyname

Torch - Tiny Flashlight. (Nikolay Ananiev) Used it for many years.

Not keen on the latest update. I prefer the old version / layout.

Some of them can eat the battery though. I left the app running but no light on and the battery still ran down quickly.

indesisiv

I thought that most android phones had a torch app built in?

On the quicksettings dropdown on the notifications menu.

Certainly my last 2 phones did (can't remember back further than that) so i am fairly sure that if it was harmful to the phones then they wouldn't build it into them.

photome

indesisiv wrote: »

I thought that most android phones had a torch app built in?

On the quicksettings dropdown on the notifications menu.

Certainly my last 2 phones did (can't remember back further than that) so i am fairly sure that if it was harmful to the phones then they wouldn't build it into them.

Dont think any of my android phones have a bulit in torch but I have used various torch apps without any issues

Inner_Zone

indesisiv wrote: »

I thought that most android phones had a torch app built in?

On the quicksettings dropdown on the notifications menu.

Certainly my last 2 phones did (can't remember back further than that) so i am fairly sure that if it was harmful to the phones then they wouldn't build it into them.

I have two Motorola's only one has a torch app built in. One HTC and one Huawei neither have a torch app built in.

indesisiv

Well you live and learn.
My old sony xperia s certainly had it and my One Plus One has it too.
Do seem to recall that i had to use an app on my really old Xperia X10 but that is 5 yrs old.

bod1467

I guess it may depend on whether you have vanilla Android or a manufacturer's custom version.

jozxyqk

indesisiv wrote: »

Well you live and learn.
My old sony xperia s certainly had it and my One Plus One has it too.
Do seem to recall that i had to use an app on my really old Xperia X10 but that is 5 yrs old.

Just checked my [old...] Xperia S and there is a button on the shortcut widget that turns the backlight on full, keeping the background the same.

I use the Brightest Flashlight app which gives a bright white screen and lights the flashbulb. And it makes a funky defibrillator sound. It doesn't seem to affect the battery life much, and as someone said before the flash is an LED that should last for a long time. Depending on the display, its lifetime is dependent on brightness but I doubt that occasional or even routine use of these apps will affect it drastically.