Phone Scoop

printed August 31, 2015
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Light-Emitting Diode.

A small semiconductor device that emits light when charged with electricity. LEDs come in many colors, and some LEDs contain multiple elements and are therefore capable of multiple colors.

LEDs are most commonly used for keypad backlights and service/message indicator lights. LEDs are also often used for LCD display backlights.

Bright white LEDs can provide a flashlight function.

Recently, bright white LEDs have also been used to provide a "flash" function for a camera-phone. An LED camera flash is generally not as bright as the xenon technology used in standalone cameras. Some LED flashes are brighter than others, however (up to 20 times brighter, in some cases.)

LED flashes remain lit for a period of time, unlike the extremely brief "strobe" of light produced by xenon technology. This means xenon is better at "freezing" motion for still photos, but LEDs can be used to illuminate video capture.

See: Xenon Flash


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