Earlier this year, areport came outthat aimed to shed light on just how much radiofrequency radiation some handsets dole out.
Unfortunately, the report did not paint a great picture as far as RF radiation is concerned, suggesting that some devices measure higher than the legal limit. And in the case of theiPhone 7, much higher.The Chicago Tribune‘s tests were conducted “according to federal guidelines at an accredited lab”, and included several different models, ranging from aging handsets like the iPhone 7 to newer devices like theiPhone Xand smartphones from other brands likeSamsung.
The results by the paper indicated that the iPhone 7’s RF radiation levels were not only high, but actually two times higher than what Apple’s own tests revealed, and what Apple reported to federal regulators.
Of course, the inclusion that Apple had misled federal regulators did not go over well with those regulators, and, as such, the FCC declared following the report’s release that it would be conducting its own tests. And now, four months later, it turns out that the FCC’stests are inand the results indicate that Apple wasn’t misleading regulators, and that tested iPhones and Galaxy smartphones “didn’t violate agency rules on maximum radiofrequency exposure levels”.
JUST IN: The FCC says recent tests of mobile devices like the iPhone and Galaxy didn’t violate agency rules on maximum radiofrequency exposure levels.
An Aug. 21 Chicago Tribune report claimed that its own testing found excess levels of radiofrequency levels in these devicespic.twitter.com/caLNxXgkDw
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals)July 16, 2025
Here’s one of the important bits from the report, indicating that the FCC tested the iPhone 7, iPhone X, and iPhone XS — and none of the new results were whatTheChicago Tribunefound:
All sample cell phones tested by the FCC Laboratory, both grantee-provided and FCC- purchased samples, produced maximum 1-g average SAR values less than the 1.6 W/kg limit specified in the FCC rules. Therefore, all tested sample devices comply with the FCC RF radiation exposure general population/uncontrolled limits for peak spatial-average SAR of 1.6 W/kg, averaged over any 1 gram of tissue as specified in 47 CFR Sn. 2.1093(d)(2), and these tests did not produce evidence of violations of any FCC rules regarding maximum RF exposure levels.
And… that’s all we have at the moment! Based on this report, it sounds like Apple wasn’t misleading regulators or the public, for that matter. Most importantly, though, the devices aren’t exceeding recommended RF exposure levels.
