# Looking up a phone's SAR from the primary record

> How to get the tested SAR for a specific handset from the FCC equipment authorization database using the device's FCC ID, instead of relying on third-party lists.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/protocols/sar-lookup
- Collection: Measurement protocols
- Record id: `protocols:sar-lookup`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/protocols/sar-lookup
- Also known as: how to find phone SAR, FCC ID lookup

## Key values

- **Quantity measured:** specific absorption rate

## Goal

Retrieve the authoritative, model-specific SAR values for a device and interpret them against the correct limit.

## Procedure

1. Find the FCC ID: in device settings under regulatory or legal information, or printed on the device or its SIM tray.
2. Search the FCC Equipment Authorization System by that ID and open the RF Exposure exhibits for the grant.
3. Read the reported head SAR, body-worn SAR and, where present, simultaneous-transmission SAR, each with its test separation distance.
4. Compare against the correct limit: 1.6 W/kg over 1 g in the U.S., 2 W/kg over 10 g under ICNIRP — the two are not interchangeable.
5. Note the body-worn test separation distance; the reported value applies at that distance, not at zero.
6. For a European 10 g figure, search the German Federal Office for Radiation Protection SAR database, which publishes the manufacturers' declarations per model; a selection is mirrored in this dataset's device SAR records.

## Pitfalls

- Comparing a U.S. 1 g SAR with a European 10 g SAR and concluding one phone is safer
- Treating SAR as a measure of everyday exposure; it is measured at maximum transmit power, which is rare in normal use
- Using aggregator sites whose values are stale or attached to the wrong hardware revision

## Interpret results against

- FCC SAR limit for phones and portable devices
- ICNIRP 2020 local SAR basic restriction (head and torso)

## Related records

- [Smartphone (cellular uplink)](https://emfbase.com/emitters/smartphone): Handsets transmit up to about 200 mW (23 dBm) on cellular uplink and are used against the head, so exposure is governed by SAR — 1.6 W/kg over 1 g in the U.S., 2 W/kg over 10 g under ICNIRP — not by power density.
- [Does a low-SAR phone matter?](https://emfbase.com/questions/what-is-sar-and-does-a-low-sar-phone-matter): SAR is a worst-case compliance figure; usage habits change real exposure far more than choosing between compliant models. U.S. 1 g and ICNIRP 10 g values are not comparable.

## Sources

- `fcc-eas` Federal Communications Commission. *Equipment Authorization Search (FCC ID lookup, includes SAR test reports)*. https://www.fcc.gov/oet/ea/fccid — government, link checked 2026-08-12
- `fcc-2-1093` U.S. Government Publishing Office (eCFR). *47 CFR § 2.1093 — Radiofrequency radiation exposure evaluation: portable devices*. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/section-2.1093 — regulation, link checked 2026-08-12
- `icnirp-2020` International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (2020). *Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz)*. https://www.icnirp.org/en/publications/article/rf-guidelines-2020.html — guideline, link checked 2026-08-12
- `bfs-sar-database` Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz (German Federal Office for Radiation Protection). *SAR search — declared SAR values of mobile phones*. https://www.bfs.de/EN/service/sar-suche/sar_suche_node.html — government, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.