Technical Glossary (1935 terms)

Standardized hardware and benchmark definitions across smartphones, laptops, CPUs, GPUs, SoCs, and tablets.

• charge cycle — One complete discharge and recharge of a battery, used to measure its lifespan. [ BATTERY ]
• charge limit — A setting that caps charging below 100% to reduce battery wear. [ BATTERY ]
• charge to 100% — The full charge state, where a battery reaches its maximum capacity and voltage. [ BATTERY ]
• charge to 50% — A partial charge state often used to store batteries with minimal wear. [ BATTERY ]
• charging IC — A charging IC is the chip that manages battery charging safely. [ CHIPS ]
• charging brick — Informal name for the power adapter block that plugs into a wall outlet. [ BATTERY ]
• charging cable — The cable that carries power and often data between a charger and a device. [ BATTERY ]
• charging only — A USB port that supplies power but carries no data. [ PORTS ]
• charging optimization — Software features that manage charging to extend battery lifespan. [ BATTERY ]
• charging port — The connector on a device where the charging cable plugs in. [ BATTERY ]
• charging speed — How quickly a device replenishes its battery, measured in watts and time to a given percentage. [ BATTERY ]
• charging stand — A dock that holds a device upright while charging it, often wirelessly. [ BATTERY ]
• charging wattage — The maximum power a device accepts for charging, measured in watts. [ BATTERY ]
• chin — The strip of bezel below a phone's screen, where display driver circuitry is often routed. [ DISPLAY ]
• chip shortage — A chip shortage is a supply shortfall of semiconductors. [ GENERAL ]
• chiplet — A design approach that splits a CPU into smaller dies connected on one package. [ CHIPS ]
• chromatic aberration — Colour fringing that appears at high-contrast edges in a photo. [ CAMERA ]
• cinematic mode — A video mode that adds shallow depth of field and rack focus. [ CAMERA ]
• clamshell — A clamshell is a device that folds shut like a shell, as in flip phones. [ GENERAL ]
• clarity — A photo edit that boosts local contrast and mid-tone detail. [ CAMERA ]
• closed captions — Text that displays spoken dialogue and sounds during video. [ SOFTWARE ]
• cloud gaming — Streaming games over the internet instead of running them locally. [ GAMING ]
• cloud save — Game progress stored online so it syncs across devices. [ GAMING ]
• co-engineered camera — A camera developed jointly with a partner brand for tuning and lenses. [ CAMERA ]
• color accuracy — How closely a display reproduces the intended colours, usually expressed as a deviation (delta-E). [ DISPLAY ]
• color gamut — The range of colours a display can reproduce, expressed as a share of standards like sRGB, DCI-P3, or Adobe RGB. [ DISPLAY ]
• color options — Colour options are the finish choices a product is sold in. [ GENERAL ]
• color profile — A data file that tells a device how to map colour values to a specific panel or output. [ DISPLAY ]
• color science — A camera's approach to rendering colour, contrast, and tone. [ CAMERA ]
• color temperature — The warmth or coolness of white on a display, measured in Kelvin. [ DISPLAY ]
• combined jack — A single 3.5 mm socket that carries both audio output and microphone input. [ PORTS ]
• community — A product community is the group of users and fans around it. [ GENERAL ]
• comparison — A comparison puts two or more products side by side. [ GENERAL ]
• compatibility — Compatibility describes whether a product works with another. [ GENERAL ]
• computational photography — Software-driven processing that improves photos beyond the raw capture. [ CAMERA ]
• compute shader — A shader used for general GPU computing rather than fixed graphics stages. [ GAMING ]
• configuration — A configuration is a specific combination of specs a product is sold in. [ GENERAL ]
• connectivity score — A Connectivity score is a 0-100 DeviceBenchmark rating for that aspect of a device. [ GENERAL ]
• console — A dedicated gaming machine such as a PlayStation or Xbox. [ GAMING ]
• controller — A gamepad with sticks and buttons used to control games. [ GAMING ]
• cooling fan — An active cooling fan used in gaming phones and laptops. [ GAMING ]
• cooling performance — How well a device removes heat to sustain performance. [ GAMING ]
• coprocessor — A helper processor that offloads specialized work from the main CPU. [ CHIPS ]
• cover — A cover is a protective case or shell for a device. [ GENERAL ]
• crossplay — Playing with or against users on different platforms. [ GAMING ]
• crosstalk — Signal leakage between audio channels that blurs stereo separation. [ AUDIO ]
• current — The flow of electric charge, measured in amps, that delivers power to a device. [ BATTERY ]
• current generation — Current generation is the latest release cycle of a product line. [ GENERAL ]
• curved display — A screen with curved edges, common on premium phones. [ DISPLAY ]
• customer service — Customer service is the support a maker offers to buyers. [ GENERAL ]