I've always wondered with flashlight apps, especially ones that use the LED light(s): Is there any risk of shortening the life of the LEDs? I noticed one app ("ASettings") gives a warning that doing so can "harm your phone"... which to me sounds even more ominous than burning out the bulb. I thought LEDs had a crazy long lifespan to begin with, so do I need to worry?
Answer
There's a really good thread of discussion about this on AndroidForums here.
In short, LEDs have a long life span (20k+ hours?). So the concern isn't really the LEDs burning out (although after a long period of time, they will eventually start losing the amount of output and their brightness will dim).
The real concern is to not apply too much voltage to the LED and overheat it. Another concern would be overheating your battery (due to heat dissipation from draining the battery from powering the LED).
In short, if you're only using the LED for time periods less than half an hour, you should be okay. If you need to use it longer, go get a real flash light. :)
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