Gyroscope Test
Check a phone or tablet’s gyroscope right in the browser. Start the test and rotate the device — the on-screen phone mirrors the motion, the three rotation angles update live, and each axis is checked off once the sensor responds.
Open this page on the phone or tablet you want to test — desktops rarely have motion sensors.
Start the test, then rotate your device on all three axes.
Tilt the phone toward you and away, tip it onto each edge, then spin it flat — each axis is checked off as the sensor reports it.
iOS asks before a site may read motion sensors — tap Allow. If you declined earlier, re-enable it from the aA menu in Safari.
Calibrate sets your current position as the new zero and clears the axis checks — handy for a clean re-run.
The gyroscope drives everything a phone does in response to how you hold it: automatic screen rotation, steering and aiming in games, panorama capture, video stabilization, and augmented-reality tracking. When it drifts or dies, the symptoms are confusing — a screen that will not rotate, an AR object that slides across the floor, a game that steers itself. This test answers the question in seconds: rotate the phone on each of its three axes and watch whether the readings follow. Worth running before buying a used phone, after a drop or a repair, or whenever screen rotation starts misbehaving. Nothing to install, and everything runs locally in your browser.
The test reads orientation through the browser’s DeviceOrientation API, which fuses the gyroscope with the accelerometer (and compass, where available) into three angles: alpha for spinning the device flat like a compass needle, beta for tilting it toward or away from you, and gamma for tipping it onto its left or right edge. The first reading sets the neutral position, so the angles show how far you have rotated from wherever you started. Turn an axis roughly 30° and it is checked off; all three green means the sensor reports correctly on every axis. If the motion looks mirrored or swapped, that is how your browser maps the axes, not a hardware fault — what matters is that the numbers respond smoothly.
What if the readings never move?
Most desktops and laptops have no gyroscope, so on a computer the test will report that no motion sensors are available — that is expected. On an iPhone or iPad, iOS asks for motion access when you tap Start; if you declined earlier, restore it from the “aA” menu in Safari’s address bar (Website Settings), or under Settings → Safari → Motion & Orientation Access on older versions. If permission is granted and the numbers stay frozen while you rotate the phone, restart the device and retest — readings that stay dead point to a failed sensor or a loose board connection, which a repair shop can confirm. A phone that fails here can still have a flawless screen: that is what the Touch Screen Test and the Display Test check.
The three rotation axes
| Axis | Movement | Range | What it powers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha (Z) | Spinning the device flat, like a compass needle | 0° to 360° | Compass apps, map rotation, panoramas |
| Beta (X) | Tilting the top toward or away from you | −180° to 180° | Screen rotation, racing-game pitch |
| Gamma (Y) | Tipping onto the left or right edge | −90° to 90° | Game steering, spirit levels, AR tracking |