An Android model identifier is the hardware/model string the operating system or manufacturer uses to distinguish a device variant. It can look nothing like the retail name printed on the box.
SM-G991B in the LocationOf Android Model Number Lookup to match it against the site’s generated device catalog.A retail product name is designed for people. A model identifier is designed to distinguish hardware or software variants. A manufacturer can sell one marketing product in several regions, with different radio bands, storage configurations, carrier customizations or hardware revisions.
That is why one familiar phone name may be associated with several model codes.
The LocationOf Android app can submit a device/platform identifier. The website uses that value to recognize the device name where possible. The same catalog also powers the existing model-specific GPS compatibility pages.
The catalog combines historical LocationOf mappings with supported Android device data and is regenerated by the site’s normal catalog process.
A match means LocationOf associates the identifier with the displayed marketing name. It does not guarantee that every unit under that name has identical hardware or that LocationOf individually tested every variant.
Use the linked phone page for model identifiers, Android tracking requirements and relevant manufacturer troubleshooting guides.
Android exposes several device-related strings: model, product, device, build number and build fingerprint. They are not interchangeable. For this lookup, the concise model code shown in Settings → About phone is generally more useful than a long firmware build string.
A short search fragment can match multiple records. Refine it to the exact code if possible. An exact identifier match is more meaningful than a partial marketing-name match.
The device may be new, regional, carrier-specific, custom, uncertified, reported under a different identifier or simply absent from the current catalog. That does not automatically mean the phone is unsupported.
Read Why is my Android model identifier unknown? for troubleshooting.
A model code tells you what kind of device a string may refer to. It does not locate that physical device. To locate an authorized device, a location service still needs permission and an actual source of location data.
A model lookup is useful when a diagnostic screen, support ticket or Android application shows a code but the human-friendly phone name is missing. For example, a code in the SM-... family may identify a Samsung variant, while other manufacturers use their own letter-and-number systems. There is no universal format that lets you decode every manufacturer just by looking at the string.
That is why a catalog match is more useful than guessing from the shape of the code.
Creating one nearly identical public page for every regional model code would make the site harder to use and would add little information. Instead, LocationOf groups identifiers that resolve to the same marketing name and lists those codes together on one phone page.
This makes the model lookup a bridge: identifier → recognized retail name → phone compatibility page → relevant Android GPS guides.
No. A model number identifies a type or variant of device. Many physical units can share the same model code. Individual-unit identifiers such as serial numbers and IMEIs serve different purposes and should not be confused with the model string.