The influence of the hand on the specific absorption rate (SAR) assessments of mobile phones is investigated.An increase of the SAR value in the presence of the hand has been observed but the electromagnetic phenomenon is still unexplained. The distance between the palm of the hand and the antenna is herein shown to be an important parameter. Numerical simulations and measurements performed using a dipole antenna placed in-between a flat head phantom and a flat hand phantom confirm that an increase of the SAR is expected for some specific values of the distance between the antenna and the hand at a given frequency