A terminal, where the terminal includes a conductive sheet configured to form a capacitor with a hand when the hand holds the terminal, and a processor, connected to the conductive sheet, where the processor is configured to detect a capacitance of the capacitor, and determine a holding gesture for the terminal according to the detected capacitance and a preset correspondence between a capacitance and a holding gesture, and the conductive sheet is disposed in the terminal, and when the hand holds the terminal, the conductive sheet forms a capacitor with the hand. When the terminal is held using different holding gestures, capacitances of capacitors formed between the conductive sheet in the terminal and the hand are different, and a correspondence between a capacitance and a holding gesture is preset using this difference.