Our smartphones all get dirty throughout the day. Whether its from touching it with our hands or other people doing the dirty work for us, they always get dirty – possibly picking up some viruses on the way. In particular we need to get rid of the Coronavirus if we manage to get it on our phones. So below we have a fresh guide to properly clean your smartphone.
First of all, you want to make sure you don’t use harsh chemicals on your smartphones glass. Why? Your phone glass has an oleophobic layer which helps you prevent fingerprint smudges. Harsh disinfectant chemicals such as alcohol, bleach and vinegar eat away at the coating. If this layer has already wasted away (the layer does erode after time) you could use some disinfectant wipes on your screen. You want to be careful that no liquid from the wipe gets into any ports or pinhole mics. This is to prevent the interior of your phone suffering from water damage.
How to clean your smartphone by hand
- Firstly, you want to take your phone out of its case. If the case is safe to wash (made of silicone/TPU and hard plastic) don’t be afraid to run it under some warm water. Let the case air dry.
If your case is made of specific materials (such as leather) you may want to look out for specific cleaners for that material. - Next, you could either use felt-tipped swabs from a phone cleaning kit or Q-Tips (after you’ve whittled them enough). You’ll use the swab to swab around the earpiece, speaker grills and other ports that you have on your phone.
When swabbing the charging port, you want to make sure you leave no fibres from your swab in there or end up dislodging any pieces inside of the port. Or you could hope that your warranty or insurance covers it. If the swab doesn’t fit, you could use a small brush that usually comes with phone cleaning kits. - After that you want to grab a screen wipe and wipe down then screen and body of the phone.
Screen wipes are specifically made for phone and won’t contain any of the harsh chemicals that antibacterial wipes would contain. - If there are any streaks from the wipe, you could use a microfiber cloth to wipe the screen clean.
- One everything is dry (phone and case) go ahead and slam the phone into your case.
Disinfecting your smartphone (goodbye Covid-19)
There are multiple ways for you to disinfect your smartphone. If you’re living on the edge, you could use disinfectant wipes. But as you know, that is not good for the oleophobic layer on your screen.
The easiest way to disinfect your smartphone is to use UV lights. You can get what is basically a tanning bed but for phones. These cost about £30 on Amazon. So if you’re willing to pay, it could be a good solution for you. You want to make sure you get the right size for your phone. If you have one of the newer phones (Galaxy S10) you may want to grab a bigger size just to make sure your phone fits. Also, remember to disinfect your case, that is also a target for viruses.
