Have you ever stopped to think about how much time you spend on your smartphone?
The truth is that mobiles are almost an extension of our body, we spend hours glued to them and we don’t even realize it.
Now, with all this coronavirus issue and washing your hands to avoid contagion, why not do the same with your device?
We want you to reduce any risk to a minimum, so we leave you a small guide on how to clean your mobile to avoid the spread of COVID19.
Cleaning the phone to avoid the pandemic is as important as washing your hands
Just as they recommend that you disinfect everything you buy when you get home, you should do the same with your smartphone.
There is no point in spending several hours between cleaning, washing your hands, and even bathing, if you are still leaving a contagion focus intact.
After your hands, the mobile is perhaps the most exposed to serve as a vector of contagion. So it is important that you disinfect it properly, although clearly you are not going to put it under the tap with a brush.
Things to avoid when cleaning your phone to escape COVID19 or any other virus
Although there are devices with resistance to water and dust, the truth is that mobiles are increasingly delicate.
In the past, there were those mobiles like the old Nokia 3310, about which so many jokes have been made about its resistance.
Now, the hardware is becoming more complex, smaller, and even the outer body of the mobile also has certain materials that you have to protect. So here are some things to avoid :
- Use undiluted bleach or disinfectant products that are very strong: you may want to disinfect your phone and think that using a concentrated disinfectant is a good idea, but it is not. These products are abrasive, and probably damage the oleophobic layer of your mobile.
- Avoid using a lot of liquid: remember that mobile phones have small accesses inside, such as the charging port, the headphone jack, and more. If you use a very wet cloth or directly spray the mobile, there are possibilities that liquid enters the interior and damages some part by humidity.
- Don’t use brushes: While protections like Gorilla Glass have made mobiles more scratch-resistant, that doesn’t make them an indestructible device. If you use wire brushes or sponges with very thick bristles, you may not notice the micro scratches at first, but sooner or later they will appear.
How to properly clean your mobile to avoid contagion
It would be valid if we give you our own recommendations, but if we like something it is to leave things to the experts.
Therefore, the recommendations for you to learn how to disinfect your phone correctly are those published by Samsung Spain on its blog.
They are manufacturers, and nobody has to know more than them, so this is what you should do:
- The first thing you should do is completely turn off your device, as well as remove the case, cables, and any accessories you have.
- Take a microfiber cloth, distilled water, or some mild disinfectant. The latter can be any non-abrasive product with a hypochlorous acid composition (from 50 to 80 ppm) or an alcoholic base (above 70%). If you don’t have a microfiber, you can also use an absorbent towel or any lint-free cloth.
- Moisten the cloth with the disinfectant solution taking care not to spill the liquid. This is as important as the previous thing, you must prevent something from entering through any opening inside the mobile.
- Carefully clean the entire surface of your mobile.
These recommendations can also be applied to your favorite gadgets, such as your smartband or smartwatch, but primarily to ceramic, metal, glass, or hard plastic surfaces.
For leather or rubber parts, it is best to use cleaners suitable for those materials. These materials are much more delicate, and any homemade recommendations we give you can come with many caveats.