By Bimbola Oyesola
The touchscreen remains one of the most sensitive parts of smartphones and consumers find it difficult preventing their smartphones screens from having a scratch or breaking.
Many users have seen their smartphone screens get broken after a short period of its purchase. This leaves most of these phone users with no choice other than using the phones with those broken screens because it is quite expensive to change the screen of most smartphones, especially when they don’t come with warranty from the company that sold it.
Though most smartphones nowadays come with Corning Gorrilla Glass that is tough and scratch-resistant, it is not impossible to break when it is used without caution.
Below are some tips on how to protect your smartphone screens:
Ensure you don’t use unapproved objects on your smartphone’s screen. Only use your fingers or stylus, if one comes with the device, like on the Galaxy Note 3, for example. The Sony Xperia Z Ultra allows you to use pencils on the display,, however, this should not be done with any other device.
Avoid letting your touchscreen come into contact with other electrical devices. There are many people who think that magnets will damage your phone, when in fact it likely won’t. The only thing that a magnet might do is mess up your built-in magnetic sensor, which is used for compass apps.
Avoid electrostatic discharges, which are sudden surge of electricity between two connected electrical devices. They could ultimately cause the touchscreen to malfunction. This might happen when your smartphone is placed near an object isolated to the ground that conducts electricity.
Get a screen protector, sleeve, padded bag or hard case for your tablet or smartphone. There are many cheap but effective ones that you can find. This will help protect your phone from breaking after a drop.
Handle your phone with care. This may seem apparent, but do not tap your phone with any sharp objects or bang it to make it work if it’s being laggy. Though you might get overexcited while playing some games, do not apply excessive pressure to the display.
Don’t leave your touchscreen idle. Sometimes when you leave the touchscreen idle for an extended amount of time without deactivating the display, burn-in happens. What you will see when you switch to something new is an afterimage, ghosting or screen burn-in. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening though, is to set the lock screen to turn off after a certain amount of time in the settings of your smartphone or tablet under the lock screen section.
Avoid exposure to direct sunlight. Leaving your smartphone or tablet with an LCD display out under the sun could damage the screen quality.
Finally, when cleaning your display, use a microfiber cloth, which is ideal for touch screens. You can even use the one that came with your sunglasses. Be careful if using a moist cloth. Simply dampen it slightly or breath on the screen and then wipe it down gently.
If you do end up using water, make sure that it is distilled water, since normal tap water often carries calcium and other types of minerals. Do not over-rub. Let your phone air dry if there is any water left over so that you don’t accidentally push any liquid into the phone’s inner hardware.