Samsung Galaxy Sanitising Service begins roll out

[HEXUS]

Free UV-C light cleaning service now available in 19 countries, more to come including the UK.

Read more.

[MajorZod]

Sun tan bed for phones!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Good timing?

[meuvoy]

Makes absolutely no sense

[Ttaskmaster]

Makes absolutely no sense

Makes perfect sense - Something that you frequently touch (and often without pausing for thought), that comes into contact with your face and could facilitate the transmission of the Covid-19 infection, even if you're an obssessive hand-washer. It's also going to be a dirt trap for any infected particulates, down in the screen border, in the grip grooves along the side, along the gaps around the buttons, in behind the cover, and so on.

But then, the article suggests only Galaxy device owners get this. Presumably this is marketing/financial sense, looking after top tier customers? The poor peasants who cannot afford the Flaship line must fend for themselves, under a policy of Survival Of The Richest... or at least Most Indebted?

Nah, jokes aside, it makes lots of sense.

[gazjon]

Nah, jokes aside, it makes lots of sense.

Actually no it doesn't. When is the last time you sterilised your wallet, your keys? Both are used at least as often as your phone. Then there's your steering wheel on your car, everything you pick up at work and in the home. As you are most likely to be the one that infects your phone, unless you're in the habit of letting other people handle it.

[chinf]

It might make sense if it was a device everyone had at home, but as an in-store service it's more at the "marketing gimmick" end of things.

I reckon a good many people touch their mobiles far more frequently than their wallets and keys. I rarely use my keys more than a few times a day, and I rarely dig out my wallet for buying things (hehe). I sometimes hold my phone to my face, but it would be strange if I did the same for my wallet or keys! A smartphone can be touched on average a few times every hour - this is an order of magnitude more frequent than wallet/keys.

[Mr. Q]

Agree this is a marketing gimmick, but a pretty smart one in all honesty.

[Wh00pS]

I can always remember reading a report a couple of years ago about a company that for some reason tested what was on peoples phones.
The thing that really stuck in my head was that over 80% of phones they tested had fecal matter on them.
Glad i've never been one to take the phone into the bathroom.
It does pop into my head if someone tries to pass me a phone to look at something, so maybe this cleaning service could be a good idea.

[philehidiot]

When did I last clean my keys and wallet? Keys last week. I'm regularly inside locks and I see what happens to them with grit and stuff. Wallet... not so long since. When I last did my pen. Phone I cleaned with proper stuff a couple of days ago. I work in a hospital but a phone is kind of like money. They are filthy things and a really good way of getting bugs. Is UV overkill? If you don't have a water proof phone and you don't want to risk getting cleaner in, probably not. I treat phone as if it's filthy, because it is. Like a keyboard. I work in a hospital and use my phone for reference and communication with people at work. Combine that with being immunosuppressive and yes, I clean my phone and my keys. And my multitool. And my lock pick set that I carry (I pick for fun).

Phones are genuinely filthy. Clean them. Keys being filthy erode the mechanism in locks making car lock barrels smooth. They should be clean of grit and debris. Wallets contain filthy money. You shouldn't eat unless you've cleaned your hands after touching money anyway.

Sterilization is overkill. Cleaning is sensible. If you have a device you can't use liquids or harsh cleaners on, UVC makes loads of sense.

If you're interested in the current virus, it's stable outside the body for days potentially. Cleaning EDC kit on occasion is very sensible.

[Percy1983]

Seems a waste of time for most people, regardless of how 'clean' my phone is or isn't, mine as with most is used by a single user so if something ends up on my phone it has come from. So if corvid 19 ends up on my phones it probably too late for me (infection wise, not life).

I will say phone usage varies but in my case it mostly stays in my pocket in public is the risk is very low, a constant social scroller on a busy train may have a higher risk but in that situation you would probably get infected at the same time as your phone.

[philehidiot]

Seems a waste of time for most people, regardless of how 'clean' my phone is or isn't, mine as with most is used by a single user so if something ends up on my phone it has come from. So if corvid 19 ends up on my phones it probably too late for me (infection wise, not life).

I will say phone usage varies but in my case it mostly stays in my pocket in public is the risk is very low, a constant social scroller on a busy train may have a higher risk but in that situation you would probably get infected at the same time as your phone.

People use their phones in all sorts of places. If you touch a contaminated surface (say in a lift) and then fiddle with your phone, you then get out of the lift and wash your hands before dinner. You then touch your phone again. So in a scenario with a highly infectious disease with good survivability on surfaces, you undo all that hand hygeine if you don't clean your phone. Especially if you're a regular phone fiddler or if you put hands in pockets and make contact with it incidentally.

I clean my phone regularly because I'm always using disinfectant wipes. I just stabbed myself with a needle and, whilst I was waiting for the injection site to dry, I used the alcohol swab to wipe my phone down. Occasionally I'll do it do my multitool, wallet, pen, etc.

Keyboards are filthy as well for similar reasons. At work we touch a patient, then look up something on the PC, then wash hands after the procedure and are back on the PC.... it's really easy to cross-contaminate without thinking and it's why invasive areas have wipe down keyboards.

[MatBailie]

Nah, jokes aside, it makes lots of sense.

Actually no it doesn't. When is the last time you sterilised your wallet, your keys? Both are used at least as often as your phone. Then there's your steering wheel on your car, everything you pick up at work and in the home. As you are most likely to be the one that infects your phone, unless you're in the habit of letting other people handle it.

There's some false equivalence going on there...

1) I'm not in the habit of holding a steering wheel against my face, nor my keys or wallet

2) Hands get contaminated from a mutlitude of sources, and transfer the contamination to phones, etc

My objection is that, unless they decontaminate my pocket too, my lovely sterile phone isn't going to stay that way once I've left the store.

[Ttaskmaster]

Actually no it doesn't. When is the last time you sterilised your wallet, your keys? Both are used at least as often as your phone. Then there's your steering wheel on your car, everything you pick up at work and in the home. As you are most likely to be the one that infects your phone, unless you're in the habit of letting other people handle it.

My wallet and keys both live in dedicated pockets on my clothing and only emerge for about 30 seconds at a time, usually when I'm quite far from just about everyone else. I also don't have them slapped to the side of my face very often... in fact, never.

As others have pointed out - Neither my wallet nor my keys are out frequently and exposed to the environment, whereas people texting, calling, gaming, SatNavving, video-watching and whatever else on their phone expose those devices to a lot more germs. Then they go put the phone down on a table top or something.
It's not about me infecting it, it's about the airborne particles that it can pick up, whether I let someone else touch it or not.

Good first post, though. Welcome to the forum...

[philehidiot]

There's some false equivalence going on there...

1) I'm not in the habit of holding a steering wheel against my face, nor my keys or wallet

2) Hands get contaminated from a mutlitude of sources, and transfer the contamination to phones, etc

My objection is that, unless they decontaminate my pocket too, my lovely sterile phone isn't going to stay that way once I've left the store.

You wash your clothes, right? At 40C? There's a reason for that temperature - it's above the body temperature at which the nasties grow. This is why 30 degrees is a no no for people who are vulnerable.

And you might as well rub that steering wheel on your face. People touch their faces over a hundred times a day. You don't realise it. It's why we have tissues everywhere in hospitals so you're not transferring those bugs to your face when you can avoid it.

I touched my face twice whilst writing this post.

And yes, they all get crap on them from a number of sources which is usually no problem, except when there's a disease going around you won't have any immunity to, lasts a long time on surfaces and so on.

Touched my face again.

What you're arguing against is the basics of infection control in a hospital, which is evidence based.

They demonstrate this by use of UV stuff that you pop on your hands and then shine a light over everything you've "contaminated". DAMN FACE AGAIN! It's a very effective demonstration.

[Glyce]

After reading the discussion an obvious conclusion comes to mind:

If you don't change your whole behaviour, then disinfecting your phone is pointless.
If you did change your whole behaviour, then disinfecting your phone is pointless.

Unless you share your phone.

But not even baby Jesus touches my phone, I'd send the little rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish back to ..