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These Phones Can Survive Bleach Spray; Your Body Cannot

Medical and scientific authorities agree: don't ingest or inject household disinfectants. If you're worried about COVID-19 getting on your phone, though, check out how we cleaned these ultra-rugged devices.

 & Sascha Segan Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

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Yesterday, President Trump suggested that doctors "inject" disinfectant to cure COVID-19, which is toxic and would severely hurt people, according to all medical authorities and the people who make Lysol. Bleach and human bodies aren't compatible.

Disinfectants also can really harm your cell phone, unless they are ruggedized. I'm in the middle of reviewing Kyocera's new DuraXV Extreme flip phone for Verizon, and I also have a Sonim XP3 flip for AT&T and Sprint. If you're paranoid about cleaning your phone, these are some excellent choices, because the super-rugged devices can be scrubbed, hosed down, and even sprayed with a Clorox bleach-based cleaner. Take a look in this fun video:

If you do use something truly sudsy on your rugged phone, you should rinse it immediately. I found it takes quite a lot of rinsing to get the residue out of the keys. After that, the speakerphone will be a bit muted until it dries out properly. After a day or so, the phones are back to being as good as new.

Neither Sonim nor Kyocera recommend that their phones get power-washed or receive bleach treatments. Bleach will almost certainly degrade the rubber keys and seals that keep the phones environment-proof. But Kyocera does say its phone is compatible with "a mild dish cleaner." I used liquid Dial soap and that went well. Medical experts, including the Mayo Clinic, suggest using soap, not household cleaners, to remove the virus from your hands. However, you also should not ingest soap.

Both phones I have with me are perfectly happy after their adventure with the Clorox spray. Your body will not be similarly thrilled if you ingest a household disinfectant. Neither, for that matter, will your iPhone. Apple recommends using alcohol wipes or Clorox wipes on the outside of your iPhone, gently. I have a video showing that too, embedded below.

We'll have a review of the Kyocera DuraXV LTE up soon, but rest assured it's a solid voice phone worthy of respect.

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About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

  • US and Canadian mobile networks
  • Mobile phones released in the US
  • iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
  • Mobile hotspots
  • Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services. 

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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