If the coronavirus pandemic taught us anything, it's the importance of eliminating unseen germs and bacteria from all surfaces. This includes things like our smartphones and smartwatches, as these pieces of tech are physically intimate with our bodies.
Your phone may or may not be dirtier than a toilet seat right now, but luckily, you can fix that with the best phone sanitizer. After all, our phones pick up a whole heap of bacteria, germs, and other nastiness when we set them down throughout our days. Cleaning our phones is paramount. While ultraviolet phone sanitizers can cost a pretty penny, they're 100% worth the investment if they can keep you from getting sick, now more than ever.
Purge your phone of all the unseen filth collecting on its surface
Why you can trust Android Central Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Best by a landslide
PhoneSoap is one of the originals and is still one of the most trusted ultraviolet phone sanitizers around. Reliability and excellent build quality are part of why we love PhoneSoap's products.
Charge as you clean
Samsung's UV Sanitizer is big enough that you can even use it to clean your Galaxy Buds and other thicker devices. There's a wireless charger built-in so that you can top off while you clean, and the sanitizer is powered by a USB-C port.
Sanitize it all
Yes, the form factor suggests the Philips UV Light Sanitizer Box is designed for sanitizing baby items, like small bottles, pacifiers, and more, making it great for parents. But really, you can toss anything inside the spacious interior, including your phone, glasses, wallet, keys, and more.
Bigger and more adaptable
The only downfall of HoMedics's portable UV sanitizer is that it only sanitizes one side of your device at a time. The Homedics UV Clean Portable Sanitizer Bag, however, props up your phone so that it can clean both sides at once.
For the largest phones
If you tend to get phones with the largest screen you can afford, some phone sanitizers might not fit your oversized smartphone. PhoneSoap sells a larger Pro version to accommodate Note and other phablet-sized phones.
Flip and repeat
The Homedics UV Clean Phone Sanitizer keeps a slim, travel-friendly profile by being collapsible, and the lid zips open and closed to help ensure that UV light doesn't leak out and damage your eyes or skin. You will have to run your phone through once on each side, though.
What matters in an ultraviolet phone sanitizer?
The best phone sanitizer is the PhoneSoap 3 UV Sanitizer. However, if you need something more travel-friendly, I recommend grabbing the Homedics UV Clean Phone Sanitizer, which works quicker than the PhoneSoap and is more readily available. Unfortunately, you'll need to flip your phone to clean each side of it. Actually, it takes more than just flipping it once to get your phone completely clean.
Also, keep in mind that a phone sanitizer only deals with killing germs in the grime on your phone. It won't magically get rid of all the dirt and the physical buildup on your phone. For that, you'll want to grab a trusty cleaning kit to wipe all the filth off and get it out of the pinhole mics and ports.
How to properly clean your phone with a UV cleaner
These all might be ultraviolet phone sanitizers, but unless your sanitizer has a highly reflective interior like the PhoneSoap, you need to do more than stick your phone inside and walk away. Here's how to ensure you completely and utterly eliminate the germs on your phone:
1. If your phone is wearing a case, take the case off.
2. Run the case through the ultraviolet phone sanitizer once face up.
3. Take the case out and run the ultraviolet phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any germs transferred from the back of your case to the bottom of the sanitizer bay.
4. Run the case through the ultraviolet phone sanitizer again face down.
5. Take the case out and run the ultraviolet phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any germs transferred from the front of your case to the bottom of the sanitizer bay.
6. Run your phone through the ultraviolet phone sanitizer once face up.
7. Take the phone out and run the ultraviolet phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any germs transferred from the back of your phone to the bottom of the sanitizer bay.
8. Run the case through the ultraviolet phone sanitizer again face down.
9. Take the case out and run the ultraviolet phone sanitizer empty to eliminate any remaining germs, so they don't incubate in your dark, empty sanitizer until your next cleaning cycle.
10. Put your case back on your phone.
