Our smartphones are some of the dirtiest things we carry around with us in life. Just consider how many times you have fondled your phone in your hands taking calls and surfing the web, without a single concern about when you cleaned your hands last. You sometimes pass it around to other people and allow it to sit all over the place on various surfaces. Take all of this and factor in the question “how often do I clean this thing before holding it up to my face?”
Here’s something a little new to the world to help solve this dilemma. Instead of a screen wipe or other chemical cleanser, you have PhoneSoap.
PhoneSoap is basically a tanning bed for your phone that cleans it while it is charging. Why not take the extra step when it’s sitting around refilling its battery? Not like it is going to bother you any outside of having an extra cable in the mix.
So how it works, it it uses UV light to clean the surface of your phone. In fact, they claim that it kills 99.99% of germs that may have set up residency on your phone. No chemicals needed. Just a bed of light.
After plugging the unit into the wall using the provided power cable, you find the USB cable for your phone and run it from the back of the unit and inside where it will plug into your phone. The other end of the USB cable plugs right into the back of the PhoneSoap so that you aren’t taking up two outlets on the wall. Lay your phone inside and plug it in. Once you close the lid, PhoneSoap’s UV lights are triggered and begin to cleanse your phone of its bacterial sins and will shut off after 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the phone continues to charge.
It’s big enough for just about everyone phone out there, even allowing space for models such as the iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Note and Microsoft Lumia 950XL. Apparently the previous model wasn’t large enough to cater to these bigger phones, so PhoneSoap 2.0 has taken the stretch to accomplish this.
Perfect while at the office or charging your phone at the end of the day. Just sit it in there and forget about it until you need it again.
So the big question is, does it work? That’s an excellent question! Well, we don’t know. We have no way of telling if it is actually doing anything since none of us are scientists and the last thing we want to know about anyway, is the cold hard truth of what really is crawling all over our phones. However, UV light is a common method of sanitizing surfaces of bacteria. Wikipedia defines the process as “a disinfection method that uses short-wavelength ultraviolet (UV-C) light to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying nucleic acids and disrupting their DNA, leaving them unable to perform vital cellular functions“. Sounds pretty cool right?
Looking around, there are reports on both sides claiming that it works wonders and some that say it has a limited but noticeable effect. The latter, meaning that you get better results if you run your phone through it 3-5 times like maybe 5 minutes isn’t good enough. It’s hard to say as we don’t have any microscopes laying around, but the feedback from everyone else seems to weigh into the direction of success.
Our Conclusion
It’s a neat idea and if it works well enough, could do wonders about the spread of colds and other annoying ailments. Our mobile devices are by far some of the dirtiest we own since the average person hardly (or never) cleans them. Cleansing them at the end of a long day could help promote a better tomorrow. It is a little pricey at just a few pennies shy of $60. The price would sell the PhoneSoap so much better if the results were obvious to the human eye. Unfortunately, the human eye cannot see microscopic bacteria, leaving too much room for question. Still, this is the first of its kind to make it through this office and a wonderful idea. The process it uses is indeed a commonly used method for striking bacteria dead, so it has a lot of positives rooting for it. The only thing that weighs it down score-wise is the limited ability to confirm it is doing anything, the price, and one additional spec…
Wireless charging. I think working wireless Qi charging into the mix would be a grand idea for the PhoneSoap. Everything is moving towards wireless these days and this would reduce a wire in the mix. If you already have one running from the wall to the PhoneSoap, it should end there. Opening the device, dropping the phone in, and closing it, should be all that’s required. This would help further its sales in my opinion.
 | Our Rating | Average Price* $59.95 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
Update: Version 3.0 is now available on Amazon
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Additional Images:
Specifications:
INNER DIMENSIONS (SANITIZING SPACE):
Inches: 6.8 L x 3.74 W x .78 H
OUTER DIMENSIONS:
Inches: 8.5 L X 5 W X 1.76 H
UV LIGHTS:
2X 254nm UV-C Lamps
INCLUDED WITH PURCHASE:
PhoneSoap 2.0, Power plug with USB to Micro USB cord to power the device (PhoneSoap).
Are you a manufacturer or distributor that would like us to test something out for review? Contact us and we can let you know where to send the product and we will try it out.
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