You’re at a holiday party. Everything is going well. The eggnog is great, savory treats are everywhere and everyone is having a fantastic time.
The night goes on, and everyone starts taking selfies. Phones start slipping out of hands, pockets get missed and gadgets hit the floor. While I hope this isn’t a scenario you are familiar with, here are some great preventative measures to make your smartphone party-proof.
1. Get a tempered glass screen protector
The majority of repairs we see at Gophermods are cracked or damaged screens on your smart devices. Often these are from being dropped, having something dropped on them, or being tossed casually into a purse. Tempered glass screen protectors offer more than just scratch protection.
Gophermods carries Cell Patriot Glass Protectors in store.
These are actually made to strengthen the screen, and potentially absorb any impact from any drops. An additional advantage of tempered glass compared to typical plastic protectors is the feel being nearly the same as having no protector on, and the rigid nature prevents it from peeling or forming bubbles underneath the surface.
2. Use a safe, well designed case
Gophermods recommends Speck cases that are MIL-STD-810G Drop Protection certified.
Cases by Speck and Otterbox offer great protection against drops from nearly any angle. Combined with a tempered glass screen protector, this makes your phone exponentially more resilient to drops and hard knocks. If you are concerned about punch or eggnog getting on your phone, consider a Lifeproof case, as these offer some additional protection against light spills.
3. Avoid sitting on your phone.
This is something we see quite frequently. A phone comes in, and it is very bent. The culprit of this often is the user putting the phone into a back pocket of tight fitting pants and sitting on the phone. This is not how phones are supposed to be, and putting extra pressure on glass and metal that is not intended can end with a very sad result.
4. Don’t leave your phone in a car on a cold night
Exposing your device to extreme temperatures can negatively impact your phone’s
performance. Putting it in extreme cold can damage the battery and prevent it from holding a charge, or can cause condensation to build up inside the phone when it heats up, causing liquid damages internally! So if you are not going to use your phone, but don’t want to leave it outside, just keep it on your person and power it off.
5. Lock Your Phone with a Passcode, pattern or password.
Keeping your information safe is just as important as keeping your phone safe. Keeping your private information away from prying eyes or greedy hands is a good thing. Even from a non-cynical standpoint, you don’t want your 4 year old nephew spending tens of dollars for that free to play game you have front and center on your device.