I and A Mag Oct19

Things That Go
Bump in the Night
How to protect your
tech from disaster
Ghosts aren’t the only thing we need to worry about
over Halloween: there’s also the ever-present risk of
dropping or damaging your device. Whether it’s lumps,
bumps or ending up underwater, all kinds of horrors can
affect our phones, tablets and laptops.
One way to prevent problems is to look for hardy
hardware in the first place. For example, many
smartphones (e.g. a recent Samsung Galaxy or iPhone)
now boast what’s called IP68 certification, which means
they’re water and dust resistant. If you have an older
phone, you can buy protective cases that promise IP68
protection for around £15.
It’s important to understand what IP68 and its sister
rating, IP67, actually mean – and remember, water
resistance is not the same as waterproofing. IP67 and
IP68 tell you that a phone can be immersed in a specific
depth of water for a specific amount of time: one metre
deep and half an hour for IP67, rising to one and a half
metres for IP68. This means that when new, your phone
can be dropped in pure water and survive for a short
time.
Pure is important, because chlorine in swimming pools
or salt in the sea is very corrosive. Repeated exposure to
either will eventually wear away the seals and damage
your phone’s water resistance.
One of the biggest dangers for devices is being dropped
or scratched. Solve the former with a protective case,
and the latter with a screen protector. Plastic screen
protectors are harder to fit properly because of air
bubbles, but glass ones can crack and can be hard to
remove when they’ve been scuffed.
Protective cases come in a variety of flavours, styles and
prices. The trick is to think about what kind of protection
you want, so for example if you’ve got kids it’s worth
looking for a relatively thick case with very large lips,
so when – and it’s a case of when, not if – the device
gets dropped, the case keeps the screen well away from
the floor. Some kids’ cases include carrying handles that
make them less likely to be dropped in the first place.
For grown-ups, it’s about striking a balance between
substance and style: you want protection, but not so
much protection you can’t fit it in your bag or pocket.
Slim cases can still do a very good job of protecting your
phone’s back and sides, but they do leave the screen
relatively exposed: it’s a good idea to look for one that
still has a bit of a lip around the screen and to put a good
screen protector on too.
No matter what protection you use, it’s designed for
relatively minor things – so for example most protective
cases are designed to protect from drops of a few feet,
not from the top of a ladder. If the worst happens and
your phone is seriously and expensively damaged, check
your home insurance: it may well cover the damage
to your phone. If you have a bank account that offers
various rewards for a monthly fee, you may have phone
insurance in there too.
Images top to bottom:
Samsung Galaxy S10 phone
iThrough waterproof case
screen protectors for iPhone
Amazon Kindle case for kids
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