Gorilla Glass - How NOT to clean it?

[BlueOwl245]

A quick question people, from a complete Lumia newbie.

The gorilla glass of my Lumia 640XL seems to be almost indestructible, according to videos I have watched about it. Nonetheless, I beleive in taking good care of my possessions, so would like to know what is the best way of cleaning the screen glass? I'm just using my breath and a clean microcloth at the moment. But will I do harm if I use a lens cleaner, alcohol spray, or other common household cleaner?

(I put a small marmalade fingerprint on it and need to clean it off!)

BlueOwl (who loves marmalade sandwiches)

 

[Witness]

Cleaning agents, while not usually advised will be fine. Most of the time, I clean my screen on my denim jeans, but when there's some other kind of residue like you've got a chemical cleaner like the lens one will be okay. You could probably do that all the time, but you won't need to if you've got a good microfiber cloth for everything but marmalade - haha. Good luck and welcome to the Lumia boards!

 

[BlueOwl245]

Twitawoo hehe! Thank you Witness for your kind welcome. I have been a nervous little owl since I've been taking in all there is to learn about my lumia! Yes, I will try a little lens cleaner on my screen to gently lose the marmalade from my breakfast table! As an owl who wears little glasses on his...beak... I often use lens cleaner, but was not sure if it was ok on Gorilla Glass.
Just cleaned it now, the lens cleaner has worked a treat but I have binned the microcloth for a new one instead.

It's surprising that Microsoft did not confirm much about the Gorilla Glass on their products in the first place.

BO245.

 

[Woodman1914]

Twitawoo hehe! Thank you Witness for your kind welcome. I have been a nervous little owl since I've been taking in all there is to learn about my lumia! Yes, I will try a little lens cleaner on my screen to gently lose the marmalade from my breakfast table! As an owl who wears little glasses on his...beak... I often use lens cleaner, but was not sure if it was ok on Gorilla Glass.
Just cleaned it now, the lens cleaner has worked a treat but I have binned the microcloth for a new one instead.

It's surprising that Microsoft did not confirm much about the Gorilla Glass on their products in the first place.

BO245.

Wet paper towel with water has been sufficient for me, although I use a screen protector. When you say Gorilla Glass 3 is almost indestructible, are you referring to the shatter resistance or scratch resistance? I've been fortunate never to shatter a screen on a phone, but every one I've had since manufacturers started using Gorilla Glass, eventually gets small scratches on the glass no matter how careful I was. Youtube videos showing scissors/keys/<enter object here> rubbed on the screen can't show what your eye can see, tilt the screen at an angle where light bounces into your eye, and you can see plenty of detail scratches on the glass surface, if you care about these things. I also periodically look at other people's phones to see how the glass holds up without screen protectors, and I always see some degree of surface scratches.

WW

 

[BlueOwl245]

Thanks guys, and yes woodman I agree. i think those YT videos do not show scratch resistance very well. I was indeed refering to scratches, because I tend to take very good care of my possessions and think dropping and shattering my screen is very unlikely. Some little scratches might happen in time as i am NOT using a screen protector (I decided not to because I want to see clear colours when taking photography.)
With all said and done, I think Gorilla Glass is pretty amazing.

 

[gpobernardo]

I would disagree about using liquid cleaning agents on Gorilla Glass. There has been an extensive and almost technical discussion about this elsewhere, but basically the chemical components in liquid cleaning agents can eventually remove the oleophobic coating of the glass - and its the oleophobic coating that gives most of the surface hardness of the glass, not the glass itself. Have a look at this thread.

Using a microfiber cloth is the safest non-chemical method of cleaning the surface of Gorilla Glass with oleophobic coating.

 

[xandros9]

Using a hammer is not recommended, needless to say.

 

[Guytronic]

Never use one of these...
I highly do not recommend cleaning a phone screen this way.
​

 

[mary beth hale]

View attachment 108225
Never use one of these...
I highly do not recommend cleaning a phone screen this way.
​

Damn...wish I would have known. Just picked one up on eBay.

 

[RichardTheKing]

This could be excellent for my working shoes :grin:

 

[neodk]

For my Lumia 635, I used one wet paper towel (distilled water) and one dry paper towel. I found that a clean microfiber cloth and my breath alone were not enough and I needed more. On the 640 XL I had one messy fingerprint already and just used my breath / microfiber cloth until it came out. Took a while, but I'm sure that my phone will love me for it more in the long run.

Two things to keep in mind:

1. Quality of the cloth
2. Intensity of the smudge / dirt you are trying to get rid of.

If your phone is dirty, a dry cloth may not get it cleaned out properly. Remove the battery or simply power down the phone and use a damp cloth (ringed out) to remove any lose dirt. Avoid any open / exposed ports and speaker grills. I usually try to use compressed air or a moistened cotton swab to address any debris in or near an earpiece or speaker. Use a dry microfiber cloth to dry the phone and remove and leftover moisture. I find that distilled water prevents streaking and doesn't remove the coating as quickly.

If you regularly clean your screen in the same manner, and don't expose your cleaning equipment to the same conditions that breed the same oils/dirt/debris, you will be fine. Also, scratches happen. If you are concerned, you can get a screen protector.

 

[Woodman1914]

For my Lumia 635, I used one wet paper towel (distilled water) and one dry paper towel. I found that a clean microfiber cloth and my breath alone were not enough and I needed more. On the 640 XL I had one messy fingerprint already and just used my breath / microfiber cloth until it came out. Took a while, but I'm sure that my phone will love me for it more in the long run.

Two things to keep in mind:

1. Quality of the cloth
2. Intensity of the smudge / dirt you are trying to get rid of.

If your phone is dirty, a dry cloth may not get it cleaned out properly. Remove the battery or simply power down the phone and use a damp cloth (ringed out) to remove any lose dirt. Avoid any open / exposed ports and speaker grills. I usually try to use compressed air or a moistened cotton swab to address any debris in or near an earpiece or speaker. Use a dry microfiber cloth to dry the phone and remove and leftover moisture. I find that distilled water prevents streaking and doesn't remove the coating as quickly.

If you regularly clean your screen in the same manner, and don't expose your cleaning equipment to the same conditions that breed the same oils/dirt/debris, you will be fine. Also, scratches happen. If you are concerned, you can get a screen protector.

Also, if you're using a screen protector, I found out recently that the quality of screen protector makes a difference. Switching from SuperShieldz to atFoliX, the high quality atFoliX plastic resists "deep" smudges and scratches better.

WW

 

[noersetiawan]

Just use slightly wetted soft cloth, once it's cleaned, immediately wipe the screen dry. Never ever use any cleaning agent, soap, alcohol or pretty much anything as they will dissolve the oleophobic coating. If your hand sweats alot, clean it from the screen asap.

 

[Lloyd Jenkins]

Is gorilla glass oleophobic or does it just stop the glass from shattering.

My 635 screen is in terrible shape with very little use and I ordered an oleophobic film to see if that would improve the look at all.