FAQ: Can UV Light Kill Coronavirus on an iPhone?

Your iPhone may look clean, but if you could take a closer look, you may be shocked at what you see.

On the surface, your phone may be covered with tens of thousands of bacteria and viruses, including the coronavirus, which can live on surfaces, like your smartphone, for days.

Yes, you can clean your smartphone using a liquid disinfectant, but you may run the risk of damaging its oleophobic coating. One safe and effective way of cleaning your iPhone is an electronic UV sanitizer.

Unlike wipes and liquid sanitizers that use chemicals to kill bacteria and viruses, UV sanitizers use ultraviolet light.

You are familiar with UV light (UVA and UVB) from the sun, which burns your skin, but you probably haven’t heard much about UVC.

Just like UVA and UVB, UVC can disrupt the DNA inside bacteria, viruses, and our skin cells, but it is even better at it than its counterparts.

We don’t worry too much about UVC as it is completely filtered out by our atmosphere. However, we can generate UVC electronically and are already using it to sterilize public transportation, factories, offices, and even drinking water. 

UV sanitizers utilize UVC light and make it easy for you to sanitize your phone. They’re sized to fit on your desk or end table and accommodate most oversized phones, including Max iPhone models.

Just pop your phone into its chamber, turn on the unit, and let it disinfect your phone. You may have to run the phone through two cycles – one for the front and one for the back, but it should take only a few minutes.

Designed to be portable, this particular unit is powered by a 5,000 mAH rechargeable battery that provides multiple sterilization cycles. You can use it at home or on the go if you don’t mind carrying it around. It’ll fit in a backpack or roomy laptop case, but it would be a tight fit inside a handbag or coat pocket.

While there isn’t much definitive research established on UV-C light and its effects on coronavirus, specifically, UVC light has proven to deactivate similar viruses like SARS and MERS. Along with liquid disinfectants and proper handwashing, UVC phone sanitizers are likely to be one of our best routine defenses against the virus.