I hate grime on my phone, I hate fingerprints on my phone, I hate dust on my phone. What I hate even more than those things are the flimsy cleaning clothes companies are pumping out to combat the ever-growing fingerprint smudge epidemic on touchscreen phones. They clean for a little bit then they smear more than they do anything else. Plus they fold up into teeny tiny balls in your pockets, balls that can easily get lost when you grab your phone out of your pocket.

So what’s a geek to do? Well they can use the sleeve of a shirt or jacket but that has the inherent risk of smearing or even scratching the screens of certain devices. Better option is to pick up a dedicated cleaning apparatus, something like the Carson screen cleaners. I had a chance to toss a couple of these around with my phones and see how well they kept them clean.

The first thing I noticed about the CS-50 is the portable size. The cleaning pad retracts into the plastic body, keeping the space requirements low. The body has a handy-dandy hoop to slip it on your keychain or any other clipable device you have. Since the CS-50 keeps the cleaner inside, there’s very little chance of it falling out of your pockets unnoticed. But how does it hold up to the cleaning process? Hit that break geeks!

The CS-50 did an admirable job of keeping my two cells clean. A few swipes of the pad and my phones looked pristine again. I had a little dribble of…something…on my Galaxy S 2 and after a little dab of water I got the smudge clean. However that exposes the CS-50′s major weakness – it’s a Mogwai. Don’t ever get it wet! It doesn’t replicate sadly but the pad loses the ability to effectively clean. It still does the job but a lot worse than those crappy clothes. I was able to rub the wet part across a paper towel to revive it and after a few uses, it came back a bit. Lesson learned, don’t get it wet. To be fair though, the packaging does point out that getting giving it a shower is a bad idea.

The other thing I noticed is that the carbon cleaner they use leaves a dark residue behind, most noticeably on white cases. I have a white Cruzerlite case on my Galaxy Note so the dust is annoyingly noticeable. It wipes off fairly well but is a nuisance for a cleaning product. I’ve cleaned both of the devices close to a hundred times a piece (I’m OCD) and the CS-50 is still trucking. I don’t know if they have an end of life or not, Carson built the body to refresh the pad every time you slide it back in. Maybe they’ll last past the apocalypse?

As a bonus, there’s no spray cleaners nor any trash to be thrown out. Perfect for you green geeks! The CS-50s can be picked up for around $8 online for a 2 pack which is fairly inexpensive for how long they seem to last. They’re portable, they work and they’re much harder to lose. Pick yourselves up a pack and see for yourselves. Thanks to Carson for the review units!

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