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Your smartphone is absolutely filthy – and these disgusting photos prove it

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:55PM EST
Smartphone Screen Bacteria
Image: Zach Epstein, BGR

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Remember when we called Motorola’s Moto Hint one of the 10 best accessories you could buy ahead of the holidays? Bluetooth headsets might be considered nerdy or geeky by some, but if you don’t already have one you might want to consider investing in a good one as soon as possible.

Why is there such urgency? It’s because the screen on your smartphone is basically a vile, putrid, disgusting Petri dish.

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Smartphone enthusiasts sometimes bury themselves deep within one camp, but there’s one thing that unites all Android, iPhone, Windows Phone and BlackBerry users: We’re all gross.

The Roosevelts calls our attention once again to an old study performed by the University of Surrey. Students at the university who were studying bacteriology took swipes of their cell phones and imprinted them onto Petri dishes.

The results after just three days speak for themselves:

“The results after just three days looked pretty grim, but thankfully most of the bacteria were harmless, but it just shows the invisible life that can lurk on your phones everyday,” researchers said in the report. “Some disease carrying bacteria were occasionally found like Staphylococcus aureus.”

Whether or not you managed to scroll past those photos without throwing up, seeing is believing and it’s quite clear that our smartphone screens are positively vile.

Time to charge up those Bluetooth headsets.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.