Make Your Worn Cell Phone or MP3 Player Shine Again (Displex and others)

When did you last buy a new mobile phone, MP3 player, or other multimedia gadget? Can you remember the feeling when you took it out of the box? Wasn't it shiny, new, sexy, something to cherish, the most beautiful you've ever had? Unfortunately, after extensive use and mishandling of your object of beauty, the screen might begin to look rather shabby instead of shiny. Here's a solution to get rid of those scratches and lengthen its life a bit.

Why It's Clever and Easy

Multimedia gadgets are sometimes designed very nicely, but they aren't exactly Rolex watches with sapphire glass. They need to be inexpensive to manufacture and light to carry around, so they tend to have plastic displays, resulting in some inevitable scratches after prolonged use. Even if the inside is still in perfect shape, they just don't look that attractive anymore, and you start to get the feeling that it's time to buy something new. More than just a feeling – if you use them to watch videos on a tiny screen, a scratched screen can take all the fun out of it.

But is that really so – do you have to spend money on buying and time on learning a new device while the current one already has more features than you will ever (manage to) use? Or wouldn't you rather freshen up your current one and give it another year or so? In any case, several companies offer solutions for the latter. Their scratch removers enable you to get rid of those ugly scratches. And when you've finished doing that, you can apply a screen protector, which you can also purchase from Displex for instance.

Here's a HowTo from YouTube:

Summary

Polish your device's screen to get rid of any scratches
Can be used on cell phones, MP3 players, portable, game consoles, etc
Not for touch screens!

Tips

We strongly suspect that most of these products are not suitable for touch screens! Check in case of doubt!

We also found tips involving other products used to achieve the same results:

Many people report using Brasso metal polish with good results
Car polish was also suggested by some people
Someone even used toothpaste and claims it works, on backside I suppose, wouldn't try it on the display. Did he try Displex on his teeth as well? ;-)
Finally, a Dremel tool with a felt rotary pad, lightly applied, takes the hard work out of polishing – but use it at the lowest speed setting and move it around continously or your display may melt! Someone even reported using it without any compound with good results.

Warnings

If you want to try out a product, try it on an old device or on a scratched CD first
If you want to polish other parts than the display, this can be tricky. Many parts on cell phones, MP3 players and other devices that look like metal are in fact just painted plastic. Trying to polish that will just rub off the paint.
Mask sensitive area's before starting
Again, don't use these products on touch screens!
Use at your own risk!