Opportunities for cellphone damage abound in day-to-day living. Some owners unintentionally damage their phones doing routine activities; others may want to inflict intentional damage on the device for safety or privacy purposes. Knowing the types of damage that may occur will help you avoid exposing your cellphone to such risks. In many cases, damage to your cellphone may be irreparable. While this might be fitting for those who want to retire a damaged cellphone to the trash, you may want to avoid these situations to preserve your phone for long-term use.
Step 1
Submerge your phone in water for an hour. Placing the phone in water with the battery connected will cause short circuits. Water damage is reversible if you fish the phone out immediately, but prolonged exposure to water will permanently damage most phones. Some users inadvertently cause such damage by dropping their phone into a toilet, sink or pool or by leaving the phone in a clothes pocket during a wash cycle.
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Step 2
Crack the display screen. Accidentally or intentionally sitting on the phone, placing heavy objects on top of it or subjecting it to contact with sharp utensils may scratch, crack or shatter the screen. A repair service might be able to replace the screen, but in many cases, this damage is permanent.
Step 3
Expose the phone to extreme weather. Leaving the phone in very hot temperatures, leaving it outdoors in a rainstorm or blizzard or putting it in the freezer or oven for an hour will ruin the battery and cause the phone's internal components to overheat or freeze.
Step 4
Overcharge the battery. Each battery's charging instructions differ, but in almost every case, overcharging the battery decreases its useful life. This will not cause immediate damage but it slowly deteriorates the quality of the cellphone over time.
Step 5
Continually drain the battery. Like overcharging the battery, this process eats away at battery life over time.
Step 6
Snap off pieces of the phone. These pieces might include the antenna on some models or the keyboard and phone cover on slide-out or flip models. Some phones are manufactured as one piece and might not contain parts that can be individually broken.
Step 7
Throw your cellphone against the wall, crush it with a heeled shoe, drop it out of a high window onto concrete or drive over it with your car or SUV. These actions can cause aesthetic as well as physical damage to the cellphone, and chances are you won't be able to repair the phone.
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