Cleanifi Pro Pod UV Smartphone Sanitizer Review

In the COVID-19 era, people are more concerned (rightfully) about making sure their mobile devices and other property, like keys, wallets, and more are sanitized and as germ-free as possible. This makes sense – it’s one of the best ways to make sure you aren’t spreading bacteria unnecessarily and aren’t endangering other people. The sanitizer pod/station market has been booming as a result of the coronavirus and related concerns.

Sounds good, right? Actually, this is only made things a little more confusing for most folks. The fact is that the market is now inundated with very cheap and barely-effective sanitizing station knockoffs that reportedly use UV light to thoroughly sanitize your phone or other property, only to either do so poorly or not at all. The search for an truly high-quality sanitizing pod is tough, which is why we went looking for a great option.

The result? The Cleanifi Pro Pod. It’s a bit pricier than many of the other sanitizing pod on the market, but it does come with a 99.9% sanitizing efficacy rating, a third-party lab test to prove its legitimacy, and a solid construction that marks it as a clear choice for those most interested in keeping their phones clean as opposed to other items or objects like baby toys and tools. But it’s also extremely simple on the surface, which may lead many to wonder whether it’s really worth their while.

Overall Design

The Cleanifi Pro Pod is clearly designed for phone sanitation more than any other focus – this can largely be seen with its oval shape, which is large enough to hold most phone models, and even some of the larger ones (more on that later). The Pod is still small enough to be placed on a countertop, table, or even kept in your car provided you have the appropriate plug or charging port. As a result, it can easily be kept in a stationary spot at home or taking with you for horrible sanitation.

The Cleanifi Pro Pod specifically cleans and sanitizes all sides of your phone or any other device or item you place inside. This is nice since it means you don’t have to flip your phone or another device to ensure 360° cleaning. At just 420 g, it’s lightweight enough that moving it from place to place doesn’t take much effort at all.

Ultimately, it’s a very simple sanitizing pick. The asking price, which hovers too close to $100 for many folks’ comfort, however, is a bit high considering that you don’t get very many extra features, like wireless connectivity or accessories. It does one simple job – sanitizing phone-sized objects – and nothing else. Considering that there are plenty of other smartphone sanitizing devices on the market that offer slightly more value for less cash, the Cleanifi Pro Pod needs to offer particularly good sanitizing results or other value for it to be really worth your while.

Sanitizing Effectiveness

Just how effective is the Cleanifi Pro Pod at cleaning away germs and bacteria from your phone or anything else you place inside? According to Cleanifi themselves, your phone is one of the dirtiest places in your home, and the dirtiest objects you’ll touch throughout the day. Supposedly, your phone screen contains 10 times more bacteria than you’d find on common public restroom surfaces. This adds up to about 25,000 germs per square inch. This isn’t to say that all those germs are particularly harmful, but it does demonstrate the potential for cleaning that exists on all phones.

The Cleanifi Pro Pod offers sanitation powerful enough to clean up to 99.9% of bacteria and viruses, provided those bacteria and viruses are located on the actual phone surface (or the surface of whatever you place inside). There is a bit of a hiding place in your charging port or in any other small nooks and crannies that might exist on the to-be-sanitized object. However, the overall sanitation effectiveness is pretty good and it’s about what you’d expect from most sanitizing stations on the market at this time.

The thorough sanitation is accomplished through powerful UV lights positioned around the interior of the Pod. This results in 360° cleaning without using any wipes, chemicals, or harmful liquids. As a result, it’s totally fine to place any electronic device within the Pod for cleaning. No long-lasting side effects or electrical malfunctions should occur, provided the device in question is fine when you place it inside.

You can start the sanitizing cycle by pressing the start button on the side of the Cleanifi Pro Pod. This prevents you from accidentally over sanitizing or heating up any device placed inside – a good control scheme we think is better than a pod that automatically starts sanitizing when plugged in and never stops.

All in all, sanitizing effectiveness is high but what you’d expect given the quality of the Pod and the high asking price. If you want a more legitimate guarantee, know that the Cleanifi Pro Pod has been verified by third-party laboratory testing. A copy of this report comes when you purchase the Pod so you can look at the test’s results and details for yourself. The tests were reportedly conducted by expert microbiologists. In other words, it really does get rid of the majority of germs and bacteria.

Space and Cleaning Speed

As mentioned, it’s clear that the Cleanifi Pro Pod was originally designed to sanitize smartphones and similarly-sized devices or property. But what exactly are the interior dimensions?

On the inside, dimensions are 187 x 105 x 17 mm. In practical terms, this means you’ll be able to fit keys, eyeglasses, wallets, credit cards, and many more small pieces of property or devices inside. In terms of smartphones, you should be able to fit even larger phones from Samsung and other manufacturers without any problem. The Pod is pretty economical with space, as the outside has dimensions of 205 x 125 x 40 mm: not much area is wasted.

Again, the Cleanifi Pro Pod only weighs 420 g, so it’s easy to move it from place to place – this ties in with its portability, so long as you have a USB port to plug it into.

The Pod does have small feet at the very bottom which elevate it slightly above whatever surface you rest it on. It’s a small touch, but it could prevent the Cleanifi Pro Pod from getting sticky or dirty.

Charging and Battery

The charging and battery aspects of this Pod are some of the few areas where it stands out from the competition. For instance, the entire sanitizing process only takes about five minutes to get the aforementioned 99.9% effectiveness. This is a great touch since it means you don’t have to put your phone or other property inside the Pod for very long to sterilize it – a key concern for those of us addicted to our mobile devices.

But it’s also good since it means you can throw your stuff into the Cleanifi Pro Pod right before you walk out the door and not have to worry about grabbing them as you go while they still have germs on their surfaces.

The Pod runs with a simple USB cord that can be attached to a regular wall outlet adapter or plugged into a computer or any other USB port. This allows the Cleanifi Pro Pod to work in a variety of locations and you won’t lose any effectiveness in terms of the sanitizing cycle, nor have to deal with a slower sanitizing speed, if you run the device with your laptop or something similar.

Perhaps the most interesting feature is the wireless charging functionality included with the top of the Pod’s lid. In a nutshell, you can clean your phone, then place it on the top of the Cleanifi Pro Pod. Once synched, your phone should automatically start wirelessly charging. This gives the Pod a secondary function that will nonetheless be useful for many people who want to keep their phone in a single spot so they don’t forget it or misplace it when they’re about to leave the house.

Charging speed is tied to the amount of juice that the Cleanifi Pro Pod receives from the power connection, so your phone will wirelessly charge more quickly if you plug it into a wall outlet as opposed to a laptop or a similar device. Still, this wireless charging functionality is pretty consistent and reliable and doesn’t lead to any problems with your phone’s battery.

Final Verdict

In the end, the Cleanifi Pro Pod is a solid choice if you’re interested in a sanitizing station specifically for your phone and don’t mind spending a little extra cash to get the wireless charging function and the near-universal power port compatibility. There isn’t as much space in this charging station as many of the others on the market, and it’s asking price is a little higher compared to close competitors. But there’s still plenty of value here for those who want to make sure that their phones and similarly sized property are clean as often as possible.

The sanitizing effectiveness and fast sanitizing cycle speed both make this a great choice for people constantly on the go or folks who don’t like their phone to sit and be exposed to hot UV lamps for too long, either because of their impatience or because they don’t want their phone to be damaged. We also like the small elevating feet on the Pod’s bottom, plus the easy control scheme – it’s all controlled with a single button and without having to use a wireless app or complicated remote.

Is it better than cheaper sterilizing pods and stations? We’re not 100% sure – but it is a solid investment either way and is likely to perform well for years to come. Our advice? Go for it if you’re not on a particularly tight budget and want to avoid buying another sanitizing station in the near future.