remove small scratch from back of screen?

[Gary02468]

NOTE: I meant back of phone, not back of screen. Can't edit the subject line.

Doe anyone have direct experience--successful or otherwise--with using a cerium oxide rubbing compound to remove a scratch from the rear glass of a smartphone?

I've found a small, faint horizontal scratch on the back of my S8+, near the bottom. It's invisible unless I go out of my way to find it, so I can easily ignore it. But it would be nice to polish it away if that's possible. Cerium oxide seems to be an standard tool for removing glass scratches. I wouldn't try it on the screen, but the back of the phone has no functionality to impair.

 

[Gary02468]

By the way, if you're wondering how the scratch occurred, I puzzled over that as well. I've handled the phone very carefully and have never dropped it. My previous phones have not developed scratches, front or back, despite absence of any covers. I began to worry that the S8+ somehow scratches more easily.

I decided to experiment by taking an old, discarded smartphone (HTC Pure) and subjecting its screen to more extreme versions of anything the back of my S8+ has been exposed to. I dragged it across my kitchen table and kitchen counter, I scraped it against the small metal nibs near the pockets of my jeans, and I flogged it with my jacket zipper (which, when my jacket is open, can brush against the phone going in or out of my pocket). But no scratches appeared.

Finally, I noticed that my belt buckle has a small metal piece with an exposed sharp corner. I tried that on the HTC screen and it left a deep scratch. When I get dressed, the buckle dangles next to my phone pocket and has banged against the phone a couple of times. So that's undoubtedly where the recent scratch came from.

The moral of the story is that if your new phone develops an unprecedented scratch despite careful handling, you may be tempted to conclude that the phone is mysteriously vulnerable to scratches from ordinary gentle contact. But there's got to be a not-so-gentle cause that you're unaware of.