Your cellphone is basically your best friend. Need directions to that new restaurant? Want to quickly check the scores of the match? Want to send your friend a picture of your new shoes? Your phone will always comes through for you.

Surviving without a phone is pretty much impossible, especially given the pace we live at. That’s why you’ll want to add some durability to yours with the right mobile accessories – read on to learn about the essentials.

1. Guard It With Your Life
You’ve just spent your hard-earned money on a brand new phone. You take it out of the box and the screen is crystal-clear—smooth and not a single scratch in sight. A thing of beauty.

Suddenly, you drop it. Your shiny, clean screen is now covered in scratches.

Sounds like a nightmare, doesn’t it? To prevent this horrifying situation, invest in a good screen protector. It’s a fraction of the cost of your phone.

There are three types of screen protectors – glossy, matte, and tempered glass.

Glossy screen protectors are, well… glossy. Aside from guarding your precious screen, they provide a shiny, smooth finish. Since they’re the cheapest screen protector of the lot, they’re the most popular type.

Matte screen protectors are also called ‘anti-glare screen protectors’. Although they’re slightly more expensive than the glossy ones, they prevent any sort of reflection, and let you see your screen better. Matte screen protectors can sometimes result in grainy images, though, so you might want to keep that in mind.

Tempered glass screen protectors are as cool as they sound. They’re multi-layered, with the bottom layer being absorbent silicon and PET film. The best thing about tempered glass screen protectors? They’re totally shatter-proof. In fact, they’re five times stronger than regular glass!

2. A Case, Just In Case
Let’s be real – no matter how careful you are, gravity will always get the better of you.

This means that as hard as you try not to drop your phone, at some point or the other, it’s going to slip through your fingers and crash to the ground. That’s why investing in a good phone case is your best bet to protect your baby.

Phone cases can be either hard or soft. The hard ones are usually made of plastic, and the soft ones, of silicone.

Hard cases come in a variety of colors and patterns, but often don’t cover the entire outer rim and sides of your phone. Because they’re more rigid than soft cases, they’re also prone to breaking easily. Soft cases have a rubbery texture. Unlike hard cases, they cover the entire outer border of your phone, and so they offer more reliable protection.

3. Invest In The Bank
It’s the middle of the night, and you desperately need to book a cab to get home ASAP. Your flatmate’s lost their keys again. You need a cab, and you need it now. But, your battery’s almost out of juice.

Sound like a familiar situation?

To combat your phone’s perpetually dying battery, get yourself a power bank. Most of them are small enough to fit in your school or work bag, so they’re super portable.

Power banks come in varieties depending on their mAh (milliampere hours) – basically, how many times they can charge your phone before they need to be charged again. Typically, a good one should give you two to three full recharges before its reserves are drained.

Power banks can be lifesavers, especially when your phone seems to die at the worst possible times.

Investing in the right accessories can not only add some style on your phone, but is also a practical choice. Spend on the right things and your mobile phone should last you a long time.