Nokia is hoping to banish smudged touchscreen displays for good with a new technology it has demoed at Nokia World in London.

Referred to as super hydrophobic, the nano coating technology, developed in Cambridge, is a thin layer that is applied to phones that actively repels water and other liquids, like the oil from your fingers, making the them quickly run off the surface rather than sticking to them.

By doing so, Nokia has created a coating that should mean smudges either don’t appear altogether or are at least easier to rub off.

Nokia says that the technology doesn’t affect the clarity of the screen, and that it also goes someway to helping make the phones more water resistant as moisture is repelled so effectively.

A Spokesman for the company declined to say when the technology, demoed at the show on a Nokia 700, would be making it into the company’s phones in the future.

The technology is a different approach to how Apple, who was recently awarded a patent for the idea hopes to rid us of smudges on our screens.

Apple’s patent involves a special coating procedure known as Physical Vapor Desposition, which involves a liquid to replenish any coating that is applied.