The importance of Screen Protector on Your Smartphone

The importance of Screen Protector on Your Smartphone?.

Smartphones are expensive purchases, and it only takes one accident to shatter the screen of your shiny new phone into a million pieces. You must do something to maintain the quality and integrity of your phone!

Read :Â 7 Best Cell Phone Screen Protectors 2021

Cases protect your phone from drops and bumps, but screen protectors are marketed as a way to protect the screen itself from damage. It sounds great on paper, but do you really need a screen protector for your phone or is it just an expensive placebo?

Cracked Screens Are Expensive to Replace

In the old days, if you broke the glass of your phone, you could replace it without replacing the screen, as long as it wasn’t damaged. However, modern screen technology uses a lamination process, so there is no gap between the screen and the glass that covers it. This results in much better picture quality, but it also means that if the glass is damaged or cracked, you will have to replace the entire screen.

This integration has seriously increased the cost of repairing broken phone glass, which is probably why you see so many people walking around with broken phones – it’s too expensive to fix them. The real question is how likely is your phone to end up in this condition, and to understand that we need to talk a bit about modern phone glass.

Smartphone Glass Is Incredible

First things first: the glass of the smartphone screen is incredibly durable. Corning Gorilla Glass on Android phones or ceramic screen protectors on new iPhones are resistant to aggressive impacts and scratches. These glasses are so hard that only minerals can scratch them. Metals, like car keys in your pocket, are unlikely to leave a mark. On the Mohs hardness scale, Gorilla Glass Victus is somewhere between 6 and 7. Steel, by comparison, is between 4 and 4.5. This means that hard minerals such as quartz can leave visible scratches on this glass, but most common materials should not.

The glass of your smartphone is already more than suitable for everyday use. You may get a few micro-scratches over the life of a phone, but they usually don’t affect the feel of the screen or the look of the images on it.

Manufacturers also rigorously test smartphones to make sure they can withstand more intense abuse. Linus Tech Tips took a tour of the smartphone factory and judging by the tests shown there, the average smartphone is built to take a beating while still being functional.

So, at this point, we can safely say that most people don’t need a screen protector. In some cases, you may still need to, but you need to know what you’re getting into.

Who Absolutely Should Use a Screen Protector

We think phones without screen protectors (or cases, for that matter) are good for everyday use right out of the box, but here the emphasis is on “everyday use”.

If you work or have a hobby that exposes your phone to or is near materials that could outperform its materials, you need extra protection.

One source of glass damage that many people overlook is common minerals found in beach sand or hiking trails. If some sand gets into your pocket along with your phone, it may get scratched to the point where it can no longer be used.

If you work in construction or do outdoor activities, you can purchase a fully protected case for your phone instead of a screen protector. Alternatively, you can also consider phones built specifically for these environments, such as those made by CAT.

Use Caution When Choosing a Screen Protector

There are a surprising number of considerations to consider when choosing a screen protector, or deciding whether you need one at all. Therefore, we will carefully consider the different types of protectors and the complex factors that you should be aware of before making a decision.

Factory-installed screen protectors

Speaking of smartphone factories, your phone may already have a protective film on it when you first take it out of the box. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra has a protector that protects it from minor scratches. When it becomes too worn and damaged, you can easily remove it.

This is true for factory-installed fuses. You can remove them immediately if you wish and replace them with something better or nothing at all. Alternatively, you can simply leave them until they require removal. What you should not do is to put a new protective film over the existing factory protective film. Also, make sure you see the screen protector and not something important.

Screen protectors can be a problem to install

One of the benefits of a factory-installed protector is that you don’t have to install it yourself. That’s good because screen protectors are a nightmare. Not only do you need to make sure that the screen is free of smudges, dirt, and hair, you also need to apply the screen protector straight and without air bubbles.

Whenever you buy a screen protector, it’s best to buy two. Since you’ll almost certainly screw up the app, it’s usually best to ask the people in your phone store to apply it for you if you can.

Screen protectors are not equal

We cannot speak of protective films as one kind of product. There are different types of screen protectors and some have more practical uses than others. Some screen protectors do more than just protect your screen.

You can purchase protectors with a matte anti-reflective coating that will make your phone more comfortable to use in bright environments. Ultra-clear protectors minimize the effect of the protector on the image and filter out UV rays. On the other hand, privacy screen protectors hide what’s on the screen from everyone except the person looking at it directly. So these screen protectors are useful for more than just protecting your screen.

When it comes to the core job of providing extra protection for your screen, different protectors focus on it in different ways.

Thin protective films made of TPU or PET are designed to prevent micro-scratches. These protections are the least invasive and protect your phone from the damage it will most likely experience during its lifetime.

Tempered glass screen protectors protect against both shock and scratches, although they are thick and heavy compared to other types of screen protectors. While tempered glass screen protectors do protect against scratches due to their thickness, whether they prevent screen cracks is debatable.

What about self-healing screen protectors?

A relatively recent development in the screen protector world has been so-called “self-healing” screen protectors. The exact details vary by brand and implementation, but inside the screen protector is a tiny layer of a substance that oozes out whenever the screen protector is scratched, filling in the scratch.

Theoretically, this increases the amount of time you can leave the protective film on before replacing it. Whether self-healing scratches are invisible or not is up to you, so far we’ve seen mixed reviews.

Screen protectors can affect user experience

There is nothing better than using the touch screen directly, without anything between your finger and your phone. Mobile phone screens have been engineered to give you the perfect level of tactile feedback and offer you a crystal clear, vibrant image using incredibly advanced manufacturing processes that combine the screen with touch and glass layers without damaging any of the display’s pixels.< /p >

So it seems a bit odd to put a $10 screen protector on top of that, destroying a lot of what made your phone so great (and expensive) in the first place.

Tempered glass screen protectors, which provide the best impact protection, are also the thickest. This means your phone’s smooth, curved edge is now a sharp edge every time you swipe the edge, and photos from your screen are absorbed and refracted by the thick layer of glass.

You might think the impact is negligible, but if you’ve ever used a phone immediately after removing the tempered glass screen protector, you know how much better it looks and feels compared to it.

Insurance can be. best solution

If your main concern is protecting your phone from minor scratches rather than cracks or breakage, a screen protector might not be the best solution.

After all, if your phone gets hit hard enough to shatter the tempered glass screen protector, it can still crack and break the screen. So it makes sense to save money and spend it on phone insurance. Some phone theft insurances include accidental damage insurance or offer a cheap add-on. The same goes for some carrier plans that may provide insurance as part of your contract or as an add-on.

Phone manufacturers also offer damage insurance. Applecare is a prime example, but some Android phone makers also offer similar screen replacement deals, such as Samsung Care+. You pay upfront to replace one or two screens for a few years.

Given the cost of even a single screen repair, these protection plans are a bargain. This is not an extended warranty for gadgets such as TVs, which are unlikely to suffer accidental damage. There is a real possibility that at some point in your phone’s life you will drop it.

Wear and tear is normal

It’s understandable that you want your phone to be in the same condition as new, but any item you use on a daily basis will inevitably show signs of such use. It seems embarrassing to put on a case or put a screen protector on your phone when it’s designed as a sleek high-tech device that should be magical to the touch and in the hand.

In a way, using screen protectors on such high-tech devices is like buying a sports car and then covering the skin with plastic and rubberizing the casing. Sure, you’ll prevent wear and tear on the materials, but you won’t enjoy the look of the product.

The resale argument (and why it doesn’t make sense)

If your tolerance for micro scratches is low, a thin plastic screen protector will probably help you sleep at night, but if the main reason you need a screen protector is to save your phone for resale, we think that you do it yourself. disservice.

First, you keep the device you paid full price for and reduce the enjoyment of it for the next owner, the buyer who may not be bothered by a few minor scratches.

Secondly, you probably won’t get much more for your phone than its real resale value with minor scratches. Cash resale prices for phones are often far below their true value due to rapid depreciation and the fact that most people don’t buy phones for cash but get them under contract with a subsidized carrier.

The Final Verdict

In the end, whether you put a screen protector on your phone or not is up to you, but based on what we’ve discussed, you should keep these important points in mind:

Screen protectors are primarily good for preventing minor scratches that will not affect the use of the phone in any way. Screen protectors will always affect the picture quality and usability of your phone to some extent. Often you can get insurance or screen replacement protection for very little money.It’s debatable whether thick tempered glass screen protectors affect a drop strong enough to shatter the glass of a modern smartphone.If you’re using your phone in hazardous environments, consider using this instead durable case or phone.

Perhaps in the future, smartphone glass technology will make screen protectors completely redundant, but even today they are optional.