For many years in a row, I made fun of friends who had a habit of gluing a protective film to the screens of smartphones and even phones. This tradition has been for many years, before the TV remote controls were packed in a plastic bag, sofas and armchairs were covered with a thick film so that the coating would not wear out, and in cars it was customary not to remove protective covers or polyethylene so as not to wipe the seats. Of course, I cannot categorically state that all these solutions were useless, they have their own meaning. But since relatively recently, even such ardent opponents of this approach as I have found it difficult to argue with new arguments when we are talking about smartphones. We are talking about protective glass, a relatively new phenomenon among smartphone accessories, which is rapidly gaining popularity.
With the protective film, everything was simple – it protects the smartphone screen from scratches, as well as from streaks and other surface damage, but when the device falls, it hardly helps. The very surface of such a film is usually inferior in its properties to the surface of a screen with a high-quality oleophobic coating and the finger glides on it worse. There are exceptions, but these films also cost quite a lot of money, so the person who chooses such an accessory begins to creep in doubts: 'Can a film cost so much money?'.
And then there were protective glasses, the benefits of which can no longer be argued.
If we are talking about protective glass for an expensive smartphone, then the beneficial effect is obvious. As you probably know, if the device falls on the asphalt, concrete, tiles, there is a great chance of getting broken glass in the device. The display itself remains functional and the smartphone can be used, but the sight of cracked glass, frankly, is not encouraging. And if you decide to replace the glass, then, most likely, you will be surprised to learn that the replacement costs almost half the price of the device, because together with the glass you need to change the entire display, and this is expensive. The glass additionally glued on top of the main glass does not give one hundred percent guarantee of protection in case of a fall, but it still seriously reduces the chance of getting cracks on the main glass, which means that its installation is completely logical and justified. Especially if you know that your smartphone periodically flies out of your hands onto the asphalt (a phenomenon, in fact, common). It's easier to buy a high-quality protective glass for 1000, 2000 or even 3000 rubles for your new Apple iPhone 6, conventionally, than to change the entire module with a screen for 10,000 rubles after a fall.
If we are talking about protective glass for a cheap smartphone, the benefits are even more obvious. Firstly, such an accessory performs a protective function, I wrote about it above, and secondly, a practical one. In many budget devices, not the best glass is used, especially in terms of the oleophobic coating, usually it is there, but the finger slips badly, there are many marks, stains and other things that do not appear at such a speed on the surface of the screen in a smartphone of an average or higher price segments. And here the additional glass is just in hand – if you choose it correctly, you will get a better oleophobic coating, as well as greater resistance of the screen surface to various dirt. I am writing this based on my own experience of using inexpensive smartphones in a family.
With all this, it is worth recognizing that the protective glass as an accessory did not appear by itself, it is the development of the protective film and it is thanks to it that we got a practical item from any point of view as an addition to the smartphone.
How do you feel about protective films and glasses for smartphones?