Smartphones have become our most prized objects, or at least in the most precious ones that we take with us to the street. So the natural tendency is to protect, and if the body ends thereof covered by rear housing, a bumper or something more immersive, the screen also needs some extra protection.
Now just we try that issue that of how to protect the screen of your smartphone against scratches and bites and even to prevent a fall can breaks with running un-utilized. For now, there are no miracles available to users but something that can minimize all these damages. Let’s go with the screensavers.
Screen protectors, glass or plastic
The higher line models often have extra safety in the form of Gorilla Glass, Dragontrail or Dinorex, but to exercise companion on the market have known screensavers. Plastic cheaper, more expensive and efficient glass. Why this difference? Mainly because of the hardness.
While a plastic protector will prevent the screen of our smartphone from scratching, it may not be able to prevent a powerful blow from penetrating it. Something that will be avoided with the glass protector, which, on many occasions, will be thicker than plastic. Although in terms of cleanliness and transparency, the glass will always be superior. The glass, for example, burst upon reaching the limit of their strength and fought to protect the screen of that stress, which does not happen with plastic.
Another difference between glass and plastic is touch. The fingers do not slide equally on one material and another, and therefore, the crystal is most appreciated as a protector for the screens of our mobile phones. Although, summarizing all the protection offered by the glass or crystal is higher than that offered by the plastic. Hence, the price increase.
We said that screensavers do not work miracles and it’s the harsh reality. Although we wear the most resistant, a fall can cause a great vibration throughout the device that affects its interior. The direct impacts on the screen can also pass through the protective glass even if they do not break it, simply transmitting the vibration of the object to the terminal panel itself. So although you heap up screen protectors and covers, Extremely Dangerous caution about the health of your smartphone.
Image Source: Google Image
The hardness of tempered glass, what does 8H or 9H mean
The tempered glass that is used to protect the screen of the smartphones is produced like any other glass and, therefore, can be given the hardness that one wishes during the construction process. Hence many manufacturers of protective presuming that their model is more resistant than this or that or simply place the degree of hardness characteristics to promote.
That is where the Mohs scale, a scale of hardness of materials ranging from 1 to 10 and that is not configured linearly. The scale simply sets scratch resistance levels based on different utensils or materials. At the lower levels, we find talc or plaster while corundum or diamond are placed in the upper stages. Let’s look at the table but we will omit the chemical composition, since it is not relevant.
| HARDNESS | MINERAL | IT STRIKES WITH / STRIPE TO |
| 1 HOUR | Talcum powder | Easily with the fingernail |
| 2H | Cast | With the fingernail with more difficulty |
| 3H | Calcite | With a copper coin |
| 4H | Fluorite | With a steel knife |
| 5H | Apatite | Hardly with a knife |
| 6H | Ortosa | With a sandpaper for steel |
| 7H | Quartz | Strip the glass |
| 8H | Topaz | It is scratched with tungsten carbide tools |
| 9H | Corundón | It is scratched with silicon carbide tools |
| 10H | Diamond | Just scratched with another diamond |
As shown in the table Mohs hardness, 9H level that some manufacturers boast tempered glass correspond to the penultimate level in hardness, just below the protection it would offer the diamond. And, according to that same table, its hardness could be demonstrated based on the small experiments that establishes for each level.
Therefore, to presume to have constructed a glass with 8H or 9H hardness, the most common, means that it is very resistant. No longer to scratches but also to impacts. One thing that might be worth for a manufacturer could certify that its protective glass is more efficient than from your competition but, for practical purposes, guarantees a level of very high protection. No more nuances.
The thickness of the glass, more aesthetic than protection
We have already established the difference between glass and plastic screen protectors, concluding that although they are more expensive, glass ones offer superior protection and, aesthetically, they are simpler to conserve. But, are there differences between them? Of course, we tell you what.
The thickness is one of the differences between the different glass protectors of the market and yet there is no value that makes us choose one or the other. The InvisibleShield, for example, work crystals with 0.4 millimeters of thickness while the Armorz move in numbers near the 0.2 millimeters of thickness. Each model works a thickness based on their manufacturing process because they expect.
The resistance of a glass protector does not lie so much in its thickness because the different techniques to temper the glass during its construction, in addition to the internal fabric of the material, allow to play with these dimensions. The thickness can be, ultimately, a more aesthetic touch and otherwise subject. A thicker glass will be noticed more by the edges than a thinner one.
The thickness will also affect something indirectly. The purity of tempered glass that we choose to protect our smartphone determine its transparency. Finding crystals that offer transparencies above 95% is usual but if we choose one with little transparency, and it is also thick, we can cause the screen of the terminal to look worse and the crystals should be, and are in many cases, invisible.
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The oleophobic layer, cleaning
Another difference between the various protective glasses for smartphones is its oleophobic layer. We may find some cheaper models that do not have it but arrived at this point of quality in the construction, to dispense of it is a commercial suicide.
If anything we have learned from smartphones wrapped in glass is that they get very dirty. Our fingers are leaving marks of their passage through the body and also do so on the screen. That is why the glass protectors have an oleophobic protection that can work better or worse depending on the quality of construction.
Opting for a low-priced glass protector may mean, for example, that its oleophobic layer is not too effective or simply disappears sooner than anticipated. This result in a fairly screen dirty and can obscure vision as a result of reflexes. Our recommendation is that, since we have opted for the glass, do not let us go to too economic model because it can end up leaving expensive.
The tactile experience, determinant
We have seen that a protective glass provides better protection than a plastic and thickness and oleophobic layer are more aesthetic than functional characteristics, but the tempered glass can determine the tactile experience of the terminal that we choose to protect our smartphone.
All glass protectors offer a good experience when using a single finger to interact with the screen, transistorize well touch the screen, but the picture changes when we need to go to more than one interaction at the same time. The multi-touch screen functionality may be affected by the glass chosen based on their ability to transmit your keystrokes.
Some cheaper and worse constructed models can produce what are known as ghost touches on the screen when zooming with two fingers, or by using more advanced gestures on the smartphone . Simply because the crystal does not transmit our touch to the screen. It is another disadvantage of choosing crystals that are more economical or simply that they are not designed for our device.
Always try to get one for your mobile
In the market, we can find dozens of options when it comes to making us with a screen protector tempered glass. With billions of smartphones in circulation, the profit potential is very high and therefore many companies that bid for place your protector on your terminal.
Therefore, in addition to finding specific models for some smartphones, we also find other standards designed to fit screens of a certain size regardless of brand or model of the smartphone in question. These protective standard glass are not, however, recommended for several reasons.
Every smartphone design is unique and has its particularities. Stand frames or so, there are specific designs like Samsung and Edge curves of your competition or even the relief 2.5D that is so fashionable now. That can cause the glass we buy standard serving us or who does it but end up being more of a nuisance than a solution.
So, whenever possible, we recommend purchasing specific glass protectors for our terminal model. And if it does not have a specific glass protector, one that appears in the list mentioned by the glass manufacturer himself. So everything will be sure that the glass will fit and will fulfill its role: to protect without constantly notice their presence.
Finally, things by their name
We said that the market will find dozens of options when it comes to us with a mild to protect the screen of your smartphone glass, but some stand out in protection and durability over others and have earned a well deserved reputation.
Among the recommended making us a tempered glass brands are, for example, models Nillkin H + Pro, the J & D, the Ultimate Shield or Sanmin. Also the above named InvisibleShield or Armorz. The Stillersafe would be another good option when buying a protective glass for a smartphone.