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oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Original poster
Sep 8, 2011
5,961
13,939
Hi Everyone... this is one of my first posts on this forum, although I have been a longtime reader.

I just bought and installed the Photodon HD Anti-Glare on my MBA and this is a short review. This is not the "T" anti-glare film, nor is the the "A" crystal clear film.

Backstory: I bought a new Core i7 13" Macbook Air and was super excited to have this awesome laptop for school. :D It's light, it's blazing fast, and I can last almost all day on the battery. One problem: after less than 3 weeks of use, I notice scratches on my screen. Not one big scratch, but hundreds of tiny little scratches. :confused: Being a law student, I carry lots of very thick and heavy books around which probably pressed my laptop in my bag (although it was in a padded case, inside the padded compartment of my bag). The scratches formed a rectangular shape. It was pretty obvious these scratches were from the sharp metal edge around the trackpad and under the space bar. It was pretty ugly, and bugging me that this would happen week 3 on a $1700 computer. :mad: I went to an Apple store and they tried cleaning it, then they tried polishing/buffing them out. Eventually they just gave me a completely new computer, in the retail box. That was awesome because they did not ask for the the old box/accessories back so now I have two chargers. :cool:

Anyway, back to the Photodon screen protector....
I did not want this to happen again, so I ordered this screen protector right away when I got home. For the following week I would law down a microfiber cloth (that black one that came with my old mac) on top of the trackpad and keyboard and closed the screen on that, to prevent scratches.

The package came with two medium sized microfiber cloths, a little test strip so you can see what the screen will feel and look like, and the screen protector itself.

Applying screen protector was fairly quick and easy. Although I am super anal about this sort of thing. Here were my steps:
1. Set everything up on a clean bath towel in the bathroom, with a hot shower running. This semi-steamy room is as close any layman can get to a dust-free environment. Also, wash your hands at this point.
2. Wipe the screen with the new microfiber cloth... a lot. Keep wiping until it is totally clean without a single speck of dust. By this point, the bathroom was getting very steamy, which is fine.
3. Peel back 1 or 2 inches of the screen protector, and line it up with the left edge of the screen. Press it down using the microfiber cloth.
4. Continue peeling back the backing, and lightly pressing the screen protector.
5. Peel back the backing such that only 1 inch is left, then pull it off entirely. Do not press the film to the screen, that would introduce bubbles. Let it settle itself on.
6. Work out the few bubbles using a credit card wrapped in the microfiber cloth.

Review:

Fit -
Well... it fits. The film itself was about .5mm too small in each direction. Since this is the kind of thing you can only apply once, the way you line it up is the way it will be. I managed to get lucky and center it fine left to right; I got it perfectly lined up with the bottom edge, so it left a small (slightly less than 1mm) gap at the top. Not a big deal... I can hardly notice it because I rarely look up at the top bar anyway. The film also had rounded edges which are slightly noticeable and don't quite fit the corners.

Anti-Glare -
The photodon site claims the HD Anti-Glare film will reduce glare by 25%. To be perfectly honest, I never noticed much glare on the MBA screen and this film seems to have added a bit of glare. Not very much though. It's not something I would remove the film over; but it certainly did not reduce glare at all. On a naked MBA with the screen off, I would see a sharp silhouette of myself in the screen but I couldn't make out my face or anything. With the film and the screen off, I can see myself more clearly in the reflection but it is now a fuzzy reflection.

Color -
So far, I have noticed that the colors are ever so slightly less vivid. This could be all in my head its so slight. What is more noticeable are the deep blacks. The deep blacks look more very dark gray with a slight purple tint now. The contract certainly suffered a bit. Again, this is noticeable but very minor.

Durability -
1 week of my normal school schedule, with all those same heavy books in my bag on top of my computer on the MBTA train back and forth every day. No scratches so far. Since this was the main point of getting this film, this is the most important feature to me. I will update here if the film does develop scratches anytime soon.

Recommendation -
- If you are an photographer/film/video/editor who needs perfect color, I don't think any screen protector film will work for you. For protecting your screen, I would recommend one of those shaped pads that you put in between the keyboard and screen when the lid is closed. It's a hassle, but then again... you're an artist lugging around all that camera equipment I assume. What's one more hassle? ;)
- If you are a writer/journalist/student/programmer or anyone who uses the MBA as a way to get online and as an expensive advanced type-writer. I would absolutely recommend this for you.
 
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