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do screen protectors protect from minor drops?

eclipse01

eclipse01

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 16, 2011
2,899
441
Eau Claire, WI
I have a buddy that dropped his moto razor from a couple feet off the ground and it cracked the screen, I have a full skin on my phone and have dropped it a few times on a wood floor and never received a crack...am I just that lucky or do they protect a little from drops?
 
eclipse01 said:
I have a buddy that dropped his moto razor from a couple feet off the ground and it cracked the screen, I have a full skin on my phone and have dropped it a few times on a wood floor and never received a crack...am I just that lucky or do they protect a little from drops?
Click to expand...

Ive used nothing but bumpers since launch. They keep both sides off surfsces and I have 0 scratches. Also ive dropped it quite a few times and no crack. Screen protectors wouldn't help very much. If would have to be super lucky. Super.
 
Common sense dictates here !

A full body shield will help protect against scratches and scuffs.

Even bumpers and cases can fail depending on how it hits the floor or surface it hits.
 
It depends on the screen protector and what else is protecting the phone. I once dropped my Otterbox Defender protected iPhone in the middle of a street while jogging. A car was coming and I couldn't stop to pick it up, so I kicked it to the road side. The phone tumbled end over end and then skidded the last bit on its face into the gravel of the road shoulder, but had no scratches on the phone, only one on the Otterbox Defender case.

I e-mailed Otterbox about it, actually just telling them how the case had saved my phone, and they sent me a new case.

If you had a screen protector on a phone with just bumpers I would think that the damage from an incident like this would be much worse.
 
Moto Razr's are pretty tough phones and it's hard to break the inner screen.

Droid Razr's on the other hand, are huge phones. The back is pretty solid, but the front screen, well's it's just glass.
 
I dunno I'm a little sceptical of those film screen protectors. I think they mostly protect against innocuous surface scratches which I think the iPhone's outer coating already protects. So I don't think it really protects against deep cracks, just surface scratches and smudges on the screen
 
I don't believe it adds any integrity to the screen strength. However logic dictates that if you drop your phone and it skids (assuming u are fortunate enough not to break it), that the screen protector has better odds to prevent your screen from getting scratched too badly.

It all depends on the accident.

Besides if screen protectors DID protect against breakage you can bet it would be in bold on the packaging as a sales point.
 
eclipse01 said:
I have a buddy that dropped his moto razor from a couple feet off the ground and it cracked the screen, I have a full skin on my phone and have dropped it a few times on a wood floor and never received a crack...am I just that lucky or do they protect a little from drops?
Click to expand...

A screen protector is just to protect from scratches. Not from drops. If you drop it chances are the screen might still crack from the impact.

Thinking about putting a screen protector on my car and hope if I get into an accident nothing breaks:D
 
eclipse01 said:
I have a buddy that dropped his moto razor from a couple feet off the ground and it cracked the screen, I have a full skin on my phone and have dropped it a few times on a wood floor and never received a crack...am I just that lucky or do they protect a little from drops?
Click to expand...

You're just lucky. My daughter has dropped her phone several times on a wood floor like you describe, and it has always survived.....until the last time when the screen cracked. It all depends on how it lands. Now that she has to live with a cracked screen until she's due to upgrade, I'm hoping she will be more careful with the next one....but I doubt it.
 
Front and back screen protectors plus bumper (less than $5 total from Amazon) seems to be the perfect combination of not adding too much bulk to the phone and adding adequate protection. Yes, skidding across the gravel roadside like the PP's story would probably not be protected, but how often does that really occur? (Unless you're that guy! :) )
 
They can.

I was rocking my phone naked, save for a front screen protector, when it fell out of my pocket in a parking lot. While raining. I picked it up and the front screen looked like a mess, which got me starting to sweat.

Took off the bubbled up and scratched screen protector to find the screen was unharmed. I did pick up some scrapes and dings on the antenna band though. Sigh.
 
Applejuiced said:
A screen protector is just to protect from scratches. Not from drops. If you drop it chances are the screen might still crack from the impact.

Thinking about putting a screen protector on my car and hope if I get into an accident nothing breaks:D
Click to expand...

You actually do have a screen protector on your cars windshield. All US cars have safety glass installed. ;)

As for screen protectors protecting your screen, some will do more than others. Specifically, wet application screen protectors can potentially protect your screen from what would otherwise be a broken and cracked to crap screen, to something very minor. Wet application increases the screen ability to absorb more flex before breaking. Think of window tint on your car or special hurricane 3m film used on windows in the south. The glass can flex much more than without the film. And of course, when it does break, all the pieces remain in place (majority of the time anyway. This could be the difference of a working or non working phone after a drop.)
Obviously, this won't completely protect the phone from all impacts and not as good as a plastic case, but it is an additional layer of protection.
Dry application screen protectors are worthless other than from key and coin type minor scratches.

Biggest thing, treat your phone like a baby! Don't drop it. :D
 
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