I've used Invisible Shields on my iPods for years (starting with a 20GB 3rg gen iPod four or five years ago) so naturally I pre-ordered two (I always buy them in pairs, in case I mess up!) as soon as the iPhone 3G was announced. Unfortunately, after ruining both of them (botched installations on both of them - and I'm an IS veteran!) I decided to just go 'naked' as they say. Bad move. Within a few days my iPhone had numerous scratches on the back, most of them impossible to see unless you really studied it - but the Apple logo: scratched to hell and back. And I was VERY careful with it. So, I decided to order some more shields and have another go at it. After seeing this thread and checking some other online reviews, I decided to try my luck with the BodyGuardz film as it doesn't suffer from the 'orange peel' effect but is supposedly as scratch-resistant as the IS. While I waited for the BGs to arrive, I actually got my iPhone replaced and spent the last six days babying the new one - I never once set it down on a hard surface, and was EXTREMELY careful with it.
Yesterday my BG arrived. I cleaned my iPhone off and looked as hard as I could for scratches on the back - there were none, not even on the logo! So, yay.

Anyway I applied the BG last night using my 'clean room' (steamy bathroom) but still managed to get tiny black fibers under the film, I guess from my microfiber work surface. Figures. But instead of just letting them be (and it bothering the heck out of me) I wet my fingers with the spray, pulled up the film (already slightly tacky at this point) and cleaned it off. I had to do this several times, but ended up with a perfectly clean install. I spent literally two hours getting the corners down
perfectly but they look fantastic now, in fact they look so good that you cannot tell there's a film on there at all unless you look VERY closely. The BG is smooth, almost as smooth as a naked iPhone. It isn't as grippy/tacky as the IS but then again there's no more orange peel effect.
Below is a pic I just took (14 hours after applying the film) ... The DOF is very shallow and I tried to focus on the top corners, so the center of the iPhone's back (the Apple logo and the text at the bottom) appears to be slightly OOF. Anyway, here's the pic:
VERY HIGH RES! Click to enlarge:
After years of buying InvisibleShields for all of my electronic devices (four iPods, a DS and a PSP) and tolerating that orange peel texture, I'm happy to say the BG looks MUCH better than the IS (and at half the price, considering you get two in each pack). I won't be buying IS again, that's for
damn sure.
