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Screen Protector iPhone X

J

Jker

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 13, 2016
48
8
Hi all,

I recently had my iPhone X replaced as it had a faulty Face ID. On that phone I had a pretty standard, pretty cheap £5 tempered glass screen protector, however I'm now considering perhaps splurging out on one of the £20+ ones. Anyone have any recommendations on which is good / where is good as putting them on? The Apple store near me didn't have any near me, and I know they do it by machine so it should be perfect.

I actually went to my carrier today and bought one for £25 and got the shop clerk to put it on for me, which he was keen to do. However, he put it on 1. off centred pretty heavily and 2. had large specs of dirt still on the screen so I ended up getting a refund and hence I'm still looking. Prefer if a machine can do it!
 
Jker said:
Hi all,

I recently had my iPhone X replaced as it had a faulty Face ID. On that phone I had a pretty standard, pretty cheap £5 tempered glass screen protector, however I'm now considering perhaps splurging out on one of the £20+ ones. Anyone have any recommendations on which is good / where is good as putting them on? The Apple store near me didn't have any near me, and I know they do it by machine so it should be perfect.

I actually went to my carrier today and bought one for £25 and got the shop clerk to put it on for me, which he was keen to do. However, he put it on 1. off centred pretty heavily and 2. had large specs of dirt still on the screen so I ended up getting a refund and hence I'm still looking. Prefer if a machine can do it!
Click to expand...

Given I have had nothing but problems with chipping and cracks with light use even with the super fancy Zagg protectors on my Plus size iPhones, I opted this time for a cheap $1 for 3 screen protector set off eBay. The install kit was better than what Zagg / Invisible shield provided. It has a wet wipe and a dry wipe to clean the screen. It also came with two tabs to help position the protector and a large sticky pad to remove any dust specs before applying the glass protector.

I think this sticky pad was the secret to a perfect install. I lightly touched the sticky pad across the entire screen and quickly positioned the protector above the device. The tabs made it easy to line up center and it adhered without a single dust spec trapped. I also feel it was a better fit than the zags protectors that seems to hang over the curved edges of the Plus display.
 
Last edited:
Jker said:
Hi all,

I recently had my iPhone X replaced as it had a faulty Face ID. On that phone I had a pretty standard, pretty cheap £5 tempered glass screen protector, however I'm now considering perhaps splurging out on one of the £20+ ones. Anyone have any recommendations on which is good / where is good as putting them on? The Apple store near me didn't have any near me, and I know they do it by machine so it should be perfect.

I actually went to my carrier today and bought one for £25 and got the shop clerk to put it on for me, which he was keen to do. However, he put it on 1. off centred pretty heavily and 2. had large specs of dirt still on the screen so I ended up getting a refund and hence I'm still looking. Prefer if a machine can do it!
Click to expand...

The past few phones I've been having Apple store staff apply the Belkin glass protectors. It's extravagantly expensive compared to the ones I've bought from Amazon, but they do seem to be better quality, as evidenced by no edge chips after 15 months on the current phone. I have to say also that as careful as I am, the Belkin "machine" that they use lines the screen protector up incredibly evenly. I would imagine that a careless or poorly trained Genius could foul that up, but if they do, it's totally fair to ask for a re-do right there at the store.
 
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I haven't run a screen protector in years...

I don't keep my phones long enough, plus a just treat my $1000+ investments with care.

The screens are pretty scratch resistant. Haven't had much issue in 5 years.
 
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zuckuss00 said:
I haven't run a screen protector in years...

I don't keep my phones long enough, plus a just treat my $1000+ investments with care.

The screens are pretty scratch resistant. Haven't had much issue in 5 years.
Click to expand...

I agree entirely. I totally understand the purpose of screen protectors and condone them, but I am also fairly cautious with my devices and have been more than enough satisfied with the durability of the displays over the years.
 
Probably can be the oleophobic coating sometimes seems to wear off the screen leaving a lot of fingerprints.
For me that’s the biggest reason for a (glass not plastic) screen protector.
 
fred98tj said:
Probably can be the oleophobic coating sometimes seems to wear off the screen leaving a lot of fingerprints.
For me that’s the biggest reason for a (glass not plastic) screen protector.
Click to expand...

Coatings typically wear off screen protectors more quickly than the screen itself. The advantage is that you can replace the protector...
 
zuckuss00 said:
I haven't run a screen protector in years...

I don't keep my phones long enough, plus a just treat my $1000+ investments with care.

The screens are pretty scratch resistant. Haven't had much issue in 5 years.
Click to expand...

Relentless Power said:
I agree entirely. I totally understand the purpose of screen protectors and condone them, but I am also fairly cautious with my devices and have been more than enough satisfied with the durability of the displays over the years.
Click to expand...

(This is curiosity, not trying to start a disagreement)

After a year, do you not find that you've got at least light scratching on the display? I'm very careful, but I use them partly because I think they've avoided a couple of problems over the years but mostly because I know when I sell the phone it'll have a perfect display, which hasn't been true when I don't use one. Wondering how your displays look after a year of careful use?
 
newellj said:
(This is curiosity, not trying to start a disagreement)

After a year, do you not find that you've got at least light scratching on the display? I'm very careful, but I use them partly because I think they've avoided a couple of problems over the years but mostly because I know when I sell the phone it'll have a perfect display, which hasn't been true when I don't use one. Wondering how your displays look after a year of careful use?
Click to expand...

I don't really look close enough (Or care to) on my display to observe minuscule micro scratches. But based on my usage, I have no scratches that are visible from what I can tell when I use my iPhone on a daily basis. I would say my iPhone display is near perfect without a screen protector.
 
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Relentless Power said:
I don't really look close enough on my display to observe minuscule micro scratches. But based on my usage, I have no scratches that are visible from what I can tell when I use my iPhone on a daily basis. I would say my iPhone display is near perfect without a screen protector.
Click to expand...

I agree. I gave up using screen protectors on my 3G and have't used them since. I was still using a 6 when I upgraded to a X. I have never noticed scratches on the screen of any of my iPhones.
 
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no screen protector here also. It tried them briefly on my 3g back in 2008 but haven't used them since. I dont have any issues with the glass scratching and hate how they look personally.
 
I used my iPhone 7 for about a year now without a screen protector (and a case); honestly, there are a couple of small scratches, but that's because I used to place to phone face-down on whatever surface I found. Not the best idea!

On the other hand, my iPhone 5S which I always used with an original Apple leather case but without a screen protector has an absolutely pristine display without any scratches whatsoever. :)
 
Jker said:
Hi all,

I recently had my iPhone X replaced as it had a faulty Face ID. On that phone I had a pretty standard, pretty cheap £5 tempered glass screen protector, however I'm now considering perhaps splurging out on one of the £20+ ones. Anyone have any recommendations on which is good / where is good as putting them on? The Apple store near me didn't have any near me, and I know they do it by machine so it should be perfect.

I actually went to my carrier today and bought one for £25 and got the shop clerk to put it on for me, which he was keen to do. However, he put it on 1. off centred pretty heavily and 2. had large specs of dirt still on the screen so I ended up getting a refund and hence I'm still looking. Prefer if a machine can do it!
Click to expand...

My personal experience: had my phone replaced twice due to issues with the light sensor (phone screen not reliably turning on and off when on a call). The issue turned out to be that the screen protectors I had picked were providing full screen cover. Thus, it was not a faulty sensor but the screen protectors causing the issue.

My current phone has a small cut-out at the top and does not cover the notch. Everything has been working fine since applying it.
 
I'm on my 5th screen protector - tried different ones out to see which one I liked. The one I settled on now is the Belkin invisiglass from Apple. It was installed by a apple store employee using the Belkin machine.

What I like about it:

  • Its very thin and crystal clear.
  • It has soft rounded edges that have been cleanly cut all the way around.
  • It has an oleophobic coating and finger prints/smudges wipe off very easily.
  • Applied perfectly first time around with the Belkin machine - no bubbles and straight alignment.

What I dislike about it:

It is not full coverage - it only covers just past the visible screen area by a fraction of a millimetre or so. I only wished it extended slightly more past the visible screen area, closer to the edge by a couple millimetres more, that would be perfect.

All the other ones I tried were too thick, didn't cover the screen properly, left bubbles behind or the touch sensitivity was hindered. The Belkin one has no such issues. I know the Belkin one is like £30 if my memory serves me right, but honestly it was worth it.
 
Thanks for all the responses everyone, I'm leaning towards the Belkin one done by Apple or just going protector-less. However, for whatever reason my Apple Store does not have the Belkin ones and won't for a while I'm told, and also I still feel kind of at risk in case I drop the phone with no protector on, as previously I've dropped my old 6S on the floor face down directly but the tempered glass protector took all the damage.
 
Zagg is finally shipping a template that sits over the phone and you can’t miss, it’s a perfect fit.
 
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I got myself a cheap 2.5 protector just to see if I could live with a protector since I usually never use one. I paid like $8 for a 2 pack.
93be123e99d24bc539d5954cb4d3f13d.jpg
 
jlczl said:
I got myself a cheap 2.5 protector just to see if I could live with a protector since I usually never use one. I paid like $8 for a 2 pack.
93be123e99d24bc539d5954cb4d3f13d.jpg
Click to expand...

I can’t live with a scratch on my $1k phone screen so it gets a Zagg and an Otterbox Defender. My Zagg picks up small scratches here and there, makes me wonder if my screen would of scratched as easily?
 
jlczl said:
I got myself a cheap 2.5 protector just to see if I could live with a protector since I usually never use one. I paid like $8 for a 2 pack.
93be123e99d24bc539d5954cb4d3f13d.jpg
Click to expand...

Hi,

Is that the one which has black frame? Because as far as I know, if not the protector doesn’t cover the complete screen of the phone. On the other hand, there is people how say this kind of glasses aren’t compatible with some cases because of the glass frame is very close of the case border.

What do you think?
 
Ruja said:
Hi,

Is that the one which has black frame? Because as far as I know, if not the protector doesn’t cover the complete screen of the phone. On the other hand, there is people how say this kind of glasses aren’t compatible with some cases because of the glass frame is very close of the case border.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

Yes it is. It’s the iCarez TrueGlass in the red box from Amazon. It’s the 2.5 so it doesn’t go 100% to the edge of the screen. It’s the 3.0 that makes it all the way to the edge but frankly it’s practically impossible to tell because of the black frame and the 2.5 is case friendly. Here’s a pic and link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074H1MX1Z?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd
a470d88c5b7c375783ba47995482772d.jpg
 
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I have the icarez with the the tray. Fit is perfect, works great. Only issue I have is with light colored backgrounds the top edge reflects some (around the sensors and because of the thickness and how light reflects) . It’s no issue at all for the price paid.
 
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