Do you use a screen protector?

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  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
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    Tribute wrote: »
    I took my iphone 5 out of its case for the first time in ages and was surprised at how slippery in the hand it is because of the materials it's made from.

    I find the statement that a case 'spoils' the phone a very bizarre one.

    Not bizarre at all. Manufacturers go to considerable trouble to make a phone both aesthetically pleasing and ergonomically functional. Taking a £300 or more handset and covering it up with a cheap, plastic cover makes it look like a cheap, plastic handset. If you had a bespoke £1,000 suit, would you walk around with a Matalan overcoat on all the time?

    Same for ergonomics. I've tried a few screen protectors and the feel of them is far worse than the uncovered screen; more friction, for start. Plus the screen looks worse. If you wouldn't put a layer of clingflm over your TV screen, why do it on a phone screen?

    I guess it comes down to how carefully you look after your phone. I keep my N4 in a leather slip case so it would be protected if it fell out of a pocket or bag but I actually use it completely naked as nature intended.:D
  • BunionsBunions Posts: 15,012
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    Not bizarre at all. Manufacturers go to considerable trouble to make a phone both aesthetically pleasing and ergonomically functional. Taking a £300 or more handset and covering it up with a cheap, plastic cover makes it look like a cheap, plastic handset. If you had a bespoke £1,000 suit, would you walk around with a Matalan overcoat on all the time?

    Same for ergonomics. I've tried a few screen protectors and the feel of them is far worse than the uncovered screen; more friction, for start. Plus the screen looks worse. If you wouldn't put a layer of clingflm over your TV screen, why do it on a phone screen?

    I guess it comes down to how carefully you look after your phone. I keep my N4 in a leather slip case so it would be protected if it fell out of a pocket or bag but I actually use it completely naked as nature intended.:D
    You wouldn't need to because you're not constantly touching your TV screen on multiple occasions daily for sometimes hours on end and your TV isn't in danger of being dropped each time it's in use.
  • TommyNookaTommyNooka Posts: 2,396
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    xreyuk123 wrote: »
    Hey guys,

    I'm an iPhone 5 owner, and for the past year have used a Spigen Glas.tr on my iPhone as a screen protector (it's a glass protector for anyone who doesn't know what it is).

    Now I went to change it today because it had finally got some scratches in annoying place in the middle of the screen, and unfortunately I messed the application up, and it's ruined.

    At £25 a pop, these screen protectors aren't cheap (Although they're bloody brilliant). Spigen offer a 'cheap' exchange if you mess it up yourself, and you can get another protector for about £10.

    Honestly though, the phone feels massively different with the protector on, mainly it feels a hell of a lot lighter. As I understand it the iPhone 5 has gorilla glass, which is pretty good glass, and don't know whether to roll with or without a screen protector.

    What do you guys think?

    Is it made from some cutting edge helium compound or something?
    :confused:
    :D

    I'd never use a screen protector on a top end phone it ruins the look and feel imo, just get a nice thin slip case and look after it as you should.
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
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    Bunions wrote: »
    You wouldn't need to because you're not constantly touching your TV screen on multiple occasions daily for sometimes hours on end and your TV isn't in danger of being dropped each time it's in use.

    The point is: why pay for a high quality screen and then reduce its quality by sticking a bit of plastic over it? A screen protector won't mean the difference between a screen breaking and not breaking if you drop the handset.

    I can just about understand people sticking handsets in plastic cases to avoid breakage if you drop them but it's never made any sense to me to use screen protectors. It's always been far easier to just not put the phone in a pocket or bag alongside things that are sharp enough to scratch it.
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
    Forum Member
    TommyNooka wrote: »
    Is it made from some cutting edge helium compound or something?
    :confused:
    :D

    I'd never use a screen protector on a top end phone it ruins the look and feel imo, just get a nice thin slip case and look after it as you should.

    Completely agree. It's not as though we haven't owned portable stuff with screens before mobile phones. I don't recall anyone trying to sell me a screen protector for a calculator or a GPS or a compass or a watch. We just 'looked after' stuff.
  • BunionsBunions Posts: 15,012
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    The point is: why pay for a high quality screen and then reduce its quality by sticking a bit of plastic over it? A screen protector won't mean the difference between a screen breaking and not breaking if you drop the handset.
    You used a Matalan overcoat analogy so I was referring to screen and back covers and I didn't pay for the phone anyway - it's free with my contract.
    I can just about understand people sticking handsets in plastic cases to avoid breakage if you drop them but it's never made any sense to me to use screen protectors. It's always been far easier to just not put the phone in a pocket or bag alongside things that are sharp enough to scratch it.
    Each to their own I guess.

    A well applied screen cover doesn't impede the use of the touchscreen in my experience and the fact that my phone doesn't look quite as aesthetically pleasing with it as without one isn't an issue for me.

    I can't say it's something I even consider when I'm making/receiving calls or playing Farm Story 2 on it :D
  • TommyNookaTommyNooka Posts: 2,396
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    As TB has said though it's not only aesthetics but functionality, there isn't a screen protector out there that doesn't lose at least a little bit of responsiveness and they never replicate the feel of that nice smooth glass.
  • BunionsBunions Posts: 15,012
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    Completely agree. It's not as though we haven't owned portable stuff with screens before mobile phones. I don't recall anyone trying to sell me a screen protector for a calculator or a GPS or a compass or a watch. We just 'looked after' stuff.
    Which of those items would have the equivalent value of an iPhone?
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
    Forum Member
    Bunions wrote: »
    Which of those items would have the equivalent value of an iPhone?

    In terms of value for money, pretty much all of them.:p
  • Trsvis_BickleTrsvis_Bickle Posts: 9,202
    Forum Member
    Bunions wrote: »
    You used a Matalan overcoat analogy so I was referring to screen and back covers and I didn't pay for the phone anyway - it's free with my contract.

    Oh dear...:o
  • BunionsBunions Posts: 15,012
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    Oh dear...:o
    You know what I mean, in that I didn't have to pay £400 or whatever it cost at the time.
  • TributeTribute Posts: 820
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    Not bizarre at all. Manufacturers go to considerable trouble to make a phone both aesthetically pleasing and ergonomically functional. Taking a £300 or more handset and covering it up with a cheap, plastic cover makes it look like a cheap, plastic handset. If you had a bespoke £1,000 suit, would you walk around with a Matalan overcoat on all the time?

    Same for ergonomics. I've tried a few screen protectors and the feel of them is far worse than the uncovered screen; more friction, for start. Plus the screen looks worse. If you wouldn't put a layer of clingflm over your TV screen, why do it on a phone screen?

    I guess it comes down to how carefully you look after your phone. I keep my N4 in a leather slip case so it would be protected if it fell out of a pocket or bag but I actually use it completely naked as nature intended.:D

    I was going to type a well thought out answer, but then I saw that you have an N4! :D
  • alan1302alan1302 Posts: 6,336
    Forum Member
    Bunions wrote: »
    You know what I mean, in that I didn't have to pay £400 or whatever it cost at the time.

    Still worth £400 and you still end up paying £400 if not more for it...not sure how you buy it matters?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 522
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    TommyNooka wrote: »
    Is it made from some cutting edge helium compound or something?
    :confused:
    :D

    I'd never use a screen protector on a top end phone it ruins the look and feel imo, just get a nice thin slip case and look after it as you should.

    lol no :D

    I had a Glas.tr on there, which isn't a screen protector in the conventional sense. Instead of being plastic, it's another piece of glass that's 0.5mm thick (the new ones are 0.4mm, and 0.22mm) and has oleo phobic coating on it. The idea being that, in the event of dropping the phone, the glas.tr will take the brunt of the force and that will crack, instead of the phone screen cracking.

    That's why it feels so much lighter.

    As for selling on eBay, I've given up the idea with this, because I'v always used my iPhones without a case no problem, except on the 5, the anodised aluminium is so weak, it's already covered in chips just from being dropped on hard plastic (car seat).

    I'll probably see how it is without a screen protector on, but so far it's lighter and much more responsive, however, I can't get over the nagging feeling that, at some point, I'll drop it and crack the screen, purely because I don't have a glas.tr on.
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