Due to the fragility of the materials used in the manufacture of today's phones, especially high-end devices, although not exclusively, buying a case and a screen protector has become a mandatory purchase if we want to maintain the integrity of our smartphone at all times, especially if we are characterized by having feet in hand.
When buying a cover, we must always consider the options that cover the entire terminal. From Androidsis, we recommend investing a little more money in a quality case, a case that over time will not take any slack and will prevent our smartphone from being thrown out of the case before any fall. If we talk about screen saver, the thing is complicated.
And I say that it gets complicated because we currently have three options on the market: tempered glass protectors, hydrogel protectors or plastic protectors. Although initially they are all screen savers, They offer us different characteristics and levels of protection.
Why do I need to protect my smartphone screen?
Every time a manufacturer launches a new smartphone on the market, it talks about the benefits of the screen, one of the most important points for users along with the quality of the camera. It also informs us about the screen protection layer, be it Gorilla Glass or Dragontrail mainly.
The problem is that as much as manufacturers praise the evolution of this technology, the smartphone screen always ends up getting scratched, to a greater or lesser extent, especially if you keep your smartphone in the same pocket as the keys or if you don't take special care with it.
The most used in most smartphones is Gorilla Glass. The glass used in smartphone screens is treated with a chemical that is responsible for improve glass hardness, making it more resistant to falls and scratches as well as preventing bacteria from growing on its surface.
Dragontrail, manufactured by the Japanese company AGG Inc, has shown that little or nothing has to envy the layer of protection offered by Gorilla Glass. Both technologies offer practically the same level of protection, so the technology used by our manufacturer does not really matter, since due to its fragility, we will always end up with a screen protector.
Some manufacturer like Apple and Samsung, use sapphire to protect camera lenses, the second strongest material on the planet behind diamond. The problem is that this material is very expensive, so it is not economically profitable to use it to protect the screen of the device.
This material commonly used in watches high-end to protect them from any blow or friction that they may receive during the day to day. Although it is true that the sapphire used is not natural, but has been manufactured artificially (a very expensive and laborious process), it offers us a much higher resistance to bumps and scratches than what we can find in any layer of glass protected by Gorilla Glass or Dragontrail.
Once we are clear that Gorilla Glass protection like Dragontail the device does not protect us against any fall or scratch, we must know what the most used screen protectors on the market offer us.
Tempered glass protector function
The main function of tempered glass protectors is protect the screen from scratches. While it is true that it can also protect us against an accidental fall of our terminal, if it does not cover the entire screen, it will not serve absolutely anything, since it will always hit the area where it is not protective (Murphy's Law).
Depending on the height and where the screen is hit, being a hard material, it can transfer the impact of the blow to the screen and it ends up breaking, as if we were not using any protector.
Another negative point is that this type of protectors they do not cover the entire screen at all, always leaving the edges of the device without any type of protection beyond what the manufacturer itself can offer us.
Hydrogel protector function
As we can well deduce from its name, the hydrogel screen protector is made of silicone, absorbs shock without transferring them to the screen of the device, as if it happens with a tempered glass.
This type of protector, being malleable, allows to protect the entire size of the screen during its installation. This kind of glass not recommended to avoid scratches, since in the event of any aggression to the surface, it can become deeply marked and, over time, begin to peel off.
The installation of this type of protectors it is a laborious process, so it is advisable to be patient when installing it and follow all the steps if we do not want it to start to detach itself from the screen at the first change.
If you have a smartphone with fingerprint sensor under the screen, this type of protector will offer us better reading speed results than if we use a glass protector.
If we do not just like this type of protector, we can use a glass one but always looking for the one that less thickness offer us so that the east does not interfere with the fingerprint recognition process. The problem is that the lower the thickness of the glass, the protection will be less against any scratches.
Function of the plastic protector
Being plastic, we cannot expect much of this material to protect the screen, beyond avoid scratching with any blunt object let him walk near the screen.
While is true that they are the cheapest, It is not really worth investing money in them, since over time, it ends up detaching from the screen and does not offer us the necessary protection to keep our smartphone as the first day.
Before any fall, a plastic protector is the only thing that will avoid is that we have to collect the remains of the screen glass that have come loose when breaking. As you can see, it does not make any sense to use this type of protector, despite how cheap they may be.