Poll: Are screen protectors still necessary?
In the seven years that I’ve been a smartphone enthusiast, I’ve gone through countless phones and tablets. The only one that I managed to screen, however, was a Samsung Fascinate (it’s a long story involving mountain biking), while some others received light scratching on their glass. Other devices, like my original HTC EVO 4G, withstood a lot of abuse and the screen never looked worse for it. But anyway, with hardened glass technologies like Gorilla Glass becoming stronger and more widespread, I continually get the feeling that I shouldn’t have to worry about scratching my precious smartphone’s display any longer.
However, ever since I broke that Fascinate, I haven’t been able to give up putting screen protectors on all my new gadgets the first day I get them. I use the wet application, self-healing rubber like protectors, and have a preferred manufacturer to buy from that includes lifetime replacements. So far, I’ve been fairly happy with the setup. Still, when I get review units in, and the display stands up perfectly well to intentional scratches with a car key, I have to think that I may be a little bit crazy. Then again, both my Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7 began to get hairline scratches on the display when I tried to go without a screen protector, which quickly caused me to get two day shipping on new screen protectors for the devices from Amazon.
These experiences brought to mind a simple question I’d like to pose to our readers here: With current glass technology, do you still use screen protectors on your personal devices, or do you find them to be a waste of money? I’m currently in the camp that still uses them as more of a precaution than anything, thanks to the broken Fascinate and a few near misses with other devices. Speaking of which, if you have any interesting stories of how a screen protector saved your device, did you no good, or any near-disaster story, fell free to share it in the comments along with the reason for your choice in the poll.
