One of my pet hates is fitting screen protectors to phones/tablets! Firstly they never seem to fit perfectly and if they do I'm guaranteed to get those annoying bubbles/dust particles under the surface - which are sometimes a pain to get rid of! Plus even if I do remove the bubbles, a lot of the cheaper screen protectors tend to get scratched in the process!
All of the above leaves the phone looking less aesthetically pleasing, but you could argue at least it’s protected! However why should you have to comprise on the phones visual quality?
This is the ethos that Expert Shield believes in and when they approached me to review their screen protector for the Samsung Galaxy S5 I have to admit that at first I was a little sceptical of their claim of 'No Air Bubbles'.
They guarantee the following…..
- Lasts longer than any other screen protector - Guaranteed!
- Pre-cut to the exact dimensions of your screen
- No Air Bubbles
- No messy glue, no nasty residue
- Straightforward installation
- Works perfectly with touch screens
- Completely washable and reusable
The above is possibly why they charge £8 for their screen protectors. However I did ring up the company to ask about the Bubble free claims; because in my mind this meant that you would never get any bubbles at all. However they explained that Bubble free is only if your screen does not get any dust particles under the screen during the applying process. Of course unless you are in a factory sealed environment this is nearly impossible to avoid in your own home (though the instructions at the back do give you some pretty good advice on how to avoid them).
However the chaps at Expert Shield gave me some great tips in how to sort out the annoying dust particles if you do get them; which I have l shared in the video - you can find this at the base of the post.
Testing & Setup
Note: I recorded the real-time fitting of the screen protector in the aforementioned video.
In the pack you get a small cloth, which you can use to remove any grease or dust from the front of your phones screen.
Once this was done all I needed to do was follow the label instructions on the screen protector itself - which tells you the order in which to peel off the outer layers.
Bearing in mind I was behind a camera at the time, I still found that the screen protector was not that difficult to fit and all of the Samsung S5’s vital sensors, Home button, and cut-outs were still accessible i.e. they were not covered.
Bubble or not to Bubble that is the question!
When I stuck the first layer down there did seem to be bubbles appearing on the surface, but thankfully most of these disappeared when I removed the second layer - thus I was nearly left with a bubble free phone.
However it was still not perfect, but compared to some of the protectors I've installed in the past it was pretty darn good! Especially as most of the bubbles did melt away once I used the supplied cloth to push them to the edges.
Unfortunately a few of the bubbles were caused by small dust particles that had crept under the surface.
Though as mentioned earlier the packaging does provide instructions on how to remove these dust particles properly. But essentially according to Expert Shield you use a piece of Sellotape to peel back the screen protector (using your finger is a bad idea as this can make matters worse) and then you get another piece of tape and place this on the end of your finger and dab the dust particle(s) away! We showcased this tip in the video to give you a visual idea.
Washing the screen protector
The screen protector can be washed, but this is something that I have never had work properly, mainly because the water tends to leave marks on the screen protector afterwards. However the chaps gave me another tip here and that is to use bottled water to clean the screen protector; apparently this does not leave the same water marks.
Quality & Functionality of the phone
When it came to the visual quality I found that there didn't seem to be any noticeable impact on the S5's screen vibrancy once the protector was added. Screen swipes, taps and touch sensitivity on the whole felt just as responsive. However swiping from the top - to reveal the notification bar - did result in my finger catching the edge of the protector slightly, but this is a small compromise over the added protection.
Scratch Proof?
The protector is guaranteed to be scratch proof. While this sounds daft - given that a screen protector is designed to soak up any damage to the main screen - you still don’t want loads of scratches on the surface as they will dampen the touch sensitivity and visual appeal of your phone.
For testing the scratch proof resistance I literally ran a set of keys, a 50p coin and a knife (with a saturated edge) over the surface of the protector! You can see this in action in the video.
I admit there were a few faint hair-line scratches caused by the knife, but given that I was rubbing and scratching with a blade (using at times some pretty moderate pressure), the screen protector held up pretty well and the marks were only visible at certain angles when the light catches them. On the whole though the visual quality was not impacted at all!
Summary
As with most screen protectors I have fitted in the past you do need to ensure that the screens surface is dust free and clean to start with, but thanks to Expert Shields advice (via the instructions and over the phone), the bubbles/dust particles that did collect were soon removed and I was left with a bubble free screen.
Granted there were a few faint scratches left once I completed my tests, but these were only visible in certain light conditions and I was testing the screen with a knife, a coin and keys! On the whole the scratch proof works effectively and there was hardly any impact on screen functionality either (with the exception of the top notification bar).
For me the £8 is money well spent, not just because of the added protection, but because of the company. I found they were extremely helpful and more importantly were polite on the phone when I contacted them.
