Is a screen protector useful on a Gorilla Glass phone?


Question

I bought a 2nd generation Moto E phone. According to this page at GSMArena.com, this phone has a "Corning Gorilla Glass 3, oleophobic coating" screen.



I have seen many on-line shops selling "tempered glass screen protectors", a layer of plastic one can buy to put over the screen. I found this useful with some older devices I had, where the screen could easily become dirty and scratched. I am mostly concerned about being able to easily clean away fingerprints and to avoid having scratches caused by fingernails or creating worn out areas of the screen, due to frequent use.



Is such a screen protector at all useful on a Gorilla Glass screen?


Answer

Responding to this specific part of the question: "scratches caused by fingernails or creating worn out areas of the screen, due to frequent use." Although many things can and will degrade the coating (oleophobic or other), the gorilla glass itself will not be scratched by fingernails. It won't even be scratched by car keys in the same pocket. In normal use, the most common thing that scratches mobile phone glass is sand or some types of grit. Whether on the beach, in the car or in your pocket, your phone will meet some of this stuff - it's everywhere. If you know you've got some, make sure the phone is dry and blow it out of any crevice with air. Under no circumstances wipe the glass if there are any particles of sand or grit on it.



As for protectors, one problem is that they use a small amount of adhesive which, either on application or in use, can attract particles which will degrade the glass. The real question is whether you are prepared to accept what will often be a major deterioration in tactile response when you swype or slide your finger on the surface compared to the minimal protection offered by many protectors. Some users don't find the protector reduces the performance. Some find the protector so diminishes use of a light touch that they simply won't consider them. I can't quote accurate statistics, but in my own experience, users who can't use protectors at all tend to be ones that either use a very light touch or have to press hard on the glass in the first place to get a response. Others I know that refuse to use protectors tend to be swipers rather than tappers. Not a scientific survey and highly subjective, but it gives you an idea that you may not get on with a protector.


Topics


2D Engines   3D Engines   9-Patch   Action Bars   Activities   ADB   Advertisements   Analytics   Animations   ANR   AOP   API   APK   APT   Architecture   Audio   Autocomplete   Background Processing   Backward Compatibility   Badges   Bar Codes   Benchmarking   Bitmaps   Bluetooth   Blur Effects   Bread Crumbs   BRMS   Browser Extensions   Build Systems   Bundles   Buttons   Caching   Camera   Canvas   Cards   Carousels   Changelog   Checkboxes   Cloud Storages   Color Analysis   Color Pickers   Colors   Comet/Push   Compass Sensors   Conferences   Content Providers   Continuous Integration   Crash Reports   Credit Cards   Credits   CSV   Curl/Flip   Data Binding   Data Generators   Data Structures   Database   Database Browsers   Date &   Debugging   Decompilers   Deep Links   Dependency Injections   Design   Design Patterns   Dex   Dialogs   Distributed Computing   Distribution Platforms   Download Managers   Drawables   Emoji   Emulators   EPUB   Equalizers &   Event Buses   Exception Handling   Face Recognition   Feedback &   File System   File/Directory   Fingerprint   Floating Action   Fonts   Forms   Fragments   FRP   FSM   Functional Programming   Gamepads   Games   Geocaching   Gestures   GIF   Glow Pad   Gradle Plugins   Graphics   Grid Views   Highlighting   HTML   HTTP Mocking   Icons   IDE   IDE Plugins   Image Croppers   Image Loaders   Image Pickers   Image Processing   Image Views   Instrumentation   Intents   Job Schedulers   JSON   Keyboard   Kotlin   Layouts   Library Demos   List View   List Views   Localization   Location   Lock Patterns   Logcat   Logging   Mails   Maps   Markdown   Mathematics   Maven Plugins   MBaaS   Media   Menus   Messaging   MIME   Mobile Web   Native Image   Navigation   NDK   Networking   NFC   NoSQL   Number Pickers   OAuth   Object Mocking   OCR Engines   OpenGL   ORM   Other Pickers   Parallax List   Parcelables   Particle Systems   Password Inputs   PDF   Permissions   Physics Engines   Platforms   Plugin Frameworks   Preferences   Progress Indicators   ProGuard   Properties   Protocol Buffer   Pull To   Purchases   Push/Pull   QR Codes   Quick Return   Radio Buttons   Range Bars   Ratings   Recycler Views   Resources   REST   Ripple Effects   RSS   Screenshots   Scripting   Scroll Views   SDK   Search Inputs   Security   Sensors   Services   Showcase Views   Signatures   Sliding Panels   Snackbars   SOAP   Social Networks   Spannable   Spinners   Splash Screens   SSH   Static Analysis   Status Bars   Styling   SVG   System   Tags   Task Managers   TDD &   Template Engines   Testing   Testing Tools   Text Formatting   Text Views   Text Watchers   Text-to   Toasts   Toolkits For   Tools   Tooltips   Trainings   TV   Twitter   Updaters   USB   User Stories   Utils   Validation   Video   View Adapters   View Pagers   Views   Watch Face   Wearable Data   Wearables   Weather   Web Tools   Web Views   WebRTC   WebSockets   Wheel Widgets   Wi-Fi   Widgets   Windows   Wizards   XML   XMPP   YAML   ZIP Codes