April 3, 2010

Although I never went without a screen protector on my Treos or Centro, I have become disillusioned with my favorite Invisible Shield screen protector, and its wet application. When I first got my iPhone 3G, I was given an Invisible Shield for it. (Thanks Michael!) It seemed thick and lumpy. I couldn’t get near enough of the air bubbles out, I was desperately afraid that I was going to ruin the iPhone with the sudsy solution, and the screen just never felt the same once it was on.

Before you feel I’m bashing Zagg, I want to point out that they have the best customer service of any company ever. When there appeared to be a problem with their ZaggSparq, they quickly contacted every customer and offered to replace them with a new unit once it was available. No questions asked. And the Invisible Shield has a lifetime warranty.

Part of the problem lies in applying a screen protector. For me, part of the difficulty lies in trying to place something that is … well … clear. But more of my thoughts on that later. Georgia from TiPb, did a great video showing how to install a screen protector. She made it look so simple, that after watching it, I was brave enough to try it with a generic screen protector I had sitting around the house. It worked reasonably well for me. But that method just wouldn’t work with a screen protector that goes on wet.

Then one day on Twitter I saw a comment about Wrapsol Ultra and a new dry application shield that was supposed to make your iPhone virtually indestructible. I still don’t grok how any material adhering to the outside of your device could save it from being dropped on a hard or jagged surface, and this is one experiment I don’t intend to try. But I was curious. A strong skin that doesn’t require a soapy, sudsy mess? So I reached out to Wrapsol, and they sent me one to try.

The Wrapsol Ultra kit comes with the front and back screen protectors, a reusable cleaning cloth, and a soft squeegee to get the air bubbles out during application. If the film is indestructible, I’m not quite sure why we need a soft squeegee, but it was more reassuring to use than a hard piece of plastic. You will definitely want to hold onto that reusable cleaning cloth, because the Wrapsol film seems to attract dust and hair like a magnet.

The simple instructions that come with the Wrapsol film kit tell you to 1) clean your device, 2) keep your fingertips wet to avoid fingerprints, 3) peel and separate the film, 4) align and tack, 5) hold and squeegee, and 6) press tabs (for the back only). So with wetted fingertips, I followed Georgia’s tips for applying a screen protector.

This went fairly easily, and when done I had only a few small air bubbles at the bottom. I was able to lift the bottom and squeegee again, and got almost all of the bubbles out. What you see above is all that was left by day two – two almost imperceptible bubbles, one at the very bottom beneath the Home button, and one slightly to the left of that.

I’ve now used my iPhone with the Wrapsol on for a few days, and it doesn’t change the feel at all. I still have a nice smooth experience. Touch is still light and receptive. There’s no glare, and I’m very happy with the results.

The back is another issue altogether, and I’m going to blame some of this on operator error. I’d like to make a suggestion to anyone manufacturing/designing screen protectors – come up with some kind of alignment system. It’s relatively easy for the front of the iPhone because the top and bottom are both straight edges. But the back is curved, and when you’re working with aligning around the camera cutout, perspective can easily become skewed. A peelable top layer would make it so much easier, especially for an iPhone with all that stuff on the back. If I could align my film to the Apple, or the text at the bottom, I could lay the film down straight the first time.

Enough of my whining. Here you can see the result of my inability to align the film on the back. I started at the top, centering the cutout around the camera, and thought I had it straight at the top. But by the time I had it squeegeed down to the bottom, I could see that it was totally cattywhompus, with so much film on the right it could have wrapped onto the front, but leaving the left totally exposed. I started to pull back up, and too late realized the finger I’d used had gone dry leaving a permanent fingerprint.

I quickly wet my fingers down again (holy moly, how did I leave the dry application?!), and gently started peeling up the back. I squeegeed and peeled twice before I had it laid down squarely. Unfortunately, this left me with a number of ugly air bubbles. Despite what you see in these photos, I actually got many of them out! The only one that really bothers me is that huge one directly above the Apple logo.

Again, I blame a lot of this on my poor eyesight and ability to align a clear film. Maybe I should give up on applying shields to the back of my iPhone and stick with cases. Of course, once you have applied Wrapsol to the back of your device, using a case is out of the question. None of the many cases I own will fit over the protective film. Providing this film really protects as well as a case, it’s a small price to pay, and I’d certainly rather see my iPhone than any case. Wrapsol’s webpage says “so strong – it helps protect even from drop damage.” On the few occasions I’ve dropped my iPhone in a case, the case has fallen off…so this could be a plus right there.

For $29.95 and a lifetime warranty I might be inclined to try the back again. Definitely something for you to consider.

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