After searching for an easy-to-apply screen protector that didn’t peel up or bubble around the edges, I went with the Tech Armor Ballistic Glass. After a couple months of use, I feel like I can write a tempered glass screen protector review that’s honest, fair, and rooted in actual experience. Here’s the actual screen protector I purchased: Tech Armor Apple iPhone 7 Plus (5.5-inch) Ballistic Glass Screen Protector [2-Pack] for Apple iPhone 7 Plus.
Easy to apply
A tempered glass screen protector review wouldn’t be complete without an assessment of how easy it was to install on the phone. Up until my last phone, I had been using the old plastic film screen protectors. The old kind were always hard to apply because you almost had to be in dust-free laboratory clean room to get them to stick without bubbles. On the other hand, tempered glass screen protectors are much easier to install. For whatever reason, you can still get a few tiny bits of dust under the protector and it will still glue itself around the dust. It’s like the sticky side is absorbing the dust somehow. Regardless, the benefit here is that they go on without much sensitivity to dust and the bubbles are easy to push out.
Not quite out to the edges
This screen protector is smaller than the glass on the iPhone. This is by design, because the iPhone glass surface is curved at the edges. And since tempered glass doesn’t stretch really well, they have to make it a little smaller so that the entire screen protector is sitting on a totally flat surface. That prevents little bubbles or delamination from occurring at around the perimeter of the screen protector.
Looks great
I catch myself sometimes just zoning out looking at the prismatic effect around the edges of the screen protector. The Tech Armor screen protectors are crystal clear. They’re super shiny, which is kind of a pain around direct sunlight, or when you’re checking a text in the car and shine a solar reflection into your wife’s eyes while she’s driving. My preference is still the shiny (versus matte/no-glare) just because it looks so much nicer.
Protects well
The tempered glass surface is incredibly hard. I’ve yet to put a scratch in one. I did manage to chip one corner (perhaps half of a millimeter in diameter), but I barely notice it. That’s why I got the screen protector, to prevent chips like that from occurring on the iPhone itself.
Summary of my tempered glass screen protector review:
- I’m happy with the Tech Armor Ballistic Glass Screen Protector
- This product is incredibly easy to install
- It looks great
- Keeps my iPhone’s screen intact and unscratched.