Review: Power Support Crystal Film Set

I’ve had a number of generations of the iPhone over the past few years (I know, I’m very lucky), and each time I buy a new one my main concern is keeping it in perfect condition so that I can enjoy the screen and that retina display for as long as possible. I know many people who think screen protectors ruin the display on devices like iPhones, but every day life for me offers great risks of nasty scratches, even with me being as careful as I can possibly be. So I always get a screen protector so that I can stop worrying and just use my phone for everything I bought it for.

MobileFun sent me the Power Support Crystal Film Set to try on my iPhone 5. They didn’t know when they sent it that I am already a fan of Power Support and their screen protectors – I have used them on all my iPhones up until now and had been on the look out for the iPhone 5 version but hadn’t spotted it anywhere yet. I had actually purchased a different screen protector a couple of weeks before receiving this one, concentrated really hard to fit it perfectly, failed despite following the instructions to the letter, ruined it, got upset and chucked it in the bin. I can’t even remember what make it was now. But when this film set arrived I beamed, knowing that I would be able to tell you all what a happy blogger I was as a result.

I mentioned I hadn’t seen this product stocked anywhere. The packaging here might give you a clue… this has been imported – apart from the title everything else is in Japanese. Which if this is your first Power Support Crystal Film Set would be a problem (the picture based instructions are not particularly clear at all), but as I have installed (stuck on) several of these on mine and LincsGeeks phones in the past, I knew what I was doing.

In the package you get two screen protectors for the front of the iPhone 5, a sticky sleeve that cleans off dust and prints, a little cloth and the instruction card. Let me put the instructions here in case you get a Japanese one too… (these instructions worked for me anyway!).

1) Clean your iPhone screen. I use a teeny bit of windowlene on a cloth for this, it gets rid of everything including any grease which might otherwise be visible underneath the screen protector.

2) Stick the white sheet to your phone – the backing is in two halves to make this easy, simply remove one half of it and start sticking the sheet on the phone before removing the other half off the backing.  Smooth this over using the cloth.

3) Get the screen protector ready. Have it the right way around etc. Once you are ready, remove the cleaning sheet from the phone carefully from one end and put those two halves of the backing paper back on it (you can use this again).

4) Pull the backing off the screen protector just a little bit and begin sticking it to the phone. It is fairly rigid so it doesn’t flop about everywhere (unlike the other brand one I’d tried and failed with which wafted with the slightest intake of breath) and you can offer it up, getting it lined up with the top of the phone before putting it on. Gradually pull off the backing (which is between the protector and the phone), allowing the screen film to cling to your screen. You will almost certainly have a few bubbles which you can smooth out using that cloth, wipe with a good amount of pressure pushing the bubble to the edge.

5) If you spot a speck of dust, use a bit of sticky tape to pull the protector up from one corner, and another piece of sticky tape to remove the offending item. It is possible to completely remove the protector and reapply it if you’re not happy with the alignment, thankfully it doesn’t ruin if you take it off.

I have to say I thought I was happy with the alignment of mine (above) until the day after when the slight wonky-ness just got too me too much so I used tape to pull the protector off and did it again, much better this time. And I can be sure now that this film will not come off unless I want it to.

I am really pleased with the results, as I anticipated. I can now use my phone all the time without worrying about any damage to the lovely display – and because the protector is completely clear and not textured in anyway (anti glare protectors have a texture to them so they stop the reflections, which unfortunately means the display becomes less clear), my display is not compromised. The touch screen is not affected either, it still works perfectly well. Oh and if for some reason I manage to ruin this protector I have another one in the drawer to replace it with – with my iPhone 4 one I replaced it after about 18 months just to give my phone a clean look again.

So thanks very much MobileFun, you have made me a very happy blogger.

You can see a wide range of iPhone 5 cases at Mobile Fun – they’ve got the Power Support Crystal Film Set for £17.95 at the moment, money well spent in my opinion.