You have a gorgeous new phone with a perfect crystal clear screen. The last thing you want is any of those tiny little scratches fuzzing up your HD viewing area. But even the most careful person in the world finds it impossible to keep a screen totally scratch free. You only have to push it into your jeans pocket a couple of times for whispers of imperfection glint in the light – no-one else notices but you know your expensive gadget is no longer perfect. And if you manage to get your phone in the same bag pocket as your keys, well you’ve got a really grazed view then.
I therefore choose to protect my phone screen with an additional layer. I remember covering my borrowed-from-school text books with sticky back plastic – well my Dad did it for me anyway. We were made do it, it even went in our homework diary. One year I chose to use brown parcel paper for them all instead, I rather liked it; they had a utilitarian look to them and all matched. Brown paper would be pointless on my iPhone, though, so naturally I choose one of the many screen protectors on the market.
RhinoShield is one such screen protector. Available for a range of phones and tablets, it actually claims to be rather special. Evolution Labs state that a RhinoShield screen protector will absorb five times more impact energy than normal screen protectors. That’s quite a claim. It means that if I drop my phone on the floor, RhinoShield will protect it much better than the screen protector I had on it before. Without finding a willing volunteer to lend me their phone and comparing it directly I really don’t know how to tell you whether that claim is true or not. There are lots of videos about, like this one as an example:
I can certainly say it was easy to fit. It’s actually quite a solid thing, rigid, which makes applying it to your phone screen quite easy. It’s also not actually sticky so you can take it off and re-apply it if you get the alignment wrong or just want your phone without (although be very careful how you store it). I absolutely can’t stand those flimsy sticky-back-plastic style screen protectors as they are too floppy to fit properly and once they are stuck you simply can’t get them off again. The cut is very good, too. I do think it is quite thick, though, much thicker than my usual choice.
The view through a RhinoShield protector is pretty much perfect and it is very easy to clean inevitable fingerprints from its surface. The specification does say that the material used to make the protector will stop fingerprints from sticking, but to be honest mine still gets prints all over it, although it is very easy to clean with a quick wipe. The touch screen responsiveness wasn’t affected.
To be completely honest, despite this being a nice product with a high spec, at the moment I think I still prefer my Power Support Crystal Film Set. That is thinner, as easy to fit, a few quid cheaper, and I know it works – I’ve been using the product for years (and have dropped my phone without damaging it), and treat myself to a new one just about once a year to give my phone screen a bit of a refresh. This RhinoShield may well protect better should I drop something on my phone, but I’m afraid I’m not willing to try that one out on purpose!
If you’re looking for a decent and clear screen protector then this is definitely one to add into the mix. Find out more on the RhinoShield website or follow them on twitter.