I don't want to get into the debate between whether a screen protector is worth it or not on a gorilla glass screen. Personally, I wanted some extra protection, and was fine with the loss of some visual quality for a more matte appearance. For this reason, and because of some pretty decent reviews, I chose to go with the Clarivue Anti-Glare protector. I'm writing this review because unfortunately, the visual qualities of the protector exaggerate an aspect of the Super AMOLED screen to an almost unbearable degree.
Before I get to that part, I just wanted to talk about installation and screen quality. At this, the clarivue is pretty great. You get two pre-cut screens, both cut just slightly smaller than the actual screen (by 1-2 mm per side), and with a cutout for the proximity and light sensors and front camera. The plastic is stiff, and strong, and installation was a relative breeze (I screwed up the first installation, but that's probably an indictment of me and not the protector). No bubbles whatsoever. The feel of the screen protector is great, a smooth, non-tacky, surface with just a bit of texture.
Unfortunately, the build quality of the protector just can't overcome the screen's optical qualities. The clarivue exemplifies the "rainbow speckles" problems with many anti-glare screens. Lighter colors, in particular white, look like fields of rainbow dots. Given that the Super AMOLED screen (with it's pentile matrix) already has a bit more grittiness than most LCD screens (something that can easily be ignored after a bit of adjustment), this "field of speckles" effect worsens this quality to an unbearable degree. It makes smaller text, especially black-on-white text almost unreadable, which is an absolute sin in any screen protector.
This may not be a huge problem on other non-amoled, non-pentile screens, but I wanted to warn Epic users (and probably Galaxy S users in general) that this may be a huge problem for them and to possibly stay clear for now. Of course, your mileage may vary, and if you don't get bothered by the rainbow speckles it may not be an issue for you (the anti-glare qualities of the screen are great btw, but nothing overcomes the speckle problem).
I still want a anti-glare screen protector for my Epic, I do believe that a few bucks of protection is worth it to protect my screen from the possibility of scratches. However, I need to find an anti-glare protector that doesn't have this rainbow speckle effect. I hear good things about Steinheil's anti-fingerprint line, but they don't have an Epic protector out yet.
Hope this helps, does anybody have any other suggestions?
Before I get to that part, I just wanted to talk about installation and screen quality. At this, the clarivue is pretty great. You get two pre-cut screens, both cut just slightly smaller than the actual screen (by 1-2 mm per side), and with a cutout for the proximity and light sensors and front camera. The plastic is stiff, and strong, and installation was a relative breeze (I screwed up the first installation, but that's probably an indictment of me and not the protector). No bubbles whatsoever. The feel of the screen protector is great, a smooth, non-tacky, surface with just a bit of texture.
Unfortunately, the build quality of the protector just can't overcome the screen's optical qualities. The clarivue exemplifies the "rainbow speckles" problems with many anti-glare screens. Lighter colors, in particular white, look like fields of rainbow dots. Given that the Super AMOLED screen (with it's pentile matrix) already has a bit more grittiness than most LCD screens (something that can easily be ignored after a bit of adjustment), this "field of speckles" effect worsens this quality to an unbearable degree. It makes smaller text, especially black-on-white text almost unreadable, which is an absolute sin in any screen protector.
This may not be a huge problem on other non-amoled, non-pentile screens, but I wanted to warn Epic users (and probably Galaxy S users in general) that this may be a huge problem for them and to possibly stay clear for now. Of course, your mileage may vary, and if you don't get bothered by the rainbow speckles it may not be an issue for you (the anti-glare qualities of the screen are great btw, but nothing overcomes the speckle problem).
I still want a anti-glare screen protector for my Epic, I do believe that a few bucks of protection is worth it to protect my screen from the possibility of scratches. However, I need to find an anti-glare protector that doesn't have this rainbow speckle effect. I hear good things about Steinheil's anti-fingerprint line, but they don't have an Epic protector out yet.
Hope this helps, does anybody have any other suggestions?
