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Help Evo 3d Screen = Not Scratch Proof

I decided to use the phone for a few days without a screen protector, because a few a my friends claim that these screens are very hard to scratch. I was extremely gentle with the phone and 2 days later a had a few scratches on the screen. Luckily they are what I would call "micro scratches" and are barely noticeable. But just so you guys know, it is very easy to scratch the screen on the EVO 3D.
 
After my replacement 3DVO, I used it for about a week without a screen protector... And wouldn't you know, it happened to be the fourth of July weekend. So while filming some fireworks I burned for the kids, a couple of sparks hit the screen, which ended up burning two pinhead sized areas on the screen. The most visible one burned through pretty deep... Needless to say, I bought a ZAG protector the next day.
 
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I don't know what all the love for gorilla glass is all about, personally I could care less if the 3vo does or doesn't come with it. Saying a phone has gorilla glass only gives the person a false sense of security. Typically with regular use it is pretty difficult to scratch your screen with regular items like keys or coins or what not but if you come across a few grains of sand(which could be anywhere and not just at the beach, LOL) then I don't care what kind of glass you got, its gonna get scratched. Or if you are in a construction type area where there may be a lot of random abrasive materials then it will probably get scratched as well. So if you are the type of person who is somewhat anal about scratches on the screen, by all means get a screen protector before you rely on gorilla glass. Now me personally, I don't like screen protectors because none of them feel right when I use them, I would rather feel the glass screen against my finger versus plastic. Besides there are products you can buy that can remove those very fine scratches.
 
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I don't know what all the love for gorilla glass is all about, personally I could care less if the 3vo does or doesn't come with it. Saying a phone has gorilla glass only gives the person a false sense of security. Typically with regular use it is pretty difficult to scratch your screen with regular items like keys or coins or what not but if you come across a few grains of sand(which could be anywhere and not just at the beach, LOL) then I don't care what kind of glass you got, its gonna get scratched. Or if you are in a construction type area where there may be a lot of random abrasive materials then it will probably get scratched as well. So if you are the type of person who is somewhat anal about scratches on the screen, by all means get a screen protector before you rely on gorilla glass. Now me personally, I don't like screen protectors because none of them feel right when I use them, I would rather feel the glass screen against my finger versus plastic. Besides there are products you can buy that can remove those very fine scratches.


What would be the names of these products?
 
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As much as I love the concept of Gorilla Glass, I have always put a screen protector on my handsets regardless of whether or not it had it. I discovered that my Sprint HTC Hero has Gorilla Glass only a few months ago, probably because it was never widely advertised as having it, but it has always been rocking a screen protector and it is in pristine condition because of it. :)

Finally, themuffinman75 is right in that grains of sand will eventually scratch your screen. Remember, sand is the building block of glass itself, so it can cause damage to glass. ;)
 
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After my replacement 3DVO, I used it for about a week without a screen protector... And wouldn't you know, it happened to be the fourth of July weekend. So while filming some fireworks I burned for the kids, a couple of sparks hit the screen, which ended up burning two pinhead sized areas on the screen. The most visible one burned through pretty deep... Needless to say, I bought a ZAG protector the next day.


anything that can burn through glass... like as you described...
no protector can help you!

and that sound extremely dangerous... i am surprised you dont have burn holes in you.
 
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anything that can burn through glass... like as you described...
no protector can help you!

and that sound extremely dangerous... i am surprised you dont have burn holes in you.

What I didn't realize, is that the EVO 3D glass is plastic. Afer it burned, there was some resudue burned into the surrounding area of the screen. I thought that maybe I could scrape it off with my fingernail but it wouldn't budge. So I used a razor to scrape it off and smoothen out the screen. Otherwise, putting a screen protector on would have been absolutely pointless.

The fireworks I shot off at the time was that cone dealy, that shoots sparks up in the air about 5 feet. I basically did a up close walk-around looking down upon it to give the illusion that the sparks were coming at you, and at some point the wind/sparks must have shifted and a couple of small chemical cinders popped onto my finger and the screen of the device. Despite the minor sting it gave me, I kept shooting... It wasn't until after I finished shooting that I realized the screen was damaged.

It should be up on Youtube3D under "Fireworks in 3D"
 
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What would be the names of these products?


I guess I will have to google it to see if I can find the specific product. Years ago when the first iphone came out my youngest sister went and bought one, about two weeks later she noticed that there were some very fine scratches on the screen and needles to say it was getting on her nerves. Anyway, one of her friends who worked at a car dealership had some kind of glass polish that he said might work. So she was like what the hell, so we gave it a shot and sure nuff it took the scratches right out the screen. Again, keep in mind that these were very fine scratches where you could see it but you couldn't actually feel it with you fingernails, anything worse than that and it probably would not have worked.
 
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What I didn't realize, is that the EVO 3D glass is plastic. Afer it burned, there was some resudue burned into the surrounding area of the screen. I thought that maybe I could scrape it off with my fingernail but it wouldn't budge. So I used a razor to scrape it off and smoothen out the screen. Otherwise, putting a screen protector on would have been absolutely pointless.

The fireworks I shot off at the time was that cone dealy, that shoots sparks up in the air about 5 feet. I basically did a up close walk-around looking down upon it to give the illusion that the sparks were coming at you, and at some point the wind/sparks must have shifted and a couple of small chemical cinders popped onto my finger and the screen of the device. Despite the minor sting it gave me, I kept shooting... It wasn't until after I finished shooting that I realized the screen was damaged.

It should be up on Youtube3D under "Fireworks in 3D"

Is this your 3D YouTube video? I have posted it below and it looks really cool.

‪Fireworks in 3D‬‏ - YouTube

By the way, there is no way that the Sprint HTC EVO 3D has a plastic screen. Those sparks burn really intensely and I have no doubt that they could melt glass or at least leave burned on residue.
 
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I posted this up before, but I guess it gets buried so people don't get the opportunity to see it. Cliff notes? Glass can be scratched. Go without a screen protector at your own risk.

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-3d/349849-lets-talk-cases-htc-evo-3d-2.html#post2796230

1) Why you'd want to consider a screen protector (or the risks of going bare):

It's fairly well known that the Evo 3D will be using Corning Gorilla Glass, and I'm sure many of you have seen videos where people have hammered away at Gorilla Glass screens with pens and rubbed all manner of keys, razor blades, etc. against them. But, the videos are worthless.

Gorilla Glass is great and is an improvement over other glass, tempered or otherwise in terms of strength and scratch resistance, but it is not the be-all end-all to scratch problems and many, many, many Gorilla Glass devices have been known to be scratched.

Why?

If you recall from grade school Earth Science, glass is known to have a hardness of anywhere from ~5.5-7ish on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness (which is a scratch test ranking of minerals). Let's assume that Gorilla Glass, because of its improved temper process, is at the far end of that scale -- 7 to 7.5. This means that Gorilla Glass will be scratch proof to most soft metals (iron, copper, nickel, lead, gold, and most types of unhardened steel), plastic, and harsh language. So your keys, razor blades, and paper clips are likely not to scratch the screen.

This however does not comprise the entire universe of things that will come into contact with the screen. What commonly occurring substance will still scratch the screen with ease? SAND. Sand is made of small bits of silica minerals like quartz, and small grains of other hard minnerals, all of which with hardness of 7 and up. These will easily scratch the screen with the slightest bit of effort. Furthermore, it's not unusual for sand and other debris to be caught in the pockets of jeans during the stone washing process (I know I've had to wash jeans with the pockets inside out several times to rid some of them of all the grit and sand), and just stuffing a bare phone into a jeans pocket and subject it to scratching risk.

The videos are fairly silly because I'm fairly confident that with your average glass -- say a window pane, windshield, etc., these things would effectively resist scratching by keys, razor blades, plastic pens, etc. just as well as Gorilla Glass. (Also note that the impact part of it is silly -- how "hard" you try to scratch a surface really plays no role in whether you can or not). When our keys would scratch something, like our older ipods or older cell phones, it's because the screens they used were made of plastic, which is extremely soft -- maybe 3 or 4 at best on the Mohs scale.

Now that most if not all large touchscreen devices have switched to glass in general (the Palm Pre was the last major touchscreen device I know of to use plastic), there is already a significant improvement in scratch resistance, and Gorilla Glass adds a bit more.

Screen protectors are certainly a matter of personal preference, and with Gorilla Glass, we've come a far way in terms of scratch resistance -- enough such that I don't think it's reckless to go without a screen protector. However, it's a matter of managing risk, because there is still a risk your screen can get scratched. At least for me, I'd rather replace a screen protector than an entire screen or worse, live with an imperfection on the screen itself for the lifetime of the device.
 
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i takes a lot to melt glass.... those fireworks are not that hot...

it maybe that the firework material had attached itself to your glass screen.. then with a razorblade you were able to scrape off the burned up firework material.

your screen is still smooth and undamaged...

Indeed. That is why I said it might have left residue because it burned it a little. ;)

However, if you want to get into the science of it, the aluminum in fireworks can burn at up to 2700
 
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