2y ago

Where can I find the old school plastic phone screen protector material?

Remember back in the day when screen protectors were a dirt cheap plastic film and you could buy big sheets of it and custom cut it with scissors for your phone? Cost like 10 cents for a screen protector? Then came the bullet proof, space shuttle glass screen protectors for like $12 a pop? Turns out the expensive space age glass stuff breaks super easy. I want off this crazy ride. Anyone know where to get the old school JNCO wearin, NIN listenin screen protector material?

19 comments

Turns out the expensive space age glass stuff breaks super easy.
Sounds like you are really rough on your phone. The point of glass screen protectors is that it cracks instead of your phone's screen. The cheap plastic film isn't made to do that, just keep the glass from getting scratched.
- Like the crumple zone of a modern car. Looks worse but better to have the force absorbed by the protector than transferred to your phone itself.
- While that is true, the screen protectors are significantly less flexible than the glass screen.
  If you hold something even a little firmly against your phone, you will crack the glass screen protector. Your phones screen would not and does not crack.
  I’ve cracked quite a few screen protectors that way.
  The real answer is stop buying expensive ones. Buy the $9 for 3 from Amazon and replace every couple of months when they crack.
  The reason they crack is that screen protectors tout their scratch resistance, and hardness, which comes at the expense of flexibility. Being hard and being brittle tend to go hand in hand.
  I wouldn’t care if they scratched more and cracked less, I’m happy to spend $3 every 2-3 months either way.
  
  I bought an Ailun 2 pack of glass screen protectors May 2021 for $9 to put on my iPhone, which is in my pocket every day while I work around the farm. The first one I put on hasn't cracked yet.
- Only phone screen that ever broke on me was with a glass protector. My phones last years with the plastic ones. I'm not convinced the glass ones offer any benefit.
- No like they literally break on their own. Ive had multiple "glass" protectors just crack in my pocket or just by pressing too hard on it with my finger. Never using such screen protectors again, back to plastic/film like protectors for me.

TPU screen protector is what you want and need to search for. it won't be like a sheet you cut yourself it'll still be form fitting for your specific phone but they are cheaper (usually get a pack of 3 or 5) they are floppy and they tear when they wear out they don't crack. protected my phone for years now, unlike the hard glass ones, which always still broke the screen under after a bad drop in my experience.

Nowadays this type of film pretty much disappeared. Though cheap, application is very annoying and it scratches if an air molecule goes near it.
The modern equivalent is those laser machines that are all over shopping malls and phone repair shops. They use a new polymer sheet and the laser cuts it to the correct shape. These are also cheap, feel a bit better, and have an interesting property of slowly healing light scratches and molding to the screen so they can "kick out" bubbles.
Not nearly as cheap as the sheets you are mentioning, though. They're probably still sold in places like AliExpress if you look around.

You can still get plastic (non tempered glass) screen protectors
I prefer plastic matte screen protector over glossy and usually get ones from the company IQ shield

I hate the glass! They break so easily. I buy the plastic film ones on Amazon in 2 or 3 packs usually. I've never seen the sheets that you can cut. What's your phone?

If you hate glass protectors you can always use hydrogel ones. That's what I use on my phones and never had problems with them. The glass ones always breaks on me like a day or 2 after I install them and I don't even drop my phones that often, they just break from the lightest drops. So I swiched do hydrogel ones and I have the same protector since January and its still fine.
- 💀
  
  Specific screen protectors made from hydrogel so you should look for one for your phone. I like them because even if you got some light scratches they will heal themselves.

Maybe check here: McMaster-Carr Page:
https://www.mcmaster.com/protective-film I'm not sure what the exact material is but they probably have it. They have everything.

Buy protectors cheap on AliExpress? I get them at like $1 each for an iPhone. Even cheaper in bulk. Works flawless.

I can’t help you but you brought up memories of those plastic films! I remember having them with my handspring visor pda. Ha!

Maybe I'm ignorant but I've felt like phones haven't needed screen protectors for a while.. I've had a GS9 for years with no screen protector and I have a very very minor scratch that can only be seen with the screen off and that's it.
I've never shattered a phone screen before, am I just an outlier?
- Same

JNCO wearin
What is this a screen protector for my Game Gear?

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