Gorrila Glass 3 Screen Protector

[seanthedennis]

Hello everyone! I have the Google Nexus 6, which has Gorrila Glass 3 on the display. I had a tempers glass protector on my screen for about 2 months, but it cracked today . Do I really need a protector? I don't want and scratched in my phone, but I was wondering if Gorrila Glass 3 will scratch without with everyday use. What do you guys think, do you use one?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[Rukbat]

Tempered glass has a hardness of under 7 (different ones run from the high6s to almost 7). Gorilla Glass 3 runs 6 to 6.5.

The difference is that if the screen glass shatters, it breaks into sharp shards and can puncture the screen behind it. If the tempered glass protector breaks without letting the screen glass break (a VERY narrow margin of pressure), the tempered glass crumbles, it doesn't break, and the screen glass protects the screen from damage even if one of the little bits of tempered glass is sharp. Tempered glass doesn't prevent screen breakage.

As for scratching, carbide (there are microscopic and sub-microscopic carbide particles of different compounds in the air) has a hardness of 9-9.5 - it'll scratch tempered glass like a hot knife will scratch butter, as if it wasn't there. So if you wipe a dry tempered glass screen protector with a few carbide particles on it, it's like sanding soft glass - you'll see the scratches.

I've found that the most economical way of doing it is a 3/$5 (or less) plastic screen protector. Being soft, it affords a bit of shock protection to the glass (not much, but more than tempered glass - I've seen phones with intact tempered glass protectors and shattered screens) and, when it does scratch (and I've run some for 2 years without seeing any scratches), it's about a buck to replace it.

Get a microfiber cloth - the kind used to clean eye glasses. Get a spritz bottle of eye glass cleaner while you're there. (Walmart's optical shops have them on the wall display with the frames.) Dampen a little of the cloth and wipe the screen. The carbide particles are so small that the tiny bit of liquid on the cloth, not enough to get into the phone, is like a tidal wave to them and washes them to the edge of the screen without scratching even soft plastic protectors. Three years of cleaner is cheaper than 1 tempered glass protector - and IMO is a better way to protect the screen.

(Or you can use an Otterbox Supercase. I've never used one, I use the Defender, which they don't have for the N6, but a couple of posters here said it's better than the Defender. [And less than half the price.])