Newbie needs help with cracked screen, please

sstearns

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Apr 29, 2014
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I'm a newbie to Android and smartphones in general. I installed a Zagg Invisible shield on my husbands S3 last night. I cleaned the screen to begin and everything looked perfect. I installed the screen following the directions, plus I was in a warm steamy bathroom as other reviewers of the product had noted that that helped cut down on the dust for a better install. I set the phone aside to let it dry for the recommended 12-24 hours. I checked it an hour later to see how it was doing and noticed a line under the shield. I assumed that I'd missed a hair so I raised the shield to remove it and discovered that the screen is cracked!

This phone has never been dropped and, as I mentioned above, the screen looked perfect before the install. The phone powers up and seems to be functioning well - the screen is normal, and the phone updated this morning w/o any problem. Is it possible that I cracked it during the install? I know these phones are somewhat fragile, but I didn't think they were that fragile. I have two more S3s (mine and my elderly mothers) to put screen protectors on and I'm afraid that I'll crack them too! Any suggestions for the other two phones and for my husbands cracked screen?
 

meyerweb#CB

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Seems unlikely that just installing a screen protector could put enough stress on the glass to crack it. The only thing I can think of along those lines is that the screen was already damaged, with a tiny crack that no one noticed, and the drying of the protector put enough extra stress on the glass to expand it. But even that seems like a stretch.

There are certainly plenty of people on this forum who have used screen protectors without that sort of problem.

FWIW, I've never felt the need to use a screen protector on the S3. Gorilla Glass is plenty tough, unless you're very hard on your phones. Just don't take them to the beach.

As far as your hubby's screen, unless you have insurance on the phone, your best bet is probably to find a phone repair business that can replace the entire screen assembly. Some places will say they can remove the glass and replace it only, but the glass, display and digitizer are glued together, and it's very hard to separate them without damage, and the touchscreens never seem to work quite right after that sort of repair.
 

sstearns

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Thanks meyerweb. I'll take a page from your book and skip the screen protectors on the other two phones. Until we can get my husband's phone repaired, should we keep a screen protector on it? I'm thinking dust etc might be a problem now that it's cracked. I have a different brand screen protector that is a dry mount unlike the Zagg wet mount.
 

meyerweb#CB

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If the Zagg is still on there, might as well leave it. Can't hurt anything. And I don't think putting another protector on there could make anything worse, so if you've already removed the Zagg sure, go ahead and install the dry mount one. Heck, if the phone still works fine with that on there, you might just keep using it.
 

sstearns

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Thanks meyerweb. I had removed the Zagg, but the dry mount protector seems to be fine and the phone is functioning perfectly so far. The crack is really obvious when the phone is off, but once it's on, it's not too bad. I suspect hubby will be using it as is for awhile. Thanks again.
 

GSDer

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Could have been a manufacturing defect. I happen to favor screen protectors, so I'm in the 'put them on the other phones just to be safe' camp. YMMV.

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