Judging by this test, at least one of these screen-protection films lives up to its claims of impact resistance. (Well, some of them. It does not, however, protect against arrows.)
So, how do these films protect against impact? Are they related to the films that are used to protect homes? (Not that I know how those work either.)
The same way a pillow protects from a poke in the eye.
The film has some thickness, and plastic is much softer than glass or concrete. Even a 50-micron thick film may cushion the impact enough to make a difference.
I guess it blunts the impact of sharp items. Its thickness also spreads the impact out over time, reducing the maximum force.
Hm, I wouldn’t have thought that a 0.2mm thick film would be able to result in that meaningful a dispersion of energy. Anyone have a cite/site of the science behind it or even what the – doubtlessly long – name of the actual material is? (Cursory Google/Wiki-ing of the name just reveals that it’s urethane-based.)
I’m not convinced that that’s a sufficiently rigorous test to prove anything at all.
If you freeze frame the two drops, the drop with the screen protector hits at a much lower angle to the ground, meaning the impact is already spread out over more of the phone. Plus, they mention doing drops on the back and side previously, which easily could have done damage that they don’t see, but that could cause huge problems on future drops.
Cracking screens really is a kind of chaotic process. I had my iPhone fall 9 inches and crack because it hit the corner just right. I know it was 9 inches because it fell off of something stationary (but not quite flat!) that I measured. It’s a really small drop, but it broke the screen. Since then, I’ve dropped it from full standing height onto both concrete and tile, and it didn’t break. That’s despite the fact that the screen was already weakened by the previous corner crack. Doing a few drops just isn’t enough to make reasonable claims about whether the screen protector did anything.
They’re usually made of PET. The same as drink bottles.
Well the plain common ones are PET, I think the video is by invisibleSHIELD which is polyurethane (not a very good protector, btw), and now there are some tempered glass ones.
" I wouldn’t have thought that a 0.2mm thick film would be able to result in that meaningful a dispersion of energy"
Is that because this is your special area of expertise? Back in the day, i wouldn’t have thought a difference in valve clearance of .001 inch within specs would cause a large performance differnce in a Kawi 750 Turbo, but I was wrong.