The Screenguardz Privacy Film does a great job of obscuring the view of the iPhone screen when viewed at an angle greater than about 45 degrees, and it makes a seriously badass visor for your little smartphone.
[click on a picture for a larger view]
What’s obvious:
I actually installed two different sets of Screenguardz for this review. The first one was ripped at the top right out of the box, and NLU was kind enough to send another sample over for me to check (which actually turned out to be a lucky break, since I managed to install the second one perfectly). Installation was quite easy once I realized I could peel the back cover off of the Screenguard while applying it, making this my first absolutely perfect screen protector installation.
The film is a lot thicker than a normal screen protector — so thick that it might make a difference if you place your iPhone in a tight pouch-type case — and it feels smooth to the touch like a crystal shield (as opposed to the rougher, matted variety). Colours and brightness are immediately and noticeably dimmed upon applying the Screenguard, but amping my brightness up from 50 to 75% made up some of the difference.
As shown in the video and pictures above, the polarization effect kicks in at around 45 degrees and works as a true privacy guard for most any direction. However, viewing the Screenguard head-on is almost like viewing a naked iPhone screen.
What’s not so obvious:
One of the things I was worried about was how much this screen shield would effect accelerometer-based games (it doesn’t — not really, anyway). However, I often have trouble telling whether or not I’ve received a next text message, since I won’t see any light from the iPhone’s screen unless I’m almost directly in front of it. This probably won’t make much of a difference to dock or Xtand owners, but it can be an unexpected consequence of the product for people who simply lay their iPhones on the table.
Another factor to consider is the decreased screen sensitivity with the Screenguard applied. It actually took me a day or two to adjust to the slightest bit of extra pressure I needed to type effectively, and I had to change my Activator (jailbreak-only) settings because the iPhone wasn’t registering swipes from the bottom of the screen as easily. However, I have played quite a few games with the Screenguard on and have experienced no other problems after that small period of adjustment.
Conclusion
There are definitely some sacrifices involved in the use of a Screenguardz privacy screen protector: colours aren’t quite as rich, sensitivity is reduced ever so slightly, and the viewing angle on your device will obviously be reduced significantly. However, I’m quite content to live with those first two, and I’m quite happy with the polarizing effect. I plan to keep my Screenguard installed for a while to come: I love the way it makes the iPhone screen look like a uniform slate of black when viewed at an angle, and it’s also the first screen protector I’ve ever installed perfectly (without so much as a speck of dust).
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You can pick up your own Screenguardz Privacy Film for about $20 from Screenguardz.com. It’s definitely pricey, but the shield is static-secured, and very likely won’t come off until you rip it off.
The Screenguardz protectors were provided by Screenguardz for review on Just Another iPhone Blog. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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TAGS: screen protector, screen shield
