The thing about solutions like Bodyguardz (or its rivals BestSkinsEver and InvisibleShield) is that you don’t just put the product on and then have a sandwich five minutes later. If you’re not very good at applying the skin, it’s going to take you quite a while. Even after five or six similar installations under my belt, I still take around 40 minutes and I still don’t really get it right. However, if you can install it properly, the Bodyguard offers premium scratch protection while keeping the shade and form factor of your iPhone intact.
Installation
I did exactly what all of these invisible film products ask: washed my hands, sprayed them with their solution, peeled the back panel off and sprayed it nicely, then applied it and squeegied as needed. I messed up a bit with a few loose cat hairs and some dust getting trapped. The problem is always those flipping corners. I can’t help but think there has to be a better way — maybe making the corner pieces harder plastic so that they’re already moulded to the shape of the iPhone’s corners — because I spent a good 40 minutes on each installation of the skin. That’s right, I said each. In two nights I used up both pack panels of the Bodyguardz (which comes with two full-body skins) because the first one’s corners were so horrifically skewed. What always happens is this: the corners will bunch up and form small arches that you have to push down with your finger to tack onto the device. If the device is still too wet, the corners won’t stick and you’re supposed to leave them for a few minutes and come back to them. Unfortunately, the timing here is really unforgiving. If you come back too soon, you’ll meet the same fate, but if you come back too late, the corner will have lost its tackiness or worse — the corners around it will have stuck already, leaving you with a bunched-up corner with no wiggle room.
I had major problems with the first installation, and I knew from previous experiences that dust would settle in those gaps and widen them within weeks, so I decided to call the job botched and start all over again. The second installation was a lot smoother, but that’s because I watched the entire process like a hawk. I never left the device alone, and when a corner wouldn’t stick I’d just rotate the device and try my luck with another corner. Using this process I tacked almost every corner “perfectly”, except for one area near the camera that just refused to stay down. I left the whole thing to dry for about 8 hours (Bodyguardz suggests 10), and awoke to see that that camera corner still hadn’t stuck properly. This gap would eventually attract dust, so I decided to just put a very small strip of tape to seal the deal. Done.
By the way, this was all just for the pack panel. The front panel (screen protector) on these kinds of skins has always been a much easier installation, and you can have that done in a few minutes as long as you line things up perfectly. All I can say is thank god there’s a lifetime replacement warranty, which only costs $5 for a new skin (shipping included). I still think some innovation is needed for the installation of those nightmarish corners.
The Cut
All of these skins are cut to fit the particular device, and overall I’d say my Bodyguardz is almost perfect for my 3GS. The left side (along the chrome) and the top of my phone feel just a little bit sharp where the Bodyguard overlaps the area by half a centimeter or so.
Protection and Fit, Two Weeks Later
The Bodyguard protects basically every part of my iPhone, and I have no hesitation putting the phone down on rough surfaces that would undoubtedly scar a naked iPhone. I also haven’t really noticed much of a peel effect like on the InvisibleShield, but I did notice that wrinkles in the film were more apparent because of this.
I’ve never really doubted any of these invisible protection claims — it’s the actual claim of invisibility I’ve always had an issue with. The problem that has hounded all of my previous installations of this type of product has also occurred with the Bodyguardz: dust and dirt under the corners.
For something that takes such a significant time investment to install, it is a little depressing to see the corners start to peel ever so slowly over days (or weeks, if I’m lucky) of use. These small bubbles form and are inevitably inhabited by dust and dirt that wear away at the invisibility of my 3GS’ protection. It might only bother a few iPhone users, and it could well be because I can never complete a perfect installation, but once the dust has settled in and boldened my iPhone’s corners in black, I consider the campaign lost and want take the whole thing off. I even tried a different route this time and covered all the corners (not just the camera’s) in some thin archival repair tape, but even the tape couldn’t really stop the bubbles from forming. The film won’t fall off on its own, but the corners do get sullied pretty quickly.
Conclusion
I sometimes wish that one of these companies would one day give me a room, hand me 50 films to work with, and give me a couple of hours to play around with how to install these things, but that’s both unrealistic and also a little strange. I love the idea of the thin, invisible scratch protection, but I find the dirt and dust a bit of a buzz kill. For now I’ll have to just rely on the free replacement guarantee and hope that one day they’ll find a way to make the installation simpler and easier…or open up one of those official booths at a nearby mall (I can never find them!).
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This review was made possible by a set of free Bodyguardz films sent by the company for review. They’re the full-body protection kit, and they cost $24.95 on the Bodyguardz site. This cost includes the warranty and qualifies for their free shipping.
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TAGS: bodyguardz, scratch protection
