Where can I find the old school plastic phone screen protector material?

cedarmesa@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 32 points –

Remember back in the day when screen protectors were a dirt cheap plastic film and you could buy big sheets of it and custom cut it with scissors for your phone? Cost like 10 cents for a screen protector? Then came the bullet proof, space shuttle glass screen protectors for like $12 a pop? Turns out the expensive space age glass stuff breaks super easy. I want off this crazy ride. Anyone know where to get the old school JNCO wearin, NIN listenin screen protector material?

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Turns out the expensive space age glass stuff breaks super easy.

Sounds like you are really rough on your phone. The point of glass screen protectors is that it cracks instead of your phone's screen. The cheap plastic film isn't made to do that, just keep the glass from getting scratched.

Like the crumple zone of a modern car. Looks worse but better to have the force absorbed by the protector than transferred to your phone itself.

While that is true, the screen protectors are significantly less flexible than the glass screen.

If you hold something even a little firmly against your phone, you will crack the glass screen protector. Your phones screen would not and does not crack.

I’ve cracked quite a few screen protectors that way.

The real answer is stop buying expensive ones. Buy the $9 for 3 from Amazon and replace every couple of months when they crack.

The reason they crack is that screen protectors tout their scratch resistance, and hardness, which comes at the expense of flexibility. Being hard and being brittle tend to go hand in hand.

I wouldn’t care if they scratched more and cracked less, I’m happy to spend $3 every 2-3 months either way.

I bought an Ailun 2 pack of glass screen protectors May 2021 for $9 to put on my iPhone, which is in my pocket every day while I work around the farm. The first one I put on hasn't cracked yet.

Only phone screen that ever broke on me was with a glass protector. My phones last years with the plastic ones. I'm not convinced the glass ones offer any benefit.

No like they literally break on their own. Ive had multiple "glass" protectors just crack in my pocket or just by pressing too hard on it with my finger. Never using such screen protectors again, back to plastic/film like protectors for me.