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Phantom Glass Review – Don’t scratch it too much…it can’t take it
Will the Phantom Glass be the last screen protector you ever buy? Probably not. The Phantom Glass is a tempered glass screen protector whose most unique selling feature is the claim that it fills scratches. The focus word is “claim” as our screen protector ended up with some pretty nasty scratch marks and minor ones that never filled in.
For our Phantom glass review for the iPhone 6, we’ve given it a score of 3.5 Eh’s out of 5. This is an average screen protector that does generally as well as the Bodyguardz ScreenGuardz Pure, Tech Armor Ballistic Glass but not as well as the Sir Lancelot Bullet Shield. Looking for other screen protectors? Check out our comparison tool.
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Design – Easy to install and no bubbling
In terms of design, the Phantom Glass isn’t as thick as others and is re-applicable if in perfect condition. We didn’t have any problems with bubbling which is probably due in part to the Silicone Nano-Adhesion.
Like most glass screen protectors, the Phantom glass only covers the touchable area but the edges of the protector are slightly rounded so its not as noticeable as other screen protectors and isn’t easily chipped by hand.
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Protection – Does it fill in scratches or not?
In terms of protection, keys and knives don’t do anything to the screen protector but a metal file will definitely leave a mark. One of the most unique features of the Phantom Glass is that it “fills scratches” but between several weeks of usage, between two iPhones in a variety of purses and bags, our screen protector ended up with minor scratches that never went away.
We’re sure that Phantom isn’t trying to pull a fast one over our eyes and maybe the scratch filling occurs on a level that’s not visible to the naked eye. But if we can’t see it, how do we know its actually working? The only thing we can see are the scratches on the screen protector.
If you’re looking for an actual self-healing screen protector, check out the Fusion Self-Healing screen protector and the Tech 21 Impact Shield.
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Functionality – Keep your hands clean
In terms of functionality, we didn’t come across any issue with the sensitivity of the iPhone’s touchscreen. The viewability of your iPhone is decent as there is no clarity loss or increased glare but the screen protector isn’t great with fingerprints. There is an oleophobic coating on the screen protector but its not great. In fact, the poor fingerprint smudging was the first thing Aaron’s wife noticed when placed on her iPhone.
As you can see in the photo above, the Phantom glass screen protectors grease marks are much more smudged than a naked iPhones which makes it a little harder to view. But as we’ve said before, this type of smudging is really only noticeable if you’re comparing screen protectors side by side and over time, you generally won’t notice this shortcoming.
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Have questions about our Phantom Glass Review? Please ask them on our Google+ page or on our Facebook page or through our About Us page.
Kyle
January 1, 2016 at 12:07 pm
Heyyy, I just wanted to mention that the Phantom Glass theory behind the “fill in” claim is supposedly referring to *pre-existing* scratches. They are saying that the adhesive will fill out some of the scratches on your actual screen underneath (from what I’ve seen, this claim is actually pretty legit). Other than that this is a pretty average (and therefore totally overpriced) product but I wanted to mention your assesment of the fill-in thing is off.