Forget the screen protector and phone case

Take a look at your smartphone. How many layers of protection do you have on it?

Most of you will probably have a casing and a layer of screen protector on. Some of you might have even forked out quite a bit of money for a tempered glass screen protector that is touted to keep your phone screen from shattering upon impact.

Now, what if we tell you that all of this is actually not needed?

First of all, let this fact sink in: The phone casing market generated US$2.2 billion in sales over the past 12 months, a whopping 42% increase from the same period only a year before. This is not surprising if you consider how many smartphone users there are. Now, majority of these people see the need to protect their shiny new phones from scratches and dents with a casing, and the market is only too happy to meet that demand.

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But think about this logically, seven generations of iPhones and four generations of Galaxy S phones later, the engineers of these products must have made sure that the phones can withstand the wear and tear from day-to-day activities.

Take for instance, the screens of your devices. Of course, the glass screens are prone to cracking upon impact but over the years, engineers have reinforced the strength of the glass to withstand scratches and even heavy impacts. One such glass is the Gorilla Glass, which can be found in quite a number of electronic devices, including smartphones. Check out the test on Gorilla Glass below:

 

 

And here are some drop tests featuring iPhones and the Samsung Galaxy S4. Granted, these phones cannot match up to the endurance of old Nokias but as you can see, these smartphones are designed to survive some pretty rough treatment.

 

 

 

 

Beyond that, putting a cheap casing over a high-end phone is also seen as an insult to the product’s designer. One person even likened it to “putting [a piece of art] on your wall, and then putting a sheet over it so it doesn’t get dusty”.

Of course, it is perfectly fine if you want just that extra layer of accessories for protection or even aesthetic purposes, but now you know that these precautions are not exactly necessary!

Author

Nora Fong

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