Introduction:

For those guys who work on site out their (or those of you who make a habit of smashing the screen on your smartphone, camera of MP3 player!) you'll know the irritation of having to make an insurance claim, or pay for the cost of a replacement screen.  Various types of cases are available to protect small handheld devices, but few offer increased protection to device screens. Obviously there are screen protectors but these are really to prevent the screens being scratched not an impact protection system.  A new range of heavy duty impact protectors that offer real impact protection have been launched by a new company Tuffscreen and they were kind enough to send us a sample for review

Specifications:

• Helps protect your investment.
• Can be made to fit any screen up to 22" diagonal.
• Minimal effect on either tactile response or visual clarity.
• 100% safe, durable, reliable, and residue free on removal.

Review:

The screen protectors that we have seen up until recently have been very thin plastic sheets that provide excellent scratch resistance but little if any impact protection.  The Tuffscreen screen protector is the excat opposite to these standard screen protectors.  With an average thickness of 1.3mm the Tuffscreen material isn't exactly discrete and has a feint blue tint, although there is minimal effect on the visual clarity of screens where it is installed.  Installation of teh Tuffscreen is essentially similar to any other screen shield, requiring only a clean screen and a steady hand (to minimise air bubbles during application).

Once in place the Tuffscreen offers a greatly enhanced impact protection to any screen.  For the majority of screens (laptops, mp3 players) it is easy to see that the addition of the material to screens won't really impact on the overall depth of the screen due to screen frames.  For smartphones and other "frameless" screened devices the thickness of the material is obvious (but would most likely be hidden if you use a phone case). 

We tested the Tuffscreen material on an Acer 3820TG where the screen protector easily sits within the frame of the screen and on an Acer Liquid E Android Smartphone.  Application on to the laptop screen was reasonably easy, although required various attempts to remove air bubbles (as is typical with any screen protection!), but once installed made little difference to the overal calrity of the screen. On the Android Liquid E the installation was very simple although it was obvious that it was in place as you clearly see the screen protector in place.  Visual clarity was great however the Tuffscreen material, presumably due to the thickness, hindered the use of the phones capacitve screen significantly and we wouldn't recommend the use of Tuffscreen for smartphones that employ capacitive screens.  On the other hand, wandering around a building site with a large screened smartphone probably isn't a regular occurence! For phones that use a resistive touch screen technology or for non touch screen phones (the few that are still manufactured) the Tuffscreen would be ideal.

Price:

TBA

Verdict:

4/5 - If you want to protect your small handheld devices or larger screens from impact damage in tough working environments, the Tuffscreen screen protectors are ideal with one proviso - it isn't really a suitable screen protector for devices that use capacative touch screens, otherwise if you can live with the obvious "bulk" of the screen protector it is probably the best screen protection that you can buy for a phone that has a tough life!