Review: Better than others
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 28, 2013
This isn't the first screen protector I've gotten for a Kindle, and in the past, I wished I had gotten one sooner. The previous one I bought worked well, aside from a spot with a scratch on the screen that would have been prevented had there been a screen protector all along. This one worked a bit better.I have a fair amount of experience applying screen protectors of various kinds, ranging from clear ones to matte ones, phone ones and Kindle ones, and similar experience with window film for full sized windows. They all have some similarities, and in general, the larger the screen, the more problems you can run into.Even though this is larger than what's used on many smaller phones, it was actually easier to apply. Part of that goes to the type of screen that's on a Kindle. And part of it goes to the protector itself. The kit comes with the protectors, cloth and an extra piece of cleaning material. Getting every speck of dust off is important, and this one gives you better means to do so. Despite this, I always use an air compressor (the type for filling tires) and that tends to get far more particles off the surface.When I applied this, I noticed fewer bubbles than usual, and they smoothed out and disappeared very quickly. The particular Kindle I tried this with is used by my daughter, and I told her nothing about the protector. When I asked her later if there was anything different about the Kindle, she hadn't noticed. That confirmed to me that I wasn't the only one who didn't see any degradation in readability. After she knew about it, she was able to see some very minor traces of imperfection (of my work, not of the protector itself) along one of the edges. But it didn't have any "popping up" problems near the edges that are common among some protectors. It shows that even with experience it's hard to get it 100% perfect, but there was nothing that affected readability.Your Kindle will look the same with this on, and will function the same. There will be no added glare, visible fingerprints, or other anomalies.  There are cheaper screen protectors out there, and if you get the job done right the first or second time with a cheaper one, it might save you money. I've attempted that before on the theory that in the worst case, I didn't have much to lose. I was right in that all I lost was the purchase price of the cheaper ones that I threw away. Aside from this one working better, it also saves you aggravation and gives you peace of mind.I still think the price on these is a bit higher than I would have expected, and is more reasonable on the two pack. The fact that I was able to get it right the first time made the price more reasonable. And whether you will keep your Kindle long enough that you need to replace the protector, or whether you upgrade your Kindle in the future, it can't hurt to have a spare. I used this on a Paperwhite, but it fits an older Touch also.