[LG Nitro HD] DesElms:
Nu-Clear and the front camera & proxy sensor

Yes... as does the Realook. They are both, in fact, pretty much the same, except that the Realook is about as much too small as the Nu-Clear is too large... and in either case, we're talking perhaps only a millimeter or two's difference.

The salient benefit of the Realook is that though it's actually a tad bit too small on the Samsung Captivate, at least it'll lie bygod completely flat. Because the Nu-Clear is a tad larger, it's actually too large, and so it touches the black metal bezel that's around the Captivate's Gorilla glass; and said bezel keeps the Nu-Clear from lying flat at two of its edges.

And with these hard-plastic protectors, if they won't lie flat on the glass, then they won't flat-out work. Period. There's no "close is good enough" with these things; and if they're too large, they can't really be trimmed very well... at least not without distorting them just enough that they'll not lie correctly anymore.

They both, though, cover the front camera and proxy sensor. There's only a little notch-out or hole (depending on the phone) for the ear speaker which protrudes through the Gorilla glass.

And speaking of camera lens covering: The Realook (but not the Nu-Clear) actually comes with a tiny little square or round piece (depending on the phone) that even covers the lens of the rear camera... though it requires tremendous patience to catch the edge of the peel-off protective plastic so it can be applied; and one must remember that BOTH sides of it have peel-off plastic, and so even once you get the sticky side's plastic peeled off, you have to peel off the other side's plastic, too, else all photos taken through the rear lens are being taken through the protective peel-off plastic, as well as the lens protector, itself! Realook probably should have thought all of that through a little better...

...but, hey, at least Realook protectors bygod

FIT

... even if they actually under-fit a little tiny bit, as with the Samsung Captivate.

HERE's NEW INFO: When I wrote my earlier posting, here, I had only ever tried to apply either a Nu-Clear or a Realook onto a Samsung Captivate SGH-i897; and on that phone, the Nu-Clear is too large (and so doesn't fit), and the Realook is the teeny-tiniest bit to small (but is still considered to fit). However, I've now applied a Realook to a Samsung Infuse 4G SGH-i997, and the Realook on that phone fits almost perfectly. Its length is actually dangerously close to being too long... just like the Nu-Clear; but its width was just plain dead-on... and so that particular Realook fit the Samsung Infuse really well...

...you know... for whatever that's worth. [grin]

I also want to ever-so-slightly amend something I earlier wrote: While it's still true that these rigid protectors like the NU-CLEAR and the Realook are not more prone to getting fingerprints and smudges on them than regular glass, I'm realizing that they are the tiniest bit harder to get said smudges off of than is real glass.

I can, for example, blow my breath onto naked glass, and then get it pretty darned clean even if I use only my shirt sleeve to wipe-off the steam.

But if I blow my breath onto the protector, it steams-up just the same, but if the cloth (or soft paper towel or napkin) used to clean-off the steam is not, itself, VERY clean, then all it kinda' does is smear-around the smear, if you can imagine what I mean by that. With the protector on, one really has to have a bygod clean towel or napkin or whatever to wipe-off the steam and really get it clean. A second steaming, and wiping, may even be necessary; and if what you're wiping with is paper, and so will leave little paper-dust particles behind, I'm coming to realize that the plastic of the protector might actually become electrically (as in static electricity) charged such that said little paper-dust particles stick better to it than they might have stuck to naked glass. Of course, they can easily be blown off with one's breath...

...but the bottom lins is that I now confess that it is all just the tiniest bit different -- on the "worse" side of the line, overall -- than cleaning naked glass. I think, then, that the reason some people say that the protectors are fingerprint and smudge magnets is not because they actually are, but, rather, because once they get just exactly the same fingerprints or smudges on them as would also have happened on naked glass, they're a bit harder (or at least require a bit more both skill, and super-clean cloth or paper towel or whatever) to get truly clean.

I nevertheless do not believe the difference is sufficiently great to warrant not using the protector. In fact, the other day, I was glad I had it on the Infuse. I had dropped my car keys onto the desk, so close to the phone that one of the keys hit the corner of the glass kinda' hard, then bounced off. I can't help but wonder if that same event might have left a tiny scratch on the glass, were the protector not there. Most of the postings around the Internet wherein someone has said that their glass -- even Gorilla glass -- got scratched, it was usually from something like keys or change in one's pocket rubbing against the glass of the phone in that same pocket, over time. So keys and change can definitely scratch even Gorilla glass...

...but the $64,000 question is whether my key dropping would have been enough to so do.

The nice thing about having the protector is that it doesn't matter; it's a moot question. Instead of worrying if the key dropping inadvertently scratched the glass, I had the piece of mind of knowing that the worst that could have happened, no matter what, was that the protector got scratched (which, as it turned-out, it didn't).

That's a nice feeling... well worth the small price that the protector cost; or the pain-in-the-rear it was to install it; or the not-quite-pain-in-the-rear I'm now realizing it can sometimes be to get it really-and-truly clean (as compared with cleaning naked glass).

So I'm still glad I did it, all things considered. As I earlier wrote, between the protector on the glass, and the snug-fitting, molded-right-to-the-phone TPU case covering the rest of the Infuse, it's encased in at least enough of a layer to protect it from all but the worst things. That, too, is a nice feeling.

In the case of my wife's Captivate, her screen protector and TPU case makes it so that I don't worry one single bit about her carelessly tossing it into her purse, where pens, keys, coins, and godknows what else can poke at it, and scratch it. With her TPU case and screen protector, all those pokey things can have their way with the phone when in her purse, and it still comes out of said purse undamaged every single time. That, alas, is a nice feeling, too.

Hope that helps!

________________________________________

Gregg L. DesElms

Napa, California USA

gregg at greggdeselms dot com