[Xperia Z1 Accessories] Winrahr:
The Product

Product Page

CRYSTAL ARMOR Ultra Thin Full Flat Tempered Glass Protector. Claimed to be the worlds thinnest; so thin, in fact, that they claim that a sensor hole cutout is necessary. Of course, it comes at a price. And that is a wallet gouging ¥5,000. Although on the product page they say that the shipping is included, they still said they had to charge me another ¥250. So I ended up paying ¥5,250 for a single sheet of glass...

They seem to have made the shipping free so it is "only" ¥5,000 now which makes me feel ripped off.

UPDATE: It's actually a promotion apparently for this month as their nice rep informed me.

The customer support at Crystal Armor is great. The English support team swiftly answered my inquiries, and even emailed me when I ordered a second one to double check if it was a mistake or not

First Look

It came in a huge box (for a screen protector anyway) with a ton of bubble wrap.

You think I'm kidding?

I tentatively open the package to reveal...

Nothing but the screen protector.

It's packaged nicely and all, but I can't help but feel a bit let down to find nothing else included in a ¥5,000 product. There is only film over the adhesive side of the protector too

Its thinness is something else though. This still has the protective film on.

A quick mockup shows the fitment to be spot on

Anti Shatter Film Removal

I found the corner to be the easiest to lift.

It's just peeling from now on.

Goodbye Sony logo.

Ahhhh, real glass!

I first thought I used too much WD-40 to clean the glass, but it turns out that even nail polish remover wasn't enough. After multiple passes with optical cleaning towel and nail polish remover, the screen only looks clean. A quick wipe with a cheap microfiber towel reveals tons of lint stuck onto the glass, and the glass feels slightly sticky to the touch, especially at the edges. Running water over the glass shows spots at the corners where the residue still remains, as the water flows around the spots.

After more rubbing with nail polish remover the spots seem to have mostly disappeared, but the screen still feels slightly sticky. Maybe the residue will wear off after a week of usage, but so far I have to recommend prospective ASF removers to put a screen protector over the bare glass.

I've given up for now. I'll just install the protector right over without worrying about the residue since it's not visible anyways. I just washed the towels and letting them to dry, and I'll get the protector installed in my washroom after my shower tonight to be as safe as possible. It is an expensive single usage protector after all.

On a side note, if you do this to your dock you'll be able to use it even with a thick screen protector :D

The Big Mistake

Well I think I've just made the biggest f***up in my Android related life. So badly that I managed to actually crack the glass protector

But instead of mourning for the new wound in my wallet, I'll have to make the best of this broken piece of glass and make a cracked screen protector review until the replacement arrives.

First of all, the screen protector is seriously thin. Keep in mind that this is my first glass screen protector, but this is definitely much thinner than the glass protector that my friend has on his Z1. It's so thin that it still fits in the magnetic charging dock, although I don't recommend this, as the dock scuffs up the rear ASF enough already without the added thickness. The thinness combined with the rounded edges make this feel extremely smooth at the edges, and my fingers glide on and off the edges like its nothing.

Speaking of gliding, the oleophobic coating is nice and slick. I've been rubbing my fingers and palms over it and the coating isn't letting up. I'm sure I've put enough finger oils on it to equal a month's usage and all I've been doing is wiping it off with a shirt and it's still holding up very well.

The size of the screen protector is pretty much exactly the size of the display glass so you must be extremely careful while installing it. Because I ruined mine I just quickly matched 2 edges on one side and put it down. I highly urge everyone to use the masking tape hinge method and take your time to hexacheck for a perfect fitment. Yes you can peel it off and reapply but you have an extremely high chance of cracking your glass. The protector is flexible to a degree but definitely not enough for you to peel it off the screen unless you are some master at peeling off protectors with minimal angle.

My heart bled as I folded this screen protector in half for the sake of science.

As you can see, the protector does not shatter, so it does a perfectly fine job as a replacement for your factory anti shatter film.

In an extreme case of folding in the edge like a page in a book, a very small piece of glass detached itself from the glass but proved to be harmless like the glass particles that also fell out of the cracks.

And of course I had to forget the scratch test. The protector, while having cracks all over, laughed at the futility of the multiple knives from around the house but was ultimately defeated by 150 grit sandpaper which left scratches too small for me to bother to attempt to capture with a camera. Back to the garbage can it goes.

Hope you all benefited from my stupidity and failure. I will now cry myself to sleep. This ends my preliminary review of the Crystal Armor Ultra Thin Full Flat Luxury Edge 0.2mm Screen Protector (WORD’S THINNEST!) with Chemically Strengthened Tempered Glass and Oleophobic Super Slick Surface and I still can’t post external links.

The ASF Free Experience

Feels good to be touching actual glass :angel:

But because there is no coating on the glass, fingerprints and smudges build up very very quickly, and I had to clean it frequently. Because there's no coating on it there's a bit of friction against your fingertips. I'm sure that some Rain-X or some sort of glass sealant will make the screen a lot more smooth (friction wise, there's no texture on the glass obviously).

Now don't expect the display to magically improve without the ASF. It doesn't become more vibrant, bright, or have any better viewing angles.

But don't think that removing the ASF is pretty much pointless and is a stupid move. The ASF is a stupid move. Unless you slap a screen protector over the ASF as soon as you get the phone, you are going to get scratches because the ASF is so soft. So I got fed up with the marks and decided to just remove it. Now you have glass that is actually hard. Some people are just anti-protector and that's perfectly fine. The Dragontrail glass is tough and it's not gonna get scratched that easily. I think running the bare glass with some sort of sealant, oleophobic coating , or a mix you'll have a nice feeling anti-fingerprint glass. Just reapply when the coating wears off.

Round 2

They included a microfiber cloth this time (I wonder if they read my review :p)

The tab for peeling off the protective film is also a lot easier to peel off this time.

I couldn't use the hinge method to install this protector because the duct tape just won't stick. Not sure if it's a good thing because the coating is strong or if it's a bad thing because I misaligned thanks to not having a hinge.

Also trapped a spec of fiber, which ironically is probably from the microfiber cloth they provided... Luckily it's so small that I can only find it with my face about 8cm from the screen.

Having this protector on is also definitely visible, due to the rounded corners

Also leaks a bit of light at the side like the edge of a lit acrylic panel (reference)

The coating is indeed very smooth in case I haven't mentioned it enough. My fingers glide on it with pretty much no friction, and because the screen is now raised a bit I don't feel the ridge at the end of the screen anymore. And because it's so smooth you don't have to use much force on the screen so it leaves even less marks. All the pictures I've taken are after 1 day of use and no cleaning at all. And I went snowboarding with it and it didn't crack so don't think its weak just because I goofed the first time.

My camera lens is 14-24mm which is useless for macro so here's a video for you guys :D

[YOUTUBE]_qfOwNLb4VA[/YOUTUBE]

You can find it on their site

Short Term Experience

In the first week, it was oleophobic heaven. Super slick, almost completely fingerprint-proof. The few smudges come off extremely easily.

Towards the end of week 2 it has become less oleophobic. It's not extremely slick like new but it is still very good. Smudges and prints come off just from taking the phone out of the pocket.

End of week 3 had me a bit worried. Has the oleophobic coating worn off already? Fingerprints go on pretty easily and it is not very slick. Then I realized that in this entire time I have not once cleaned the screen with any cleaning solution, only wiping it down with a microfiber cloth.

So I did that and the slickness is back. It feels more like week 2... At least for a few days.

So now I clean the screen regularly and when the screen is clean it's much easier to wipe off fingerprints.

TO BE CONTINUED FOR LONG TERM RESULTS