[Samsung Galaxy S8 Accessories] OrneryTX:
My Experience with the Whitestone Dome

A month or so ago I installed my first Whitestone Dome screen protector on my Galaxy S8. Outside of a mistake of my own creation, nothing to do with the product, the install went well and I got about a 95% perfect installation. My mistake was dropping the glass screen as I was placing it on the jig which knocked the glue off the phone. Most of it drained into the plastic jig so I carefully poured that glue back onto the level screen, centered it, and completed the installation. As noted, the installation came out well, although not perfect due to my own unsteady hands, and I ended up with only a small area in the bottom corner of the glass where there wasn’t enough glue. I attributed that to the small amount of glue I couldn’t retrieve after the spill. Unfortunately (or fortunately), a couple of weeks later I dropped my phone and the screen protector did its job. It broke and my phone's screen survived. With that experience in mind, on Amazon Prime Day I bought another protector.

This time, with an installation in the same location and under the same conditions, the installation did not go nearly as well. It seemed like the plastic jig was a little askew and, no matter what I tried, I was unable to get things leveled out properly. If I got the phone level, the bottom left corner of my phone pushed up on the plastic L-bar on that corner and the plastic piece would not set flush with the jig. On the other hand, if I got the L-bar on that bottom corner to set flush, my phone wouldn't sit level and the adhesive wanted to run off the left side of the phone. After having the glue run off the left side of the phone twice, I had to give up.

After this failed installation, I reach out to Whitestone via Facebook and received a response within about 24 hours. Since I had purchased the protector from Amazon, Whitestone requested I contact them directly which I did. Amazon credited my original purchase and credited the difference on my replacement purchase as I had used a coupon code. In the end, the replacement did not cost me a dime. No complaints on the service there.

The third installation went like a charm. Everything worked exactly as it should have and the protector, combined with my Spigen Slim Armor CS case, are a pretty flawless combination.

A few thoughts/notes/suggestions based on my own experiences:

1. Obviously, try not to drop the glass onto the wet glue when doing the installation. With that said, if you do knock the glue off the screen, don’t panic. If most of it is captured in the plastic jig, you can carefully pour that back onto your phone, center it (again, carefully), and so long as you didn’t lose too much glue outside of the jig, you can still salvage the installation.

2. In addition to making sure your work surface is level, when setting up for your installation take a moment to place the phone in the plastic jig, with the power on, and use the bubble level app to make sure your phone sits level. Had I done this during the second installation, before applying the glue, I would have seen the problem with the jig and could have reused the one from my original installation which had worked fine. Even if you don’t have another jig around, at least you’ll catch the leveling problem before you’re dealing with the very runny glue on your phone.

3. Use Whitestone’s installation video and follow it closely. I paused the video at each step of the installation.

4. With my first protector, after it was already cracked, I noticed the edge pulled up a little bit and created bubbles when I wasn’t careful about putting the case back on after using my Gear VR unit with my phone. While I can’t be sure whether it was my carelessness or the already damaged glass that caused this, I would try to avoid adding and removing cases as much as possible, even those that work fine with this protector under normal circumstances. If you do need to remove case, or put one back on, take your time and do so carefully.

5. It's worth noting that removing my cracked screen was simple and easy as could be. I just caught it under a corner and carefully peeled it off. All that was left behind was a bit of filmy residue from the adhesive and it was easily removed with one of the provided alcohol wet wipes.

All in all, I’m happy with my Whitestone Dome. Is it the easiest protector to install? Nope, not at all, but if you’re careful, follow the instructions, and take your time, you can get a very nice installation. In the end, I think you’re going to be hard pressed to find a better fit for a curved edge phone that maintains touch sensitivity and appearance like this one does.