In depth review of invisible shield on the iPhone

[tungkee]

I’ve been an invisible shield fan ever since I got my gen 1 nano. Those were known to have scratch problems, so the first thing I did was protect it. Since then I’ve protected my Nintendo DS with invisible shield, and now my iPhone. Here is an in depth review of my experience with the full body shield on the iPhone…
Here are some pics of the packaging. Expect to receive a squeegee, two spray bottles to lubricate the shield for installation (you’ll end up using all of it if you put it on correctly), the shield pieces themselves, stickers and other warranty information. These come with a life time warranty incase they ever get damaged.

The front piece may not be necessary after seeing this video from PCWorld (

). They perform a stress test on the glass screen of the iPhone and it turns out that the screen is very very scratch resistant. Apple did an excellent job designing this product. The front piece of the shield is the easiest to install. When installing make sure you lubricate the sh** out of the protective shield. This is so that when you place the shield on the screen, it won’t immediately stick to the glass. Instead it can be slid around on the surface so that you can position it the way you want. Once it is positioned, use the squeegee to get all the extra water out from under the screen.
Here's how it looks after application.

 

[tungkee]

The back piece of the shield is where this product fails. First of all, it is one solid piece. If you haven’t noticed yet, the back of the iPhone is two pieces (the black bottom piece is removable for servicing). With the invisible shield on the back of the iPhone, you can’t remove the black piece without removing the invisible shield first.

You may have to do some cutting, but it will have to be when the shield is already on the phone and dried because it is near impossible to measure accurately where to make the cut when the shield hasn’t been applied to the back of the phone. Shield zone should have thought about this part…. Tisk tisk tisk… hopefully they will offer some kind of replacement piece should people need to remove the shield to service their iPhone. Or even better, they should redesign the back piece into two pieces. The second thing regarding the back shield is that it requires a lot of patience to apply. You need to do a lot of squeeggeeing and pressing, and holding to get pieces to stick and dry.
After letting my iPhone dry over night I awoke to a beautifully protected iPhone. The shield has no air bubbles (only because I have experience putting these things on, otherwise expect a lot of air bubbles). I turned on the iPhone (yes I left the phone off while it was drying) to test the performance of the touch screen after installation. I’m pleased to say the touch screen performs the same!... I can navigate through the options, web browse all while the shield is on and you won’t see any degrade in touch performance.

 

[tungkee]

How does it fit in the dock? Another failing point unfortunately… The shield, although very thin, causes the fit into the dock to be rather snug. And because of the texture/material of the shield, there is a lot of friction when docking and undocking. This actually caused the corners of the shield to contort and come off just a bit (see pics)… Those imperfections weren’t there before I tried docking the unit.

All in all, the shield may not be a necessary investment. We know from PCWorld that the front screen is very very scratch resistant. So the front shield may not be needed… and the back shield is of course the failing point of the product. Interferes slightly with the dock, a pain to apply to the iPhone, and let’s not forget the fact that IT IS ONE SOLID PIECE when it should be two! I’ll give Shield zone a ping to let them know my experience and I’ll post what kind of reply I get back (regarding the back shield being one piece). Now this is just my experience with the invisible shield and may not be yours should you decide to get one. I just wanted to be the guinea pig tester and share my thoughts with you folks.


The next thing I’ll do is cut the back piece of the shield using a razor. I figure if I mess up anytime, I can rip the back shield off and let you folks know if there is any residue left after removal.


-tungkee

 

[alpinelegacy06]

Wow. thanks a lot man, i just ordered mine and should be arriving in the next couple days. great review and nice pictures to get a good look of the product. thanks again.

 

[tungkee]

no prob alpinelegacy. Using the iPhone to post this and again, no problem using the touch screen

- Tungkee

 

[macinnw]

no prob alpinelegacy. Using the iPhone to post this and again, no problem using the touch screen

How about if you were to remove the lower back portion of the shield? That would solve the fit in the charger and hopefully the access for service. Although cutting it in place would scare me.

Some people have said the iPhone was slippery, does this help?

 

[ugotpwned5]

How about if you were to remove the lower back portion of the shield? That would solve the fit in the charger and hopefully the access for service. Although cutting it in place would scare me.

Some people have said the iPhone was slippery, does this help?

I heard the invisible shield makes the iPhone grip more...cause things to stick to it when you wedge it in your pocket...im still not sure if i wanna purchase a shield yet...hmmmm thanks for the review very informative.

 

[Powerhouse]

Did the front piece protect the Silver trim? This question has been asked in many different threads, and nobody has answered that question yet.

 

[ugotpwned5]

No sorry! i was upset about this also...sniffle

 

[applefreak]

I'm not impressed with this product. Scratch protection are not what I'm looking for in a case. I'm looking for impact resistance. Skins like that do not protect the phone like a case in a fall since they can't absorb the energy produced.

 

[tungkee]

Yep this phone is grippy. You could place it on an unstable flat surface and it would take a lot to get it to slide.

I'm not a case kind of guy. I like to be able to throw this in my pocket and not feel bulky. That's just me though, which is why I go with skins for protection.

Tungkee

 

[tungkee]

Sorry, forgot to mention the silver trim is unprotected which kinds sucks.

 

[Quilliam]

I am very happy to hear that the touch screen still works fine.

I used IS on my 8525 and it worked wonders for keeping it looking great. It did make my screen a little sticky (meaning my pen did not glide across it like it did before application) so I was worried about that.

I ordered the IS for the iPhone but I am going to hold off putting it on until someone is brave enough to remove it and see if any residue is left behind.

Please let us know if you do!

Thanks again for the review.

Q

 

[Sithinious]

My experience...

Here is my experience with the invisible shield... The front piece went on beautifully. BUT, nowhere in the instructions did they mention that the pre-cut piece over the earpiece hole has to be removed manually before applying the shield. There is a hole at the bottom for the home button, I did not look closely enough at the top of the shield to notice that the earphone piece was not a hole, but merely pre-cut. With this piece still in place, you cannot hear ANYTHING while on a phone call. So I had to peel back the front piece and remove the pre-cut piece by hand, then re-apply the peeled back portion of the shield.

I will say though... even having done this, the front portion still looks beautiful. No bubbles whatsoever. The back portion was a nightmare though. I could not get it in exactly the right position. Every time I attempted to fold down the sides and corners, something was getting covered up. I eventually tossed it in the trash in fustration.

There really is no loss in sensitivity to the touch screen on the front, though I kind of miss the feel of the glass under my fingertips. The tradeoff is worth it though, in my opinion due to one simple fact... NO MORE FINGERPRINTS!

 

[bcaslis]

I got the invisibleshield mainly for the back section. I already use the iCrystal from the Apple store for the screen cover and like it much better than the invisible shield for that. I had the back on for two days then took it off. My main issues with it are:

1.) Corners are a real problem to get flat.
2.) The edge by the chrome section just feels wrong. Normally the side of the iPhone is really smooth, but with this if feels like a rough edge along the side especially by the volume keys.
3.) It just really doesn't fit in the dock anymore. That's my main reason for wanting the invisibleshield versus one of the incase rubber cases. The fit is tight it feels like it's going to break something. I trimmed some of the bottom away just to get it to fit at all but it was still too tight.

Overall I liked this product on iPods, but on the iPhone it seems like a real loser. Very disappointed.

 

[tungkee]

seriously, the back piece killed my experience.. Very tedious to get on, and doesn't fit as nicely in the dock as before.

I like the stickiness though especially when i place the phone down.. I don't really ahve to worry about small bumps knocking/sliding the unit away from me.

I still haven't pinged Invisible shield about the back piece being one solid piece, but I will and post their reply here.

-tungkee

 

[chris]

Great read. Thanks for sharing the review. If you have time, please feel free to copy and paste and add your Invisible Shield review in the iPhone Accessory User Reviews section.

-Chris

 

[SnkerHeAD]

I Have this item i must say wow works Great . . . .

 

[FAsnakes]

Thanks for the write up..

 

[brinox]

one note to keep in mind is the invisible shield is a ONE TIME USE ONLY - trying to remove and reapply the shield will ruin it!

luckily shieldzone is nice enough to replace mine since i screwed it up in less than 24 hours of applying it >< dumb me AGAIN