iPhone 4 Zagg protective skin review: While buying a new iPhone 4 a few days ago I took some time to look at different iPhone 4 protective cases and skins. I just wrote about one of these products in my iPhone 4 Otter Defender protective case review.
As I mentioned in that article, the Otterbox Defender protective cover made the iPhone 4 feel a little too large in my hands, so I decided that rather than use a protective case like that, I'd rather just go with an iPhone 4 protective skin.
iPhone 4 protective skin - Zagg invisiShield
After looking at several different iPhone 4 protective skins the store had in stock, I decided to try the Zagg invisiSHIELD iPhone 4 skin. The salesperson I talked to had a demo Zagg protective skin that she showed me, and I liked the idea of using it on the back of the iPhone. I didn't use a protective skin with my previous iPhone (an iPhone 3G), and over time the back of the iPhone did develop some scratches. Since my iPhone 4 is now brand new, this is pretty much my one chance to keep it scratch-free.
I bought the Zagg iPhone 4 invisiSHIELD that covers both the front and back of the iPhone 4, but after trying to use it on the front of the iPhone 4, I decided I didn't like it, and removed it. (That's one benefit of the Zagg invisiSHIELD iPhone skin, you can remove it after installing it if you don't like it.)
I didn't like the invisiSHIELD on the front of the iPhone because it has a slightly sticky feel to it, and it's also not completely transparent. While I appreciate having the scratch protection on the back of the iPhone, and also appreciate the sticky feel back there, I thought the invisiSHIELD took away from the appearance of the iPhone 4 screen.
Do you need an iPhone 4 protective skin?
A really great question I should have thought about more beforehand is whether you really need an iPhone 4 protective skin. I assume the iPhone 4 glass is the famed "Gorilla Glass", but since neither Apple or Dow-Corning ever verifies this, I don't know that to be true.
If it is Gorilla Glass, I just found this statement on the FAQ portion of their website:
If subjected to enough abuse, Gorilla Glass can break. However, Gorilla Glass is better able to survive the real-world events that most commonly cause glass to scratch, chip, or break.
I was hoping to find more specific Gorilla Glass information, but that's all I saw on their website.
(If you ever want to have a little fun, search for "Gorilla Glass" on YouTube and watch some of their videos where people attempt to scratch or break Gorilla Glass.)
iPhone skins not sticking?
As a quick side note, one of the iPhone 4 salespeople I've been talking to has been very helpful, and she casually mentioned that people are having problems with skins sticking to the iPhone 4. I'm guessing this may have to do with the iPhone 4 oleophobic coating, but I don't know this to be true. I'll try to research this more in the next few days.
Related iPhone skins articles
While this is the first article I've written specifically about iPhone 4 protective skins, I've written several articles before about MacBook and iPhone skins and protective covers, including these articles:
(I threw that MacBook skins article in there in case you also own a MacBook.)
iPhone 4 Zagg protective skin - Summary
As mentioned, if you're concerned about scratching the back of your iPhone 4, I think the Zagg iPhone 4 protective skin is a good buy. It fits well, it's relatively easy to put on, you can take it off if you don't like it, and it adds a slightly sticky/tacky feeling which I currently like. I don't recommend the Zagg invisiSHIELD protective skin for the iPhone 4 screen because it takes away from the really nice looking display, and I don't like the sticky feeling there.
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