I had already seen this sort of crap, in various smartphone models, couldn't find any good explanation for it. I am currently using a Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro which I bought second handed in pristine condition, device came with a screen protector which didn't fully covered its screen width literally by a couple hairs. For the love of God, why would I want such an screen border view distorting shit? Tried it for a few weeks but ended up removing it (as expected), it also negates the benefits of oleophobic screen coatings thus you are always cleaning over the screen shit. :-|
The only “good” reason I could think of for screen protector manufacturers to make them so narrow was “well, they must be doing this for the majority of users to get frustrated because of unperfect protector placements and having to come back to the shop to buy more, as if you don't perfectly center a protector which is narrower than the screen it will be visually very noticeable, @#$%!”.
But look! A few minutes ago my sister came home to ask me to install a screen protector for its Galaxy J5 2017 (SM-J530F). After I had wiped the screen I took the protector and after lining it up over I said “Crap! More than a full millimeter and half missing each side! This must be a wrong model screen protector…”. Oh, boys and girls, was I wrong? Look at this advertisement from AliExpress:
I can’t stand curved screen border, I hate them !
You can’t use tempered glass protector with many new smartphone (Samsung J series and A series for example) My A3 rides without protection because of this…
Last time I ordered some tempered glass protections, they were like 3 mm from each border, thus were “cutting” the display…
I hear you Barkuti, really !
It’s because of the “2.5d” glass that modern smartphones use. Samsung’s S and Note series are known for their curved screens, where the display itself is curved. But virtually all other smartphones today use ‘2.5d’ glass, where the screen itself is flat, but the edge of the glass is curved to blend into the frame.
This makes it extremely difficult to make good screen protectors. Many choose to make the protector smaller and only cover the flat part of the glass. Others make it cover the entire screen, but only put adhesive on the edges, which tends to ruin the touch sensitivity. It’s just too difficult to make a curved protector that perfectly matches the screen.
The only decent solution I’ve found are the ‘wet apply’ protectors. These are plastic film protectors where you spray a soapy solution on to prevent the adhesive from sticking until you’ve got it positioned.
Thanks for the input fellows, quite interesting. Precisely, I am right now pondering the idea of opening a handy smartphone and tablet repair business, found its relatively easy to obtain good quality device parts in AliExpress and shipping to my country is relatively fast and cheeeap. :-)
I had the “pleasure” to repair a Galaxy S8 a few months ago. Too big, 2:1 screen (moronically marketingically called 18:9) and curves, curves where they shouldn't be! The only place I lovefully entail curves is in the body of the nice woman I am handling, but not that way on a smartphone! :facepalm:
Thermoplastic polyurethane film, yes! I was using these many years ago when even smartphones where small sized, usually buying them in 6-packs on eBay. Applying the stuff may be tricky and maybe a bubble or two will come up, but they go away within a couple days of use at most. :THUMBS-UP:
Cheers :-)
Original post date: Wed, 08/01/2018 - 19:31. Edited for a correction.
It might be for case clearance. I have installed a few first/early generation protectors on phones only to have the case rub on the screen protector and eventually pop it loose on the edges. The company later sold a “case compatible” screen protector that was slightly smaller.
