iPhone 17 makes standard screen protectors not so useful

The iPhone 17 lineup includes a new Ceramic Shield 2 with anti-reflective technology, but it turns out standard screen protectors aren’t the best match for the new displays.

iPhone 17 display’s anti-reflectivity is canceled out by most screen protectors

One of the tentpole features of the iPhone 17 line is Ceramic Shield 2. The new display technology is available across iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, and iPhone Air.

Per Apple: “Ceramic Shield 2 [has] a new Apple-designed coating for 3x better scratch resistance and improved anti-reflection to reduce glare.”

In theory, Ceramic Shield 2 should give iPhone 17 users more confidence in going without a screen protector.

Understandably though, lots of us would feel safer adding an extra layer of protection to the pricey new iPhone.

But a study published today by Astropad offers another reason to skip standard screen protectors.

Per the company’s testing, the iPhone 17’s new anti-reflective upgrades are completely lost—and then some—with the average screen protector.

In other words, an out of the box iPhone 17 offers nearly twice as good anti-reflection as its predecessor.

But because of the way Ceramic Shield 2’s anti-reflective coating works, if you apply a standard screen protector, reflectivity gets significantly worse. Giovanni Donelli writes:

With iPhone 17, AR [anti-reflective] protection is applied directly to the glass. When a screen protector is installed, the protector adheres to the iPhone display with a thin layer of adhesive. However, because AR coatings are tuned for and rely on direct contact with air, covering the coating with glue essentially cancels its effectiveness.  The coating is still present, but it can’t function properly while covered.

While testing, we found that screen protectors without their own anti-reflective coating caused enough interference to effectively double the amount of reflectivity on the display!  The AR coating can’t function properly because it’s no longer in contact with air.

What’s the solution? Astropad recommends a screen protector with built-in anti-reflective features, like its own Fresh Coat product.

If you’re in the market for an iPhone 17 screen protector, the full study is well worth a read.

How has iPhone 17’s Ceramic Shield 2 held up against scratches for you? Let us know in the comments.

Best iPhone accessories

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