Screen Protector Shootout – Strong Engineering

In the second to the last round of the Screen Protector Shootout series, I take a look at Strong Engineering’s screen protector. The video review is below, followed by the written review.

 

Round 7:

Strong Engineering

Summary:

Pros:

· Great fitment on custom cut piece. Easy to install.

· Excellent smudge resistance.

· Writing feel was on par with the best of the AG films.

Cons:

· Not full adhesive, but this is more personal preference.

· On glossy screens, bubbling issues resulted in an unpleasant overall experience. Those with a matte screen from the factory will not have any problems.

In Round 7 of the Screen Protector Shootout, I put Strong Engineering through the gauntlet. Let’s see how it holds up to the competition!

Initial Impressions:

Strong Engineering’s screen protector was as good as the other anti-glares in this competition. At approximately $22 shipped, the price is runs midpack for this competition. The Strong protector has adhesive strips on all four edges of the screen protector and provides edge to edge coverage, however, this is a custom cut piece. Prices and fitment may vary.

Installation:

Like all other edge-only adhesive protectors, the installation process was a snap. The issue that I came across was with bubbling. Unfortunately, due to the T2010’s glossy screen, the Strong Engineering protector bubbled. I’ve never experienced this before with any of the other AG screen protectors, so user beware. Stay away from the Strong Engineering protector if you have a glossy screen. You’ll be thoroughly disappointed.

Preservation of Luminosity:

Due to the bubbling, luminosity and preservation of screen image quality was lackluster at best. However, I had a feeling it had something to do with the construction of the screen protector itself. Sure enough, on the backside of the Strong Engineering, the screen protector was smooth. Because of this, the smooth-on-smooth contact resulted in the ugly bubbles. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get the bubbles to go away. The problem is exacerbated because of the adhesive strips on the edges of the protector, which causes an elevation difference between the edge of the protector and the center.

Writing Feel:

If you have a matte screen, like that found on the Toshiba M700, this screen protector would work very well for you. The writing feel was with the best of the AG protectors I’ve tested. It’s very smooth, giving that great “pen on paper” feel. However, with the bubbles underneath the screen, I was not able to get a thorough feel during prolonged inking. It was only after trying to troubleshoot the bubbles did I get a decent experience for its writing feel, albeit quite short. From what I could tell, though, it did very well.

Outdoor Viewability:

I didn’t test outdoor viewability with this screen protector because I couldn’t deal with the bubbles anymore. Yes, it was that intrusive. Check out the video and you’ll see how bad it was. In use, it was very distracting. The crispness of the T2010 was utterly lost under all those bubbles.

Screen Protector Removal:

All you have to do is pry it up and peel it off. Since the edge adhesives do not go all the way to the corner of the screen protector, you can actually just use your finger to pry it up. The adhesive strips did not leave any residue on the screen itself.

 

Conclusion:

Getting tested later in the roundup, the Strong Engineering faced some very stiff competition. Unfortunately for Strong, I couldn’t give it a complete workout since the bubbling issues were noticeable under every lighting condition. In fact, the bubbling intruded on screen image quality, let alone viewability. I took off the Strong Engineering, put on an old AG matte screen protector I had laying around, and reinstalled the Strong. The bubbling issues went away. In the video, I demonstrate the smooth feel of the backside versus the matte side of the front. If you have a matte screen, the Strong seems like a very good choice. If you have a glossy screen, I cannot recommend it.

Stay tuned for the last round of the Shootout. I will be taking a look at the InvisibleShield before writing a final wrapup and declaring a winner.