Iphone screen protector scratch

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Does The iPhone 13 Need A Screen Protector?

Apple loaded the iPhone 13’s display with Ceramic Shield protection, but is that enough to prevent scratches that come from everyday use?

Apple loaded the iPhone 13 with a bright and sharp XDR display, but how protected is the screen from scratches and cracks? The super tough glass that protects the screen has received big improvements over the years, so there might be a question over whether a screen protector is still necessary? The iPhone 13 was even shown being dropped and picked up in a video that played during Apple’s September event to highlight its durability.

Another measure of durability is whether the iPhone 13 is waterproof. It is, and it has an Ingress Protection rating of IP68. The second digit usually gets the most attention since it signifies water resistance. The ‘8’ means that a device can be submerged underwater at a depth of one meter or more. Apple’s latest model has been measured to withstand six meters for up to 30 minutes, which is very good. The first number relates to dust resistance and the iPhone 13’s ‘6’ rating is the best possible, indicating that no dust can enter the device. This is actually fairly standard for a flagship smartphone.

Apple’s iPhone 13 prevents water and dust from getting inside and damaging the components, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that water and dust won’t hurt the outer parts, such as the camera lens, body, and screen. However, water really isn’t a problem as long as it’s clean. Saltwater and pool chemicals might take a toll in the long run, if not rinsed off. While most glass can be scratched relatively easily, Apple uses sapphire glass over the camera lenses and has for several years. This is an expensive material but being impact and scratch-resistant makes it a perfect fit for camera protection. The body is stainless steel which is known to be very durable, even though light scratches can accumulate over time. The glass that protects the screen is Ceramic Shield, which is among the toughest around, equal or better than the best Gorilla Glass. It’s very hard to break but it still can be scratched, so a screen protector is worth considering for those that want to further guarantee protection of their new iPhone 13.

What Can Scratch Ceramic Shield?

Apple developed Ceramic Shield for the iPhone 12 in partnership with Corning, the company that makes Gorilla Glass. Incorporating tiny crystals of ceramic, aligned in such a way that light can still pass through, this is a very strong material. This same advanced formulation is used for the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro. However, it is still glass and that means it retains the properties that make it prone to scratches. The screen has a Mohs mineral hardness rating between 5 and 6, and just like any glass, it can be scratched by objects that measure at or above 6 Mohs.

That means some gemstones can mark the face of an iPhone 13, as can a harder glass, such as the sapphire glass on the camera lens. More importantly, silicon dioxide, the fancy name for sand, will scratch an iPhone 13 despite the strength of Ceramic Shield. Sand is often a component of dirt, so unless used in a super clean environment, it is probably a good idea to use a screen protector with an iPhone 13.

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The Best iPhone Screen Protectors

Spigen’s Glas.tR EZ Fit (Sensor Protection) is now our top pick because it includes the best installation tool and adds front-camera protection (which was missing from our previous Spigen pick).

Spigen’s Glas.tR EZ Fit (Sensor Protection) is now our top pick because it includes the best installation tool and adds front-camera protection (which was missing from our previous Spigen pick).

Our runner-up from amFilm offers the same protection, but its install tool isn’t quite as good.

November 12, 2021

Using a glass screen protector isn’t a guarantee that you’ll never break your iPhone’s screen. But a protector can prevent screen scratches, which affect the structural integrity of the glass and make cracks more likely. After testing dozens of iPhone-screen protectors over the past six years, we’ve found that most of the actual glass they’re made of is the same. The biggest differences are seen in the ease of installation, since there are few things more annoying than a slightly misaligned screen protector or a trapped speck of dust. Spigen’s Glas.tR EZ Fit (Sensor Protection) Tempered Glass Screen Protector for iPhone 13 and 13 Pro offers one of the most foolproof installation systems we’ve found.

Our pick

Spigen Glas.tR EZ Fit (Sensor Protection) Tempered Glass Screen Protector for iPhone 13 and 13 Pro

The best screen protector for the iPhone 13 and iPhone13 Pro

Expect great glass, complete protection, and a foolproof installation tool for proper alignment.

Buying Options

Also available for these iPhones:

Applying a Spigen screen protector is foolproof because the plastic guide tray is designed so that it can’t be lined up incorrectly. The tempered glass meets our expectations for clarity and scratch resistance. The Spigen glass covers the iPhone’s front-facing cameras with no ill effects, leaving only the earpiece exposed. And for about the price of a movie ticket, you get two pieces of glass, so you can have a backup or share one.

Runner-up

amFilm OneTouch Glass Screen Protector for iPhone 13 and 13 Pro

A good alternative for the iPhone 13 and iPhone13 Pro

This protector’s tray isn’t quite as good, but it’s a fine alternative if our top pick isn’t available.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $12 .

Also available for these iPhones:

amFilm’s OneTouch Glass Screen Protector for iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro is comparable to the Spigen protector in its glass quality and coverage area. The only real difference is that the applicator tool isn’t quite as easy to use (although it’s still far superior to most others). We think most people should stick with the Spigen, but if the price jumps or it’s unavailable, the amFilm is a good choice.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

Spigen Glas.tR EZ Fit (Sensor Protection) Tempered Glass Screen Protector for iPhone 13 and 13 Pro

The best screen protector for the iPhone 13 and iPhone13 Pro

Expect great glass, complete protection, and a foolproof installation tool for proper alignment.

Buying Options

Runner-up

amFilm OneTouch Glass Screen Protector for iPhone 13 and 13 Pro

A good alternative for the iPhone 13 and iPhone13 Pro

This protector’s tray isn’t quite as good, but it’s a fine alternative if our top pick isn’t available.

Buying Options

*At the time of publishing, the price was $12 .

The research

Why you should trust us

I’ve tested screen protectors for Wirecutter since 2016 and other protection accessories since 2014. Before that, I was the accessories editor at iLounge for more than three years. During my tenure, I reviewed more than 1,000 products—including dozens of screen protectors across multiple models and generations of Apple devices—as well as the first glass screen protector (Spigen’s Glas.t for iPhone 4/4S).

While researching this guide, we interviewed Matt Ham, who has a master’s in mechanical engineering and is the founder and president of Computer Repair Doctor; Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit, likely the most well-known technology-repair advocate; Timothy Katsch, vice president of iDropped; and Mario Haas, head of development and application at Schott, which makes ultrathin glass.

Who should get this

A glass screen protector is no guarantee against cracks. A number of factors can lead to a screen cracking—everything from the height of the drop to the angle at which the phone lands to the material it lands on to humidity (really!). So it’s impossible to make this promise. Even the tougher “ceramic shield” glass on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 isn’t unbreakable or unscratchable. Given that, is a screen protector worth your money?

A good case is more important than a screen protector for keeping your screen intact.

“While screen protectors aren’t perfect, they definitely help,” said Computer Repair Doctor’s Matt Ham. “The basic science is simple. Adding an extra layer of tempered glass protects the original screen. The tempered-glass screen protector is not an impenetrable force field of protection; it’s an added layer of defense.”

That last point is key: A screen protector may help prevent damage from a direct impact to the face of your phone (though it’s not clear how much the protector does to cushion blows, rather than just help avoid scratches). But it’s only a bit of added protection—not an impenetrable shield. And a screen protector won’t do much to guard against blows to the corner or edge of the phone’s body, which are far more common: Our friends at iFixit tallied the broken screens they had on hand and concluded that 75% of them had been damaged at the corner or edge. This means that when it comes to protecting against a catastrophe, a good case is even more important than a screen protector.

But scratch protection is worthwhile too. A phone with a scratched screen is less pleasant to use, and it will be worth less if you ever decide to sell it. More importantly, scratches weaken the structural integrity of glass. “A major factor in glass breaking is if anything has already scratched it,” Kyle Wiens of iFixit told us. “It’s much easier to break scratched glass. So if the screen protector takes the scratch instead of your screen, then it reduces the likelihood the screen will break.” Timothy Katsch of iDropped also said that microcracks can deteriorate glass. So it’s better for an inexpensive and disposable glass screen protector to take this damage rather than the phone itself.

“I do think glass protection glass films are a great invention,” Mario Haas of Schott told us. “Such glasses form an additional protection shield against outside influences. … If the protection glass film cracks, the display glass underneath stays intact. When that occurs, the protector can be easily replaced.”

How we picked and tested

We focused on glass screen protectors because protective plastic films are less scratch resistant, and detract from the look and feel of the iPhone’s display. Also, plastic films have been largely supplanted by affordable glass protectors.

We skipped testing glass from well-known brands, including Belkin, BodyGuardz, and Zagg (Zagg also owns the InvisibleShield line). These protectors are widely available, but they’re almost always expensive. And over years of testing, we’ve found their glass to be of the same quality at best—and sometimes worse. Pricier protectors offer no benefits over the cheaper ones we recommend.

For each screen-protector model we tested, we followed the instructions in the box to install it on the iPhone 13, 13 mini, and 13 Pro Max. We evaluated how clear the instructions were and how helpful any installation tools proved to be. Once the screen protector was in place, we visually inspected it to look for any obvious degradation of screen quality or brightness, and we ran our fingers along the perimeter, checking for obnoxiously sharp edges. We used the phone in a normal fashion to confirm that the protector didn’t interfere with the touchscreen. During this use, we also observed how readily fingerprints showed on the protector, and then wiped off the screen (using a cotton T-shirt) to see how easily we could remove those fingerprints.

We then broke out our Mohs hardness test kit. The Mohs test evaluates the hardness of a mineral based on whether it can be scratched by a set of reference minerals, each rated on a scale from 1 (talc, the softest) to 10 (diamond, the hardest). This isn’t the test that screen-protector manufacturers use or advertise. Instead, they rely on something called the ASTM Film Hardness by Pencil Test, which is designed for coated materials. We don’t think the pencil test is the best way to evaluate screen hardness because even the hardest pencil in this test (9H) is softer than tempered glass. So any decent glass screen protector will get a 9H rating, and thus won’t reveal differences in scratch resistance among models. More important, many of the things that might scratch a screen or a screen protector are harder than a 9H pencil. The Mohs kit includes materials that can scratch tempered glass.

To confirm that the Mohs test would be valid, we spoke with Ivar Reimanis, PhD, Herman F. Coors Distinguished Professor of Ceramic Engineering and professor of metallurgical and materials engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Although Reimanis said the Mohs test wasn’t a perfect analogue to the pencil test, he concluded that “the ranking would be similar, since you are just evaluating the resistance to scratching with two different probes.”

In the Mohs test, we started with the number-1 stylus, holding it at about a 70-degree angle and applying a moderate amount of force as we dragged it down the glass protector multiple times in varied directions. (We couldn’t guarantee precisely consistent pressure across trials, but we did our best to use a similar amount of force each time. Unless two protectors were very close in hardness, the variance in pressure was unlikely to hide the difference, as we saw little ambiguity in the tests: When something scratched, it was very evident.) For each screen protector, we repeated this test with increasing reference picks until a pick scratched the glass. We then recorded the number of the hardest stylus that didn’t scratch the glass, along with the number of the stylus that did. Because we didn’t have styluses with hardness ratings between integers, in this guide we note for each protector the range of hardness (for example, “between 6 and 7”), which includes the actual scratch resistance of that model.

We didn’t do any sort of drop tests with the screen protectors because we don’t think such tests are particularly relevant. Tests in which a heavy object, such as a ball bearing, is dropped directly onto the screen don’t represent real-world scenarios—not to mention that an impact that breaks a screen protector may not have broken the phone’s unprotected screen. (We couldn’t easily measure the strength and hardness of that screen, and proprietary data on screen glass isn’t available.) In addition, it’s impossible to re-create every kind of impact a phone may suffer. So the results of a particular type of drop test can’t be generalized to cover all scenarios.

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