DBA "Just Like Glass®" Screen Protector - ZAGG Killer?

MooseV2 · Sep 9, 2012

DBA is a lesser-known company specializing in phone cases and screen protectors. One of their newer products, the "Just Like Glass®" screen protector promises to be the best screen protector you'll ever have.

Here's what Scott of DBA has to say about the screen protector:

We also had an independent third party test directly against ZAGG and destroyed them.

Testing with Laser Beams for distortion, regular glass of course had 0, Just Like Glass had 11.50, and Zagg had 666.
ZAGG doesn't even claim to increase the break resistance of the glass while ours has tested for an increase of near 40%.
In a wear test equivalent to putting it in and out of your pocket ZAGG showed wear after 345 times and our showed no wear even after 10,000.
ZAGG is more scratch resistant but at the cost of creating the distortion. And the difference isn't that great.
Just like glass screen protectors are stain proof. You can get makeup on the, dirt, oil, dye, etc... and you can wipe it off. ZAGG you can't. I personally tested ours with a black sharpie (not really the best decision looking back on it) and it did come off with a little elbow grease.
As far as being smoother than glass, if you use glass as the baseline Just Like Glass is 20% smoother while ZAGG was -147%. You can really feel it.
Ours don't have the orange peel effect that ZAGG does.

I wouldn't be doing this at all if I didn't have something that I would use and that was better than everything else.

It's a wet-application (like ZAGG), but the included application kit makes it easy. This protector covers the viewing area, allowing it to work with cases perfectly.

It looks very promising and costs only $13.50 (by comparison, the ZAGG protector is $14.99).

Here's the site: DBA "Just Like Glass®"

molitar · Sep 13, 2012

I had a heck of a time getting it out of the plastic and in the process it got dimples from trying to pull it out. I contacted them to see if they will get a replacement sent out what a bad experience because they decided to make the plastic bag it comes in too damn tight with no leeway at all. The other con I noticed is it says to use a hard card but it does not come with one so I used the squeeze I have from Skinomi that I used on the Transformer Prime tablet.

Now I do have to admit it does feel like glass and not the soft rubbery feel I am use to with my mothers Skinomi. I always hate how the Skinomi drags on the tablet but this no drag at all. I will let you know how customer support is like after contacting them for a replacement for this one that got dimpled getting it out of the too tight plastic bag. Next time I will use a knife to cut the bag instead of trying to pull it out.

Oh and one more thing no sensitivity decrease at all that I can tell. I will try to get some pictures of it with my mothers camera to post but just to let you know it just a few mm larger than the screen so only covers the screen so great for cases.

I also tested the permanent marker on a piece of the excess plastic that I pulled it from and the marker after drying wiped right off so definitely appears to hold up to the claim of stain proof.

pmoradi2002 · Sep 13, 2012

I guarantee you they will have issues calling it glass. You guys have no idea how dumb people are when it comes to these things.

chrischoi · Sep 13, 2012

Now I'm curious.

finnmacool · Sep 13, 2012

How was the fit on the screen? Full to the edge coverage? Custom cutouts or just a chunk cut out?

kuratsu · Sep 13, 2012

I'm interested in this. Anyone else who bought willing to share?

molitar · Sep 13, 2012

Ok here is the pictures I promised. BTW I was not able to attach the pictures here got a security token was missing error.. any idea why? I was only able to attach picture by uploading from a picture site like Photobucket. Anyways I think I did a pretty good job of these pictures and you will see the 3 blemishes/dimples I caused pulling the protector out of the plastic but it came out better than I thought it would for only my second wet application install.

The fit is just about 1-2 mm larger than the screen so it only covers the screen and really works well with my case. The case is quite narrow for one with a kickstand and been very happy with the $10 purchase for it.

thacounty · Sep 13, 2012

pmoradi2002 said:
I guarantee you they will have issues calling it glass. You guys have no idea how dumb people are when it comes to these things.

Everyone in every retail setting will tell you customers are dumb. Letting those customers know on a forum is a bad thing for your business.

RebDovid · Sep 13, 2012

From the DBA website, it appears that this is a fairly new company; a start-up by one individual. Do we have any independent evaluation of his claims regarding his screen protector and cases?

kuratsu · Sep 13, 2012

So this only covers the screen area and not the full frontal glass?

molitar · Sep 13, 2012

kuratsu said:
So this only covers the screen area and not the full frontal glass?

Yes just like the pictures show. You can see the edges on the top down view of the phone. It's the area I was worried about and it is not rubbery or tacky like on my mothers Skinomi.

molitar · Sep 14, 2012

Century21J said:
:good:

I'm guessing that's what the other guy did for spectre?

this looks promising. the thing i hate about wet application is the tacky feel to it. but if this promises to be "just like glass", might be worth trying it out.

Yeah it's not a bad price and definitely not rubbery/tacky at all. BTW if you have any other questions on it let me know I'll answer to the best of my knowledge this was my first actual review so hope I covered all the bases in what was important to know

Hope it was useful to you all.

SSHGuru · Sep 14, 2012

Just Like Glass Screen Protectors

Hey all,

I'm not really new but I tend to post on other forums. I come here for the good stuff on rooting.

I'm the CEO of DBA Cases, Inc.

I did start the company, however I had several investors. After having an Original Droid, a Bionic, and a Galaxy Nexus I had a very good idea of what people liked.

Personally I hated screen protectors and was not going to sell one until we came up with this. I have it on my phone and love it. It protects against breaks as well - my photographer asked me why I went into making cases so I took the phone out of the case and it squirted out of my hand - hit the wall and then our tile floor. No damage at all to the phone but a very small micro scratch on the Just Like Glass Protector. It probably would have shattered. I've found that the most you can do is give it micro scratches - you can't feel them or see them with the screen on. That's what I got from the fall and it doesn't bother me at all.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Scott

SSHGuru · Sep 14, 2012

molitar said:
Nice idea but I can not buy any case without a kickstand I watch alot of videos on mine.

I completely understand. I wanted to put a kickstand on the Ultra but it would have been too bulky. Also the cost of adding a kickstand is nearly the same amount as making the mold for the case.

I have a different solution I use.

I'm planning on making my own stand but I have them wherever I may need it.

---------- Post added at 10:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:30 PM ----------

While I'm taking pictures...

The Ultra and the Thin Grip

Please ignore the mess behind them.

molitar · Sep 14, 2012

The case does not look that much skinnier than the Amaze I am using which does have a kickstand.

floge · Sep 14, 2012

Promising

Looks pretty cool. How does it keep your screen safe? doest it last well?

molitar · Sep 14, 2012

SSHGuru said:
How can you tell how thin the cases are from my picture

Stands must be made out of polycarbonate or abs in order to hold the case up. That means some bulk. It doesn't have to be a ton but I looked into a ton of stands and didn't decide to do it.

I wanted to - in fact I was going to make a stand of the same material they use in snap watches would would be made of TPU. Press a button and the stand comes out and can bend.

Problem is that it increases the cost of the case by at least $10,000. In fact I was talking to the CEO of another case company last week and he said it took three molds to make his stand. That's a ton of money.

Since I had a budget I decided to do without - some day.

Both of my cases could not be any thinner than they are.

I was looking at the depth where the camera lens is. Yes it is a thinner but I was just commenting not that much thinner considering that the Amaze is a bit thicker with the kickstand. I really am impressed how thin the Amaze is with a kickstand as most are bulky considerably with a kickstand. The sides look the same almost in width as yours but the back is probably about twice as thick as yours due to the kickstand. It may not be a very strong kickstand but strong enough for regular use as long as don't drop it with it out as it has the really skinny piece of support plastic that holds it open the other part of the kickstand is quite thick. The stand itself is about 2mm thick and the plastic support is only I would say about 1mm thick.

Now the screwdriver portion was not that impressive as there is no way to tell how much force is being used each time. But the screwdriver and rotary was quite impressive as there was no getting around how hard the screen was being hit by that key. The only thing I notice is the oil from my hands tends to smudge the screen more than the glass but for the protection I can live with that but would be nice if they found a way to eliminate some of the smudges with it. Other than that really happy with the screen and registering on the site for the replacement so I can get this one replaced without the 4 dimple spots. BTW a video installing it would be a good idea I used the shower method in bathroom for dust and lint.

SSHGuru · Sep 14, 2012

molitar said:
I was looking at the depth where the camera lens is. Yes it is a thinner but I was just commenting not that much thinner considering that the Amaze is a bit thicker with the kickstand. I really am impressed how thin the Amaze is with a kickstand as most are bulky considerably with a kickstand. The sides look the same almost in width as yours but the back is probably about twice as thick as yours due to the kickstand. It may not be a very strong kickstand but strong enough for regular use as long as don't drop it with it out as it has the really skinny piece of support plastic that holds it open the other part of the kickstand is quite thick. The stand itself is about 2mm thick and the plastic support is only I would say about 1mm thick.

Now the screwdriver portion was not that impressive as there is no way to tell how much force is being used each time. But the screwdriver and rotary was quite impressive as there was no getting around how hard the screen was being hit by that key. The only thing I notice is the oil from my hands tends to smudge the screen more than the glass but for the protection I can live with that but would be nice if they found a way to eliminate some of the smudges with it. Other than that really happy with the screen and registering on the site for the replacement so I can get this one replaced without the 4 dimple spots. BTW a video installing it would be a good idea I used the shower method in bathroom for dust and lint.

We are going to do a video soon for installing but the instructions on the site are the newest versions. Doing it in the shower is the safest method but if I suggest it people probably will freak out about how hard it is when it's really pretty easy.

In the video that was a glass puncher. I know it's hard to tell how hard it's being pushed but it's the same force. One is done on the film which stops the force and one on the glass which does not. The key test was pretty intense and then taking the rotary to it was cool. (if people are wondering it's on the Facebook page).

Samsung with the Galaxy Nexus and the S3 have made great glass that doesn't pick up prints. The one irritation about the protector I have is that it does. Not terribly but I'm used to not worrying about it. We are working on a way to get rid of the micro scratches and the fingerprints. The problem is if we add a layer it makes it feel more plastic and ruins the visibility. It has to be a chemistry solution and I didn't take chemistry in college so I just ask them to try...

chrischoi · Sep 14, 2012

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151389828738942

WinDroidGuy · Sep 14, 2012

I wonder how these screen protectors compare to the ZAGG EXTREME

DBA "Just Like Glass®" Screen Protector - ZAGG Killer?

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