Why I can’t stand privacy screen protectors on my smartphones

I’ve been using screen protectors for a long time. Even though I’m careful with my devices, I can’t guarantee that another person won’t knock my phone out of my hand or that I won’t slip and fall while using it. With the cost of display replacements and the fact that phone insurance can take two weeks to fix a phone, it’s not worth the risk. Screen protectors never bothered me until recently when I tried a privacy screen protector on my Galaxy S24 Ultra for the first time, and I truly could not tolerate it.

What are privacy screen protectors?

Privacy screen protectors have been around for a long time. They restrict the viewing angles of the display, so if you view it from the side, it appears blank, preventing snooping. They work a bit like a Venetian blind, but the slats are so small that you can see the screen clearly when looking at it head-on, at least in theory.

Why do I hate them?

I don’t need a product giving me more migraines

There are a host of drawbacks. For one, screen quality is compromised. Although the slats allow you to use the screen when holding it at the usual angle, they aren’t invisible. The display takes on a grainy quality, and it looks awful. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has one of the best displays I’ve ever used, and ruining that experience with a screen protector seems ludicrous.

Beyond making the display’s quality worse, the screen protector made it feel like the screen had a parallax effect, which almost instantly gave me a migraine. To be fair, I am far more sensitive to things like this than most; migraines have been the bane of my existence for almost half my life. But even so, many others have sensitivities, and products can enhance the issue.

These issues aren’t relegated to the one screen protector I tried from amFilm. My wife uses one on the cover screen on her Z Flip 5, and when I tried using that after my review, I had the same issue. It’s not as egregious here as the cover screen isn’t something most people will use for extended sessions, but even so, it ruined the experience for me.

And they really don’t perform that well

The other issue I have with privacy screen protectors is that they aren’t very effective. Sure, if you’re sitting next to someone, it’ll make it harder for them to view your screen, but there would have to be a pretty big gap to assume an extreme enough angle for the protector to work its magic. Likewise, it only blocks the screen along the horizontal axis when the phone is held in portrait, so if you’re watching a landscape video, whoever is next to you will see everything. And no matter the orientation, if someone can look over your shoulder, they’ll see everything anyway.

I can’t think of a situation where I’d be doing something on my phone, in public, that was sensitive enough that I’d want to hide it at all costs. And if I were and someone was close enough to warrant using this screen protector, I’d just wait until they were gone or tilt the phone away from them. Sometimes, the simplest solution is the most effective.

Protection over privacy

If you do want a screen protector for your S24 Ultra, there are far better products available that actually offer value for money and protection and don’t give you mind-melting migraines every time you look at them.