I want to share my first experience with hydrogel plastic film screen protectors.
I prefer to use glass screen protectors because they are very transparent and offer the best protection. Due to their rigidity, they are actually very easy to install on flat screens. These days with curved screens, glass protectors don't always fit well along the edges as glass will not bend. This turned out to be the case for the OnePlus 7T that I recently purchased. The glass protector was slightly lifted along the edge.
The fall back was to use a plastic screen protector which I have not used ever since glass became popular. The one I ordered on eBay was referred to as hydrogel film. I did not really pay much attention to this description. Anyway, this film turned out to be a whole lot thinner than the old plastic film of the past. I would characterize it as thick saran wrap and just as easy to wrinkle. I had a heck of a time scraping out the bubbles. The install looked like a total catastrophe. I did a bit of reading on the characteristics of hydrogel film. It turns out that I should not have tried to scrape the bubbles out. The bubbles will disappear on their own. Fortunately, the wrinkles I put on the thin film are self healing. This morning, practically all of the distortions on the film have magically disappeared. I expect the larger distortions to be gone by end of day. What a miracle film!
First impressions with the wrinkles gone is hydrofilm is definitely not as transparent as glass. Given the thinness of the film, it does not materially affect or distort the viewing experience. The self healing feature should work well on minor scratches. I am not ready to abandon glass protectors altogether. I would definitely recommend hydrogel film for forgiveness of installation and 100% compatibility with curved screens.
