DON'T buy a Screen Protector before watching this.

Slight clarification:
-The two cheaper screen protectors, don't claim to be level 9 in hardness specifically, but claim to be "9H". The point I should have added is that 9H is not the same as 9, and that 9H is MUCH weaker, but is used by these companies because it sounds a lot like "level 9", when it actually isn't - which you'll see demonstrated in the video.
Thanks for watching once again, really appreciate it ❤️

A wise man once said, "Scratches at a level 6; with deeper grooves at a level 7."

"Glass is glass and glass breaks."

-JerryRigEverything

Hardness and impact resistance are different things though. Even watches with sapphire glass can be shattered. Technically, the only purpose of a screen protector is to act as a "sacrificial" layer in case of accidental impact that could be easily replaced with least $$ by the user.

A bit late to the party, but here is my opinion as I have worked on cracked resistance for ion exchanged glass for some years.
Before going too technical, a glass protector will mainly help you avoid scratched to the main glass screen... which usually is very tedious to replace. You could use a plastic screen protector but it will scratch way easier.
Sapphire is no gimmick, it will truely prevent more scratches... but for x80 the price, you could simply buy more cheap ones tbh.
Breackage on glass is very particular, it is no metal that breaks always after a certain threshold. Breackage is related to the amount of tension applied to it (for phones in the form of an impact) and is inversely proportional to the square of the defects of the glass. Theoretically, glass can whithstand a crazy amount of force, but due to manufacturing processes and manipulation, almost invisible scratches are always formed.
Due to this, to measure crack resistance on glass, you need to perform multiple crack tests and use the assumption that the surviability follows a Weibull distribution. By multiple, I mean at least 30 samples. Test usually starts at low levels of impacts and goes higher. Test ends when one sample breaks and that energy is the one recorded for the statistics.
To that... if your glass had scratches beforehand, you will significantly lower it's impact resistance... so you either have 2 options... you could use pristine samples for every test, or you could perform an homogeneous scratch to each sample to standarized scratch depths. Counterintuitively, this last option is preferred, you purposely do scratches bigger than the ones your glass had due to manipulation, therefore substantially decreasing the influence of scratches due to manufacturing and manipulation.
That said, with this theory in mind... for a 'practical' but yet scientific approach on glass protectors for phones, I could suggest a drop test of phones from a set height. Is possible, have the phone be guided so that always lands on the same surface/corner.
Good work btw, the video was interesting.

One last thing, as a rule of thumb, when a glass protector (or glass) breaks, the more 'lines' or 'pieces' that are generated, the more energy the glass has released. So if the glass is completly shattered where you could barely see the screen, then the protector has 'absorbed' a lot of energy that otherwise would have gone into your main phone glass. Another good test is to perform a 3 or 4 point bending test on the protectors, and measure the amount of cracks it gets. The more cracks, the better (and more force was required to break). This is related to the ion exchange process that these glasses were supposed to be applied. To that said... Corning was the pioneer on engineering a glass that optimizes the IOX.

The great thing about a $1 screen protector getting scratched is that you can just replace it with another $1 screen protector and still be $78 ahead.

As a wise man once said: Glass is Glass. And glass breaks.

a phone droppimg on concrete vs concrete dropping on a phone are 2 very different things, with 2 very different forces and velocities to consider....

The brick test, while entertaining, is a pretty poor simulation of any actual usage. Screens break mostly when phones are dropped, not when heavy things are dropped onto them.
Having said that, this was a very useful video. I typically go with a $1 per sheet screen protector that I buy on eBay. I dropped my phone from time to time, and while I get occasional cracks or scratches on the screen protector I have never damaged the underlying screen when I use these screen protectors.
Thanks for a great and entertaining video.

"Scratches at level 6, with deeper groove at level 7" -Jerry Rig Everything

„Scratches at level 6, with deeper grooves at level 7”

There are 2 things to protect:

If you want to protect against scratches, either get the cheapest ones and replace when there's too many scratches OR get the sapphire.

If you want to protect against drops and cracks, get a phone case.

Back in the days, I bought the first Huawei Watch it comes with Saphire as the front glass. i use the watch everyday to this day and it still haven't got a single scratch on the screen. i even wore it when i hands on renovated our entire house! and still Not a single scratch. saphire might be more expensive but its worth every single penny!

Normal ppl: buys screen protector for their phone
Mrwhosetheboss: buys phones for his screen protectors😂

"let's see what happens"
*Proceeds to drop a brick on an iphone*
"It's absolutely destroyed!"
Well no fucking shit

Personnel I think I will go with the $5 or less screen protector. And if I'm dumb enough to drop a brick on my phone or run over it. I'll use my $5 a month insurance and fix it for $25 at the shop down the road or get the phone replaced. Great video!

My track record at installing Screen Protectors, even those touted as "bubble free," is beyond dismal.
Apple used to (maybe they still do) install them for you, using a gizmo that looked like a sandwich toaster.
Were I to fork out £$80, there's no way I'd fit one myself.
There's a serious gap in the market for companies that fit them for you. Here in the UK, they're very thin on the ground.
Carphone Warehouse used to do it for a fiver, but they don't exist in the High Street anymore!

I think the brick test was probably unsurvivable without additional cases, etc; Sapphire is tougher as well as harder, so it makes sense that it did a little better there, but... screen protectors are replaceable - get the cheapest one that's good and treat it as sacrificial

Arun : "no scratches or grooves at level 7"
Jerryrigeverything: "impossible"

Thanks for this video, I've always wondered how reliable some of these expensive screen protector brands actually were. I think your "brick test" at the end might have been overkill... most screen protectors seem to me to be manufactured to protect the phone if you happen to drop it accidentally on the pavement or something. Either way, I can't see spending eighty dollars on one, even though it obviously performed the best... that's ridiculous.