Question: How do I prevent cracking a screen?
Answer: Don't have a display for your device. Or a suggestion the tiniest bit more practical, just don't open the laptop or take out the tablet or phone.... Seriously, everybody needs a display (except for enterprise types who like to run "headless,"but that's a different story...) and if you take your device into the wild,you will at some point encounter screen-destroying events. How to avoid screen breakage, then requires a multi-pronged approach.
What causes screens to break? It could be any of a number of things:
- Kids
- Adults
- Horseplay,
- Striking, throwing or closing the laptop, tablet or monitor,
- Foreign objects closed up in the laptop between the keyboard and screen,
- Someone trying to get your attention by punching you in the backpack
- A hundred other causes...
- In regard to protecting the actual screen, two schools of thought have developed, the differences between them are typified by the Corning Gorilla glass vs. Sapphire glass battle. Corning believes that stronger, more impact resistant glass, able to take the blows rained down on it will rule the world, and Apple Computer is betting that superior scratch resistance and the avoidance of the weaknesses scratches produce will win the day. So, in light of that,here's what works:
- Sir Lancelot's Armor, producers of Bulletproof Glass.
- Zagg makers of "Invisible Shield."
- Corning, inventors of Gorilla Glass.
- Apple Computer, owner of a huge chunk of sapphire glass production
- BodyGuardz producers of UltraTough ScreenGuardz
- Sometimes, ruggedizing the computer case yields satisfactory results. Just ask these companies; their sales indicate that the toughest environments demand the toughest computers:
- Panasonic, makers of the Toughbook line of fully rugged laptops and convertibles and Toughpad Tablets.
- Getac, makers of the Fully Rugged lines of laptops, tablets and handhelds.
- Dell, builders of the Latitude ATG and Latitude XFR rugged and semi-rugged laptops.
- GT (General Technics, Inc.) makers of the RhinoBook notebooks.
- Lastly, exterior protection will yield satisfactory results. Gone are the days when we would think nothing of tossing our laptop into a day pack or book bag and heading out into the wild asphalt yonder... or are they. True, many times, that's where they were when they were corner dropped, or punched in the back of the screen by some big, dark thing that hits laptops in day packs. As with the screen protectors, there are (generally) two schools of thought. It boils down to this: hard or soft. Hard cases are just that; solid plastic or aluminum exteriors typically, with padded insides including partitions for all the little bits. Soft is a little...well, softer; usually a pack or messenger bag outfitted with padded sides to cushion the inevitable blows while maintaining a sense of urban style. Above, I said "generally," because of a third type of laptop bag, developed in response, no doubt, to the needs of frequent flyers who expressed a desire for something different, and so the "roller" or rolling bag was developed, letting travelers tow the sometimes formidable load of technology, rather that haul it by hand or strapped to their backs or shoulders. So let's examine the last group of screen protective measures; laptop and tablet bags:
- Pelican is world renown for hard cases and makes laptop, tablet and iPod cases
- CaseLogic produces a wide spectrum of products from padded hard cases to padded packs.
- Targus produces a full line as well, including some great rollers.
- Generically speaking, anyone can make a good bag. Look for one that is attractive, protects well and meets your price preference. Boom! Protection.
Sign up here with your email
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon