How to install a tempered glass screen protector

A step-by-step install for tempered glass screen protectors, with the dust routine that decides whether the sheet lands clean.

Clean the room before the screen

Dust is the whole game. Run a hot shower for two minutes and work in the bathroom afterwards, or simply wait until the room has been still for an hour. Lay a towel down. Wash your hands. Almost every bubble that will not leave is a particle, and almost every particle arrives in the thirty seconds between the last wipe and the glass going down.

Use both wipes, in order

The wet wipe takes off grease, the dry cloth takes off the moisture the wet wipe leaves. Then the sticker — press it over the whole surface and lift, twice. Hold the device to a window at a shallow angle: if you can see a single speck, it is still there, and it will be a crater under the tempered glass.

Let the tray do the alignment

If your set has a OneTouch frame, clip it over the device, peel the backing, drop the sheet in and press once in the middle. Do not hold the glass over the screen while you line it up by eye — that is the moment dust falls. Without a tray, use the guide stickers as a hinge and lower the sheet from one edge.

Press from the middle outward

Touch the centre once and let the adhesive crawl to the edges on its own. It takes about ten seconds and it looks like a wave. Resist pushing the edges down first, which traps air in the middle with nowhere to go.

Give the edges a day

Small bubbles at the rim will clear themselves over twenty-four hours as the adhesive settles. If one sits in the middle and does not move, it is a particle: lift the corner with tape, lift the speck with the same tape, lay the sheet back down. If the result is poor, fit the spare — that is why it is in the box.

More from the bench

• Tempered glass against plastic film
• Clear, matte and privacy tempered glass screen protector finishes
• Removing and replacing a screen protector