One of the most annoying things about the Switch (apart from the lack of Bluetooth for wireless audio) is the fact that the screen is notoriously easy to damage and scratch. Now, for the most part... I'm the sort of guy that takes care of his electronics... I never have scratches or cracks on the screens of my phones/tablets/computers. It's not that I'm being extra careful or anything... I just don't know how other people manage to damage them if they are using them normally....

Anyway, even with my "normal" handling of electronics... the Switch is still something that needs to be treated with a touch of extra care. The front screen is just a regular plastic front, not Gorilla Glass or anything like that... so, quite prone to showing scratches... but a little less likely to shatter. Anyway, with the advent of Fire Emblem and the fact that I'm doing a great deal of travelling this month... it means that I'm taking the Switch out more often to be gaming on the go... which means that the risk of damaging the screen starts to go up.

Well.. I already knew when I bought the Switch, that the front screen was easy to scratch... but in the time that I've had it, there has been no accidents. However, I did buy this set of 3 tempered glass protectors for the screen. Which I left sitting around for ages... partly out of procrastination... and mostly out of fear of doing a bad job and getting air bubbles on the screen.... which really sucks when you are playing a game!

Actually, the instructions look pretty straight-forward... and it did say that it was pretty easy to apply... with no air bubbles. Mostly, it was a swab with alcohol to clean the screen and then apply the tempered glass. As someone who regularly tinkers around with the insides of computers, this should be a doddle...

Honestly, in hindsight, the hardest thing was actually opening the packaging... I guess it was made to protect the tempered glass (which is resistant to scratching, but prone to shattering...). It was sealed pretty damn tight with glue and foam... I really should have brought a knife to this fight....

The cleaning process is pretty easy... First, a rub down with a microfibre cloth then an alcohol swab followed by a dry swab to dry the excess alcohol. So, pretty much exactly like replacing the thermal paste of a CPU/GPU. Well... even easier... as you don't need to apply any thermal paste!

This was followed by the tempered glass application... which is really quite easy... the adhesive on the back really grabbed easily, and it was just a matter of gently lowering it into place (making sure that the orientation was right... or you would have some blocked audio speakers!).

So, here is my newly shielded Switch.... ready for a month of gaming on the go whilst travelling with kids! That screen is definitely well protected from scratches (I'm not testing it...). Although, the glass is slightly more reflective than the original screen front.... but I guess that is the price that you pay for the scratch protection... that said, the screen brightness of the Switch isn't that great anyway... so you wouldn't be playing it much outdoors in bright light anyway (another potential fix for the next revision....)!

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