In my quest for something that would protect the screen on my G-Tablet, I came across the Skinomi TechSkins on Amazon. Since the full-body skin was only $4 more than the screen protector alone, I decided to go with the silver imitation carbon fiber skin. I received it last week, and slapped it on in about half an hour all told. The following are my impressions of the installation process and of the product itself.
Installation prep:
Obviously, you want the surface to be clean, and Skinomi is cool enough to include a spray bottle of cleaner with the kit. The solution seems to do a good job of cleaning grease and grime without leaving streaks. They are serious when they say you need a lint-free cloth. I just used the green polish cloth that came with the G-Tablet, which is actually NOT lint free, but it only dropped a few specs, which I was able to spot before I laid down the skin.
Installation process:
The adhesive that Skinomi uses is VERY sticky, but it also seems to come off clean, and it doesn't fully set for a few minutes, so if your skin is off-center, you can adjust it. The skin clings to curves and contours very well, which is good for the G-Tablet, with its contoured back. The back skin went on pretty easily, but the screen skin was trickier. I think if I were to do it again, I would have gotten my wife to give me an extra hand in laying it down. Trying to wrangle an adhesive strip the size of the G-Tablet is tricky for sure. An extra hand would have gone a long way.
Two slightly annoying observations: The holes for the screws on the back are not actually centered quite right. Not a big deal unless you are really anal, but it's still a little disappointing. Also, the pieces that go around the edges don't actually make it all the way around the G-Tablet. There are six pieces, and they add up to about 1/4" short. This wouldn't be a big deal if I had know this going in, but as it turned out, I didn't notice it until after the pieces were on, and I was past the point of no turning back. I think the idea is that you are to touch the two top and bottom pieces in the middle (just above the webcam, and at the dock port) and then leave a symetrical gap on the side pieces. At least, that's what I would do if I were to do it again.
Post-installation impressions:
I'm VERY happy with the TechSkin itself, although I am slightly disappointed in my own work in installing it, at least the side pieces. I ended up with a few small (maybe 1/16") bubbles of solution under the screen skin, but they faded out in about three days, much to my delight. The screen skin is slightly sticky right out of the box, but after a bit of use, it seems to absorb a bit of your body oils and becomes just as slick as the original screen. All of the parts seem to be extremely durable. I had to try pretty hard to leave any sort of indentation in either the carbon fiber skin or the screen skin.
Another VERY cool aspect of the screen skin is that it actually seems to help the viewing angles a bit. Not a ton (it's still not an iPad) but I would say that it seems to add an extra 5-10* of viewing with the webcam angled away from you, which is where the G-Tablet seems to be really lacking. It also shows FAR fewer fingerprints than the bare screen, which is worth the money on its own.
The fake carbon fiber looks pretty nice, and adds a bit of texture, which makes it much more comfortable to hold for long periods. The edges are just slightly jagged, but they seem to get smoothed out after a few days of handling for the most part.
Overall, I would rate the TechSkin package at a 9.5/10. If they had more complete directions that show how the individual pieces are supposed to fit, this would be a 10.
Installation prep:
Obviously, you want the surface to be clean, and Skinomi is cool enough to include a spray bottle of cleaner with the kit. The solution seems to do a good job of cleaning grease and grime without leaving streaks. They are serious when they say you need a lint-free cloth. I just used the green polish cloth that came with the G-Tablet, which is actually NOT lint free, but it only dropped a few specs, which I was able to spot before I laid down the skin.
Installation process:
The adhesive that Skinomi uses is VERY sticky, but it also seems to come off clean, and it doesn't fully set for a few minutes, so if your skin is off-center, you can adjust it. The skin clings to curves and contours very well, which is good for the G-Tablet, with its contoured back. The back skin went on pretty easily, but the screen skin was trickier. I think if I were to do it again, I would have gotten my wife to give me an extra hand in laying it down. Trying to wrangle an adhesive strip the size of the G-Tablet is tricky for sure. An extra hand would have gone a long way.
Two slightly annoying observations: The holes for the screws on the back are not actually centered quite right. Not a big deal unless you are really anal, but it's still a little disappointing. Also, the pieces that go around the edges don't actually make it all the way around the G-Tablet. There are six pieces, and they add up to about 1/4" short. This wouldn't be a big deal if I had know this going in, but as it turned out, I didn't notice it until after the pieces were on, and I was past the point of no turning back. I think the idea is that you are to touch the two top and bottom pieces in the middle (just above the webcam, and at the dock port) and then leave a symetrical gap on the side pieces. At least, that's what I would do if I were to do it again.
Post-installation impressions:
I'm VERY happy with the TechSkin itself, although I am slightly disappointed in my own work in installing it, at least the side pieces. I ended up with a few small (maybe 1/16") bubbles of solution under the screen skin, but they faded out in about three days, much to my delight. The screen skin is slightly sticky right out of the box, but after a bit of use, it seems to absorb a bit of your body oils and becomes just as slick as the original screen. All of the parts seem to be extremely durable. I had to try pretty hard to leave any sort of indentation in either the carbon fiber skin or the screen skin.
Another VERY cool aspect of the screen skin is that it actually seems to help the viewing angles a bit. Not a ton (it's still not an iPad) but I would say that it seems to add an extra 5-10* of viewing with the webcam angled away from you, which is where the G-Tablet seems to be really lacking. It also shows FAR fewer fingerprints than the bare screen, which is worth the money on its own.
The fake carbon fiber looks pretty nice, and adds a bit of texture, which makes it much more comfortable to hold for long periods. The edges are just slightly jagged, but they seem to get smoothed out after a few days of handling for the most part.
Overall, I would rate the TechSkin package at a 9.5/10. If they had more complete directions that show how the individual pieces are supposed to fit, this would be a 10.
I remember glancing over the instructions... my bad. I was just so used to putting skins on other things... my phone, my ebook reader, my zune, hell even my phone back in the days that I had a flip phone that I guess I got ahead of myself. I do better with dry based applications obviously. 