Crystal clear

I recently tried to apply a screen protector onto my Albook’s LCD screen.

You don’t know the meaning of hell until you trying installing one of these.

Arghhhh.

I spent two hours trying to put it on flawlessly. And failed. I thought it would be a piece of cake since I’m an old hand sticking them onto my PDA and cellphone screens, but putting a protector on a laptop is literally 10x harder by physical area alone, not to mention the skill it requires to apply something that huge.

I used a Capdase Professional ScreenGuard (Crystal Clear), which, applied properly, makes the screen look like smooth clear glass – that is, if you can apply it properly. It’s a matter of keeping the screen clean, uncovering a portion of the protector and attaching it to one edge of the screen, gradually peeling off the backing and simultaneously pressing it into place, constantly smoothening and sticking it down gently. If bubbles appear (usually because of uneven placement or dust on the screen) just pull it back up and reseat it, cleaning and smoothening as you go. You do it back and forth, over and over, coaxing the bubbles out until the whole thing is settled in.

Which is something nearly impossible. I asked the folk at the store if they’d install it for me, and they shook their heads. No way. Uh. So I went home and tried.

This is what I learned: make sure your work area is immaculately clean, and the air very still. Air conditioning and electric fans blow up the dust and dirt and dog hair all over the place and right in between the protector and screen. So do people passing by and taking a look at what the hell it is you’re doing. Try not to kill them when they swish by and stir up the dust. And always remember that dogs are the avowed traditional arch-enemy of the unattached screen protector, and have been for millennia.

All this advice is of course gleaned from my recent experience. It’s too late to help me now, but someday you might make some use of them.

In the end, I got two-thirds of the protector down perfectly, but the last third was impossible. Having five dogs at home was my downfall, I think. I had to settle for the right side of my screen to be a bubbly mess. But I vow to try installing it again when I have some free time and the dogs are somehow out of the house.

Of course none of this would even be necessary if Apple had these things factory-installed in the first place. Or they made it so that the keytops don’t leave marks on the LCD. Or made sturdier and hardier screen surfaces.

Oh well.