[Intro]
Each of these three items has one thing in common: sapphire.
Pure synthetic sapphire is one of the hardest minerals on the planet, usually falling at
an 8 or a 9 on Mohs Scale of Hardness – right below the hardness level of diamonds.
While regular clear glass and clear sapphire might look the same on the outside, they are
actually made from entirely different materials.
Tissot, a watch manufacturer, uses sapphire instead of glass on their premium watches.
This makes sense from a durability perspective because the sapphire will remain scratch free
forever, unless your watch is coming in contact with diamonds on a regular bases.
Of course glass would be cheaper to manufacture, but it also scratches at a level 5 or 6.
Sapphire is much more expensive to make, but its hardness level and scratch resistance
makes it very appealing for use in high-end gadgets and electronics.
HTC recently released a special deluxe sapphire version of their HTC U Ultra, with a sapphire
crystal display.
This sapphire version of the Ultra is being slowly rolled out to multiple countries at
the moment, and somehow dbrand managed to score me one of the early ones for my tests
– so thanks for the pink phone guys.
I appreciate it.
If you can overlook a few missing features and a lack of a headphone jack, the HTC U
Ultra is actually a pretty good looking phone on the outside.
This cosmetic pink finish is rather exquisite.
And last but not least, we have the most expensive screen protector in the world from Zagg, costing
a mind blowing 50 US dollars.
This Zagg screen protector advertises a hybrid glass with real sapphire crystals infused
inside of the protector.
The box also claims unparalleled scratch protection so we’ll have to see how this holds up.
So far its feeling and acting a lot like plastic.
Today we’re going to find out which of these devices are using real quality sapphire and
which companies are just taking advantage of this sapphire hypetrain and using advertising
buzz words to empty the wallets of their unsuspecting customers.
One of the easiest ways to tell different minerals apart is by their hardness level.
Plastic scratches at a level 3, glass is a 5 or a 6, and sapphire would be an 8 or a
9.
Diamonds are the hardest mineral on earth, topping the scale at a level 10.
Mohs scale has been used by geologists and scientists for over 200 years now.
I’ll go down the line scratching each sapphire object in order with the same tip to see which
one scratches first.
Already at a level 3, we start running into problems with that unmatched scratch protection
on the world’s most expensive screen protector.
Pretty embarrassing.
It is very heavily scratched at a level 3, just like we would see on any other plastic
screen or plastic screen protector that would cost a few pennies.
Very disappointing.
You might be better off just taping a 50 dollar bill to the front of your phone and hoping
for the best.
Last time I checked, sapphire doesn’t catch fire either.
Plastic, on the other hand, would catch fire.
Not sure why this protector marketed as a hybrid glass material when it’s clearly
neither glass nor sapphire.
Now you might be thinking to yourself, Hey Jerry, isn’t false advertising illegal?
But before we grab the pitchforks though, I did do an elemental analysis of this screen
protector and I did find trace amounts of aluminum oxide inside of the plastic.
So technically Zagg isn’t lying about the elemental makeup of the protector.
They did toss some aluminum dust into the mix, but it’s still pretty darn sketchy
advertising in my opinion and this melted glob of plastic defiantly does not live up
to the hype on the box; so don’t buy this.
The levels 2 and 3 pick did absolutely nothing to the HTC U Ultra, nor the Tissot watch,
so no surprises there.
Now levels 4 and 5 picks are still relatively soft metals.
These are where most razor blades, keys and coins would fall.
Like nickel is a level 4 and steel is 4.5.
And still the watch is unscathed.
Normal glass won’t start to scratch until level 5 or 6, and if you’ve watched any
of my other videos, the majority of tempered glass smart phones these days will scratch
at a 6.
I did run into a problem a few months ago with the impure sapphire that Apple is using
on their camera lenses.
This also scratched at a level 6.
I made a whole video on that subject which I’ll link in the video description.
Either way, level 6 and 7 are where things usually start to get interesting.
I honestly had zero expectations for this HTC Ultra.
It’s incredibly hard to make pure sapphire.
Sapphire is actually grown inside of large furnaces and because of it’s hardness level
and brittleness.
The shaping process is very difficult, especially when creating larger objects like phone displays.
The company that was contracted to make the sapphire displays for Apple’s old iPhone
6 actually went bankrupt trying.
So it’s impressive that HTC has gotten this far.
And we can see here that the level 6 and 7 picks did absolutely nothing to the display
of the HTC U Ultra sapphire edition.
Only when we started scratching with the levels 8 and 9 is where we start to see some damage.
Both the sapphire Ultra and the Tissot watch face have started to scratch.
It does look like HTC was true to their marketing though and they use solid quality sapphire.
I am very impressed.
The sapphire crystal screen of the HTC U Ultra is the most scratch resistant smart phone
screen I have ever tested.
It definitely deserves a thumbs up.
Keep in mind that not every Ultra is sapphire.
If this is a special edition phone, that does cost a lot more.
So the Tissot watch passes the sapphire test.
And the HTC U Ultra definitely passes as well.
But that 50 dollar sapphire defense hybrid screen protector from Zagg is an overpriced,
overhyped, buzz word filled piece of advertising garbage that takes advantage of unsuspecting
old ladies who don’t know any better.
I’m seriously not a fan.
You’re better off buying a 5 pack of screen protectors from Amazon for a dollar a piece.
I’ll link some in the description of this video.
If HTC can bring back all the flagship features they dropped from the Ultra and pop a sapphire
display on their next flagship phone, they might have an epic winner on their hands.
I have my fingers crossed for HTC.
If you know someone who could use some real sapphire on their smartphone, or protection
from fake sapphire, show them this video.
And if you want sapphire on your phone, let me know in the comments.
Thanks a ton for watching.
I’ll see you around.