The words “2D”, “2.5D” or “3D” in the mobile phone screen protector industry are attributes specifically for the tempered glass screen protector. The mobile phone tempered glass is created to protect the mobile phone screen, so the mobile phone screen protector or mobile phone tempered glass is closely related to mobile phone display.
What is a 2D tempered glass screen protector?
The screen protector is an accessory developing along with smart phone. The screen surface of early smart phones (to be precise, the protective glass above the screen panel) is flat. It is also a so-called “2D” screen (glass), the frame is parallel, or the screen is wrapped in the frame. The tempered glass of the mobile phone launched at the same time is also called 2D. The attribute “2D” is similar to the “2D” of mobile phone display, the edge of the tempered glass is a 90-degree right angle, like ordinary glass, there is no treatment on edge, so it is sharp in edge, obviously, this kind of 2D tempered glass has a bad touch feeling in edge, it might be easily to cut finger, user experience is quite bad. 2D tempered glass has been eliminated from the market.
2.5D tempered glass is an upgrade version of 2D screen protector
As shown in the figure above, the 2.5D tempered glass is an upgraded version of the 2D tempered glass. In fact, the 2.5D tempered glass is still closely related to the development of the mobile phone display. In 2014, with the launch of iPhone 6, a product called ” “2.5D water drop display” has gradually become the mainstream of the market (iPhone 6 is not the first to launch 2.5D display, but it has the most far-reaching impact). Compared with 2D screen, 2.5D screen is often slightly higher than the frame, and the edges of the screen are designed with a curved shape, which looks like water droplets floating on the surface of the fuselage from the side. In the tempered glass industry, “2.5D” has also been introduced, just like the 2.5D mobile phone display, the 2.5D screen is flat, but the edge is curved, edges of the 2.5D tempered glass are smooth polished, hand feeling are much better, and it looks gorgeous, high-end, 2.5D tempered film is the current market mainstream.
3D tempered glass is for curved display
The 3D tempered glass is still related to the evolution of mobile phone displays. Also in 2014, Samsung pushed the phone screen to the “3D” era through the Galaxy Note Edge, which greatly curved the right side of the screen to present a visual effect similar to a 3D curved surface.
That’s right, this curved screen design is the so-called “3D curved screen” (the 3D curved edge comes to both sides after Samsung Note Edge), which makes the black edges of the display invisible when watching from the front.
Mobile phone tempered glass manufacturers have had difficulties at the beginning of mobile phones with 3D curved screen, as curved screen is completely different from those 2D or 2.5D flat displays. Imagine the feeling of applying a flat 2.5D tempered glass on a Samsung curved screen mobile phone, how? The mobile phone screen protector is unable to fit well on curved edge of the mobile phone display, a 2.5D screen protector is unable to cover to curved edge on display. because the 2.5D tempered glass is flat at all. when your finger slides to the edge of the mobile phone screen after a 2.5D screen protector is applied, you will definitely feel painful like a 2D screen protector, and the appearance looks ugly when a 2.5D screen protector is applied.I am sure that no people is willing to have a flat 2.5D screen protector applied on your fabulous 3D curved display.
Then 3D mobile phone tempered glass was developed to solve the pain point. Manufacturer use certain technical processing to achieve bending effect on the edges, and finally the 3D tempered glass can perfectly fit the curved edge of a mobile phone display.
In today’s market, 3D tempered glass has been fully applied to curved screen mobile phones, but 3D tempered glass is more difficult to produce than traditional 2.5D flat tempered glass, the yield is lower, so that the market price is higher than 2.5D tempered glass. Although Apple has not followed up with the introduction of mobile phones with curved screens so far, due to the large sales of iPhones, some tempered glass manufacturers have launched their own 3D tempered glass for iPhone. The 3D tempered glass for iPhone has a small bending angle on edges, it is almost invisible, the 3D on iPhone tempered glass is mainly designed for better fitting iPhone display.
What is the 4D,5D,8D,9D,10D,12D or even 20D tempered glass?
If you are looking for mobile phone tempered glass, you may find that many temperate glass providers mark their tempered glass with a label of 4D, 5D, 9D, or even 12D, and there is no reasonable explanation on the product details page. What is the so-called 4D, 5D or even 12D, 20D mobile phone tempered glass? What is the definition?
You should have already gotten ideas about what a 2.5D or 3D tempered glass are through the explanations above in this article, we can understand the “D” here can be simply understood as referring to the dimensions. What the hell are these so-called 4D, 5D, and 9D? As a person who has been in the tempered glass industry for more 6 years, I can tell you directly that these are marketing tricks! ! The so-called 4D, 5D, 9D, or 12D don’t makes any sense so far! This is just names created by manufacturers, some manufacturers want their products to be unique, 5d, 6d, 12D and even 20D are currently indistinguishable in essence.
The image above is a comparison chart of a merchant in order to promote its so-called “4D” tempered glass. The left product is the so-called 4D tempered glass coming from the merchant, and on the right is a 2.5D tempered glass. The merchant claim that their 4D tempered glass can be completely wrapped on mobile phone with no gaps, but if you take a closer look, this is at best a 3D tempered glass mentioned in this article, the so-called 4D does not exist, and the merchants cannot give further more definition about their “4D” tempered glass.
It’s a shame that merchants use this kind of gimmick to feature their products, when someone say it is a “5D” tempered glass, then someone else will push a “6D” temperate glass, and then comes to 9D, 12D, when you ask them what the hell “*D” tempered glass is, they will simply tell you their products are better than others. It doesn’t make any sense.
3.5D screen and 5D surround display concept
Following the 3D screen, the mobile phone display has once again started the evolutionary journey of three-dimensional screen. The 3.5D screen is officially released, and it also has a very vivid name-waterfall screen. Vivo NEX3 and Huawei Mate 30 Pro are the first representatives of new phones with waterfall screens. Without the constraints of the borders on both sides, they all push the screen-to-body ratio to another extreme.
Compared with the 3D curved screens we have seen in the past, the “Unbounded Waterfall Screen” of the vivo NEX 3 brings a 3.5D curved surface, which is almost a 0mm frame in the main viewing angle.
For the tempered glass for 3.5D mobile phone displays, there is no such “3.5D” mobile phone tempered glass in the industry, because it is still only a 3D curved screen. Consumers only need to find the corresponding mobile phone model and purchase 3D curved mobile phone film can be used.
5D surround display
In 2019, Xiaomi, the Chinese mobile phone giant released MIX Alpha concept phone with a display so-called “5G surround screen”, the “5G surround screen” wraps entirely around the mobile, the whole phone is surrounded completely by screen. Anyway, it is still a concept phone, we don’t know when Xiaomi will launch it, it will make a big change on screen protector if such kind of phone with 5G surround screen goes on market, or it will be the time to give up applying a screen protector? Let’s just wait and see.
2.5D or 3D tempered glass, how to choose?
If you have read this article, you will not be difficult to choose, the 2.5D tempered glass corresponds to a mobile phone with a flat display, such as the all iPhones. No matter how the display technology is upgraded, Apple still insist on using a flat display so far, while Samsung, Huawei and other manufacturers have launched their mobile phones with curved screens. For iPhone, there is no doubt a 2.5D tempered glass is the choice, it is cost-effective. Although some manufacturers have launched their 3D tempered glass for iPhone, the 3D tempered glass for iPhone is very different with the 3D tempered glass for Samsung curved screen, the bending angle of the 3D tempered glass for iPhone series is very small. It can be said it is also a gimmick like the so-called 4D, 5D, etc. It is nothing more than they use the word “3D” for just to emphasize that their tempered glass fit better on iPhone.
The 3D curved tempered film corresponds to those mobile phones with curved screens, such as most of Samsung Galaxy S series mobile phones use curved screens. 3D tempered glass has a great fit on these curved screens, we don’t suggest you to buy 2.5D tempered glass for curved display as we mentioned in this article, it will have a bad touch feeling.
In addition, there are many subdivision types of 3D tempered glass, different types of 3D tempered glass are different in the process of pasting a tempered glass, hand feeling as well as price. Decisions can be made according to the preferences of users in local market and the audience level. We will have another detail introduction about the categories of 3D tempered glass in another article.
