Firstly, let me just apologise in advance as this is not being typed on my usual laptop (I'm using someone elses) so the layout and typesetting of this blog entry may be slighlty off.
Now to the meat of the subject.
As most of you know, I recently bought a DS lite. As is common with most handheld owners, we like to put screen protectors on them. I personally have one on my mobile phone and had one on the PSP I used to own.
Well, now it's time for the DS.
There is really only one company to go for here. The officially licensed set is made by a company called Hori. They are
so good that, unfortunately, there are many fakes out there too.
Here is my own experience of dealing with this issue.
It all started before I found out about the R4 DS cart. Back then, I thought it would be a good idea to get a cartridge case for my games. Looking through ebay, I found this chap (
futureplayuk) who was not only selling
the case, but chucking in a free Hori screen protector set (yaay).
I was sold, so I ordered and the shipment arrived quite promptly.
As the primary purchase (the case) was in great condition and as described, +ve feedback was left.
I then proceeded to apply the Jap import Hori protectors.
The first thing that struck me was the fact that there were no English instructions (expected if an import) but there were simple words on the protective tabs on each "plastic film" on either side of each protector.
Basically, each protector comes with a peel-off layer on
both the sticky side
and the glossy/writing side. As there are two protectors (1 for each screen), that gives 4 tabbed "peel-off's" in total.
Now it's common sense that the sticky side is uncovered first so that it can be applied to the screen, and the glossy side peel-off comes off last.
However, the labels
were the wrong way round 
.
No, I'm not making this up. What this meant was that the label that instructed you to "peel off first" was the non sticky side of the protector. Not only would it not stick to the screen, but I also ended up getting the
actual sticky side dirty after doing as instructed and peeling off that layer second.
I was miffed to say the least, I mean how could a company make such an elementary mistake with it's own instructions?
Suffice it to say that the resulting effect was poor to say the least. Grubby marks which wouldn't wash off on both sides (the Hori screen protectors are meant to be washable and reapply-able <---- just made that word up
), and a very poor finish.
Not only that but the upper protector caused MORE reflections rather than reduce them
.
I had a few suspicions about it and wanted a second go at putting some on ------ this time I would go to another seller though.
So I ended up buying another set froma DIFFERENT ebayer (they only come to £3.50 inc. del anyway, and the first set from
futureplayuk were free).
NOW is when I learned the truth.......
futureplayuk had sent me fake Hori's.
This side by side comparison of the packaging was the first clue:
The fake Hori's sent by
futureplayuk are on the right. As you can see, the print is slightly off and the blue around the Hori logo is dark (almost black) blue rather than royal blue.
The clincher is this shot of the cleaning cloths they come packaged with. Again, the real Hori one is on the left and the fake Hori one sent by
futureplayuk is on the right.
As you can clearly see, the genuine Hori cleaning cloth is a quality item, not too dissimilar to the cloths you get with a pair of glasses, whereas the fake one on the right is just a white bit of cloth/tissue.....rubbish.
There was another clue on the screen protectors themselves. the genuine Hori "peel-off" films have only a
single tab on each telling you what to peel off first. The fake Hori peel-offs supplied by
futureplayuk (on the right) have extra yellow stickers on them that shouldn't be there.
Interestingly, the genuin Hori tabs were the right way round, so the protectors applied brilliantly first time round
.
Also, the genuine Hori protectors are a very snug fit compared to the fake
futureplayuk ones, which had a small gap around the lower screen protector especially noticeable.
A final look at the back of the packaging also showed that, in actual fact, the fake print (right) is very very slightly oversaturated c.f. the original packaging on the left:
The genuine Hori protectors I have on now were easy to fit, look great, the reduce glare as stated and (most importantly) come with a decent quality screen cloth for application. They are definitely worth the money and are a great buy for your DS.
The fake ones, on the other hand may have labels the wrong way round (eg the sticky side "peel-off" which should come off first, may be incorrectly labelled as needing to come off second as was the case on mine), the screen quality is second rate (actually might
add to glare) and (most importantly) the sure fire tell-tale sign is that the screen cloth supplied with fake Hori's is usually rubbish.
Overall, check what you're getting CAREFULLY from ebay. Even so called reputable ebay shops with high feedback may be selling (wittingly or unwittingly) clearly fake Hori screen protectors. I wasn't stung on this occasion as the fakes I got fobbed off with initially were a free addition to my actual purchase of the game case, but it
is a warning all the same for those of you wishing to buy some.
Don't let this put you off getting them alogether though.....the originals are easy to apply, look great, and are very cheap
.
Hori Screens and Fleabay.
.
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