Some screen protectors cover your phone’s front camera, so you might wonder whether they reduce the quality of your selfies.
In this article, we’ll look at how screen protectors affect your phone’s front camera image quality.
Here’s Whether Screen Protectors Reduce Front Camera Quality
Screen protectors that cover the front camera can reduce the brightness and color accuracy of the selfies, but this quality reduction isn’t noticeable with decent screen protectors.
Do Screen Protectors Reduce Your Phone’s Front Camera Quality?
A screen protector that covers your phone’s front camera absorbs a fraction of incident light and lowers the light that reaches the image sensor. So it can slightly darken your selfies and reduce low-light selfie quality.
Some poor-quality screen protectors can also shift the colors of your selfies, making them look worse.
Dust particles and air bubbles trapped under the screen protector can also blur your selfies.
Poor-quality plastic screen protectors can also turn yellowish over time, giving a slight yellow tint to your selfies.
Also, if your screen protector gets scratched easily, scratches over the front camera lens can reduce the selfie quality.
On the other hand, when the screen protector has a cutout for the front camera, it won’t affect your selfies.
Do Screen Protectors Affect Your iPhone’s Face ID?
A screen protector that covers your iPhone’s front camera assembly can slightly reduce the speed and accuracy of Face ID.
Over time, dust particles can also accumulate under the screen protector, making Face ID less accurate.
However, these issues aren’t noticeable with decent-quality screen protectors.
Do Screen Protectors Affect Your Phone’s Proximity Sensor?
The proximity sensor is responsible for turning off your phone’s display during a call; it uses an IR emitter and receiver LEDs to detect whether you have the phone next to your face.
A screen protector that covers the proximity sensor absorbs a fraction of IR light, making the proximity sensor less sensitive.
However, a decent screen protector won’t noticeably reduce the sensitivity of your phone’s proximity sensor.
Do Screen Protectors Affect Your Phone’s Ambient Light Sensor?
Your phone uses an ambient light sensor to measure the light in your surroundings and adjust the display’s brightness accordingly.
A screen protector that covers the ambient light sensor absorbs a fraction of incident light, so your phone will sense a lower ambient light level than the actual one. As a result, even in brighter environments, the phone will reduce the display’s brightness, making it darker.
However, this is an extreme situation; a decent screen protector won’t affect the ambient light sensor noticeably.
Should Screen Protectors Cover The Front Camera?
Covering your phone’s front camera with a screen protector has advantages and disadvantages.
Screen protectors that cover the front camera can protect the camera’s lens from scratches. But they can slightly reduce your selfies’ brightness and color accuracy; most phones also have durable camera lens covers to protect them from scratches, so covering the front camera with a screen protector might be overkill.
On the other hand, screen protectors with a cutout for the front camera don’t reduce the brightness or color accuracy of your selfies. But some people don’t like the cutout on a screen protector and think it makes the screen look worse.
If you want a screen protector that covers the front camera, get one that matches your phone model. Otherwise, you might cover the camera sensors or the microphone.
Get a tempered glass or sapphire screen protector instead of a plastic one; they have higher light transmittance and won’t affect your selfies noticeably.
Also, remove all the dust from the display before installing the screen protector, and wipe away any trapped air bubbles after the installation.
Conclusion
Screen protectors that cover your phone’s front camera can reduce your selfies’ brightness and color accuracy, but this isn’t noticeable with high-quality screen protectors.
On the other hand, screen protectors with a cutout for the front camera won’t affect your selfies, but they can’t protect the front camera lens from scratches.
