The unsuspecting PRS-700, before the anti-glare protector. Are you blind?

Long title, yes, and probably not worth it.

The loudest critique I’ve heard of the Sony Reader is that its screen is prone to glare. Very prone to glare, some say. It made me nervous enough that I went into a Sonystyle brick-and-mortar to get a look at this screen before I took the plunge.

I found the glare noticeable but not really so bad. Tilting the screen a bit has been enough for me to find a comfortable reading angle in all but the harshest fluorescents at Borders, where I like to read ebooks ironically.

Still, I figured I’d get an anti-glare screen protector, because what the hell, it couldn’t hurt.

Evidently, it also couldn’t help. At least not much.

The Process

The Boxwave ClearTouch for the Samsung Q1. A little too long, but the perfect width.

I got a Boxwave ClearTouch Anti-Glare Screen Protector, which retails for $28, designed for the Samsung Q1, which had a screen that looked comparable to, but slightly bigger than, the Sony Reader’s.

The screen protector itself was pretty ideal for the job. It had to be trimmed a little lengthwise, but the width was perfect. That’s nice because the touch area of the PRS-700′s screen is slightly depressed, which means that a screen protector that overlaps the edge, even a little, has a very tough time staying flush to the screen at the edge of that depression.

The widthwise edges are also where your fingers are most, turning pages.

So far, so good, until I tried to put the thing on. The ClearTouch has a backing side that sticks to screens through static electricity or magic. The first time I put it on, I managed to get a hair trapped behind it. I pulled it off, only to drop it on the less-than-immaculate rug. Sucker picks up dirt, I can tell you that.

A series of washings and dryings later, I finally got the thing on the screen. I’d managed to make a tiny crease in it while shake-drying it (using a towel or paper towel only leaves a carpet of annoying particles behind.

So, finally, I got it on there.

The finished product

The PRS-700, with the anti-glare on. Sweet relief.

And the result is a great, big…. sigh.

It does take the edge off the glare a bit, but it doesn’t change how you use the device. You still have to find the right angle to read, and the screen protector alone simply can’t diffuse the light enough to read through a bright reflection.

I want to be clear, though, this isn’t the fault of the ClearTouch. The screen protector itself was of great quality. It was only through my own buffoonery that I dropped it in a pile of dirt and lint, and it recovered quite well (though it did look a bit worn after all my manhandling of it.

The before picture again, for comparison

After I finally got it on, it felt good, and the touchscreen responded well. I’m sure it’s a great touchscreen for the Q1.

The problem is that ereaders are not LCD, and aren’t backlit, and that’s what these anti-glare screens are designed for. There simply aren’t any anti-glare screen covers designed for an eInk display yet. Even with the Reader’s “frontlight” on, the anti-glare protection wasn’t good enough to overcome directly reflected light.

And ultimately it’s not that much of a bother to tilt the Reader a bit. In daylight, on the train, at home, it’s never been a problem. And there’s no denying that there is a difference, however small. I just don’t think it’s a $30 difference.

Conclusion: A few days later….

I took the screen protector off. There was a minute loss of contrast ratio with it attached–probably due to the beating it took as I clumsily attached it–and ultimately it just didn’t anti enough glare to be worth it.

It worked great for protecting the screen, so if you’re nervous about that, get one by all means. There was no loss in touchscreen functionality, and at the edges of the screen where it didn’t initially sit flush, it did so after a few hours.

One other benefit: the light diffused a bit better across the screen with the protector on; it was slightly more even, and that made reading with the light on easier. Ultimately I don’t read with the frontlight on very often, so it just wasn’t worth even the small sacrifice it took.