I respect your experience in these matters, but my Brother's screen protector films are softer plastic than the LCD surface, so he would not have had scratches on his screen the way the plastic protectors got so scratched up. Also, when my Brother's protector is on his LCD you have to press down harder with the Dell stylus to get actuation. I am confident (but no certain) this would be true on the N800?

I may have only owned my N800 for 3 weeks, but I have owned Pocket PCs since 1999 and I have owned a half dozen of them, and NEVER used screen protectors and I used my PPCs heavily. My screens did not scratch. My impression of the N800 screen is that it is made of an even harder material then the Dell Axim touchscreens were.

I am not poking a "sharp" object at the screen. The stylus is very blunt in my opinion, and it is soft plastic. If the stylus tip were made of metal, I might have a different opinion.

When the day is done, this is simply my opinion. My analogy about the lampshade and car seat covers was about appearance. The plastic bag on the lampshade might keep the lampshade clean, but I have to look at it in plastic for years to get that benefit? I'd rather not. Again my opinion.

You guys do it the way you want, doesn't mean you are right, and doesn't mean the original poster should listen to me either. My 8 years of PDA use has convinced me that screen protectors are hideous and of little positive value. That is my opinion. Your mileage may vary. First thing I did when my N800 came out of the box was peel off the plastic covering the screen and throw it in the trash. I don't regret doing it. Do what you want. The OP guy asked if he should put his back on after he pulled it off. My opinion was no. Yours is absolutlely yes. Now it is up to him.

Cheers.

Oh yeah, and if after a year and a half my N800 screen has scratches, ( which my 8 years of PDA use proves is unlikely ) if my screen is scratched up, I'll throw the N800 away or give it away and buy a brand new on for $200 or whatever the price will be then, or whatever model I chose to upgrade to will be. I'm gonna use my N800 and it will get a little worn. I'll take good care of it, as I do all my things but I not going to obsess over keeping it virgin.

My experience is that my screen will not become scratched.

I am going to use it / enjoy it, and I personally can't fully enjoy it if I am watching a movie or surfing the web on it and I'm looking thru some blemished / worn plastic film. That is me. I don't expect you to change your feelings, I am expressing my thoughts for those people who might not already have a feeling one way or another, such as the original poster.

Enjoy.

Funny how people become so polarized on things like screen protectors.

Personally I pulled the original plastic off because it was making the touch screen unresponsive. Why keep it in "pristine" and in brand-new condition if you have to sacrifice anything... performance or convenience.

Besides... I don't expect the devices lifetime to be more than a few years; then it will be time to get a new updated model. I think even if I do scratch my screen that I can deal with it for that amount of time.

(And yes... I rip off the stupid looking plastic covers off of lamps. And the plastic cover on faceplates etc.)

Well, I bought a screen protector for my N800 but it turned out to be too stiff (this was one of those replacable, washable versions). Hundreds of tiny bubbles. The soft screen of the N800 needs a soft, thin screen protector I think. Anyway, I threw it away and have been using my N800 without since (bought it mid January 2007). Two very thin scratches which are only visble with the screen switched off and from a certain angle, otherwise fine. And I carry the N800 with me everywhere. The screen gets dirty but I clean it occasionally the way I would clean a telescope mirror, and it always come back as new.

I'm fine with screen protectors if I can find a good one (I have used them on PDAs), but depending on how you handle the Nokia it's completely possible to live without one.

There's one more problem with screen protectors -- they can be difficult to install, depending on how good you are with such things. The typical side-effect is that the touch screen stops working properly because you applied just that bit of too much force when getting the bubbles out.

Uh... you submerge it into a big pot of distilled water for a couple of minutes?

<evil grin>

I am searching in my garbage can for the factory screen film....

Well, ok, I skip that step, but I use lukewarm water and I roll a piece of cotton forth and back.. seems to do the trick!

I use the boxwave screen protector and I concur with the previous poster that this screen protector enhances the visibility of the screen by reducing glare without affecting clarity\brightness.

I don't know what exact material they use but it's definitely scratch resistant and stiff enough to retain the original screen sensitivity.

These are a few plus points for using screen protector with no real negativity on the functionality nor aesthetic. At $12 I think it's a no brainer to just put a good one on your device. Improves usage while you have it, prolongs good screen condition, definitely improves the value if you ever sell\give it away to someone else.

I'm guessing you use the ClearTouch Anti-Glare protector? How well does it perform indoors or in poor lighting situations?

Anyone compared Anti-Glare to Crystal?

No different than a protector-less screen, basically. Maybe a 3-5% reduction in overall brightness. Nothing noticeable.