The Galaxy S10 has got a great, big, beautiful screen with some new tricks inside — like that fancy ultrasonic fingerprint sensor — but those tricks make buying a screen protector all the more important and all the more difficult. See, that in-screen fingerprint sensor can't tolerate any air bubbles or gaps between the screen and the screen protector, so your best bets are plastic film protectors or the Whitestone Dome Glass, which is currently the only tempered glass screen protector we can find that plays nice with it.
UV for Ultrasonic Viable
Whitestone Dome Glass
Staff pick
Whitestone's Dome Glass screen protectors use a UV curing wet-install system to ensure a secure fit, and so far they claim to be the only tempered glass screen protectors that will work with the Galaxy S10's ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor. Whitestone is mighty proud of its products and its pricing reflects that, but it's still cheaper than replacing a broken screen.
Glass protection from a film protector
InvisibleShield Ultra Clear
Easy to install
InvisibleShield's screen protector carries the "Designed for Samsung" certification, and while it's not the tempered glass screen protectors we normally look to the brand for, the Ultra Clear film protectors are shiny, clear, and case-friendly quality. The lifetime warranty here is just as tough as ever, offering replacements if your film ever clouds, tears, or warps.
Smooth and selfie-friendly
LK HD Clear Screen Protector (3-Pack)
These thin TPU screen protectors are self-healing, case-friendly, bubble free, water and fingerprint resistant, and smooth to the touch so you aren't fighting friction when you try to break your high score. LK uses laser cutouts so that you won't have to deal with films messing with the selfie camera.
Edge-to-edge protection
Skinomi TechSkin (2-Pack)
This case-friendly pair of self-healing films from Skinomi use a wet install method, allowing you to ensure that you line up the hole-punch selfie camera and the edges just so. Even as a thin film screen protector, Skinomi recommends cranking up the Touch Sensitivity to ensure that everything behaves as it should.
Boost the original glass
Spigen Glas.tr Nano Liquid Universal Screen Protection
Screen protectors for the Galaxy S10 can sometimes leave something to be desired, so you may just want to skip the films and go nano! Wipe on this nifty solution onto the front glass, wait ten minutes, then wipe off the excess for a smooth, nano-hydrophobic layer that can help repel scratches and fingerprints.
Forget the fingerprints
amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector
Considering the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor isn't really all its cracked up to be right now, you might say TO HECK WITH IT and use your PIN, like some neanderthal. If so, amFilm is up front about saying this one doesn't work with the ultrasonic sensor, but it will protect your S10's glass and comes with a nifty installation tray.
That ultrasonic sensor can't stand gaps
Wondering why there's so few tempered glass protectors around for the S10? Blame that gimmicky new ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, because since it uses sound pressure waves to map and read your finger, there absolutely, positively cannot be any air gaps between your screen and its screen protector. While the Whitestone Dome Glass uses a patented UV-drying application system that ensures no air pockets or gaps between tempered glass and your Galaxy S10's screen, other tempered glass screen protectors that use traditional adhesives around the edges leave gaps between the two that disrupt the ultrasonic sensor's readings of your finger.
If you can't stomach $50 to cover your screen, you'll have to settle for film screen protectors like the InivisibleShield Ultra Clear or the LK 3-Pack. That's just the way the cookie crumbles with cutting-edge tech sometimes.
What matters to you more: the fingerprint sensor or the screen it sits under?
While the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is neat, it's also finicky and slow, and I'm betting that protecting that screen means more to you than using it. If that's the case, you may want to consider disabling the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor and instead using Smart Lock, Facial recognition, and PIN/Pattern/Password to secure your phone and grab yourself an affordable traditional tempered glass protector like the amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector.
As someone who has used Smart Lock since the old Moto X days when it was called Trusted Bluetooth, this is a useful feature that's made me care a little less about the fingerprint sensor overall because so long as I'm wearing my smartwatch or my trusty headphones, I don't need the use my fingerprint to unlock my phone more than once a day: when I wake up in the morning.
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