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The iPhone 17 series features a more durable Ceramic Shield 2 glass display cover that’s three times more scratch-resistant than the previous version and should protect the new iPhones better against accidental damage. iPhone 17 drop tests have shown that the front glass can still shatter depending on various factors, including the height of the drop and the material of the impact zone. That’s why it’s a good idea to use a screen protector with one of the three iPhone 17 models or the iPhone Air. Ceramic Shield 2 glass may be more durable, but it’s not shatterproof. However, it turns out that most iPhone 17 screen protectors might not be good for your handset, and it’s not about their ability to add extra cushioning that can prevent damage. New research from Astropad shows that most of the generic screen protectors you might buy will nullify another upgrade Apple built into Ceramic Shield 2 glass: Anti-reflectivity.
Astropad makes its own anti-reflective (AR) screen protectors for the iPhone, including the iPhone 17 series. The company conducted an experiment to see how the iPhone 17’s AR coating works, and how screen protectors impact it, and found that a regular glass protector practically cancels the AR effects of Ceramic Shield 2. The short version of the experiment is that Ceramic Shield 2 glass needs direct contact with air to offer users those anti-reflective properties. Placing any screen protector on top of it makes that impossible. Unless the screen protector has AR capabilities of its own, like Astropad’s Fresh Coat, you end up with a screen that’s slightly more reflective than the iPhone 16 Pro’s display.
Why the anti-reflective iPhone 17 screen is a big deal
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The 2025 iPhones are Apple’s first handsets to feature built-in AR technology in the glass covering the display. This feature will make using your iPhone 17 a lot easier in brighter environments, especially outdoors. The AR layer makes the screen clearer and easier to see, which is a great feature to have. The AR coatings can also reduce eye strain while using the handset in bright conditions.
Astropad explained how the iPhone 17’s glass cover pulls off anti-reflectivity: “To achieve this effect, AR coatings work through a process called destructive interference. Ultra-thin layers of material are stacked on the surface of the glass, each with slightly different optical properties. These layers are tuned so that reflected light waves from each layer cancel one another out. The process depends on precise thickness, refractive index, and the presence of air above the coating (important!) to create the right interference pattern.”
To measure the AR capabilities of the iPhone 17, Astropad used a light meter to record how much light the iPhone screen reflected to the sensor. An iPhone 17 without a screen protector had a 2.1% or 2.0% reflectance (depending on model), compared to 3.8% for the iPhone 16 Pro. An iPhone 17 with a generic screen protector saw the reflectance increase to 4.6%. The Fresh Coat screen protector that Astropad makes reduces the reflectance to 1%, as it features its own AR layer built into the protective glass. The company explains that the percentage difference may seem small on paper, but in the real world it makes a big difference, especially when dealing with sunny conditions.
