Oleophobic Coating

[JamesPhil2000]

I heard rumours of the coating wearing off rather quick on the ultra series so I put a spigen tempered glass screen protector on the day I got my phone however about 2 days ago I decided to remove it as it had a couple of scratches and thought it would be nice to try out the anti-glare screen everyone was praising and today I've noticed the coating has worn through in some areas which I'm very surprised at as im incredibly careful with my phones. I've never experienced this with a phone before and its only been 2 days without a screen protector!!! Am I just incredibly unlucky or have other people experienced this kind of degradation this quickly? Im very disappointed and wish I had just kept my screen protector on just really didnt expect it to happen this quick. 

[arianwen27]

Screen protectors usually remove the coating from the screen. Since you stick glass or plastic to your screen, removing the glass or plastic damages the coating since the sticky stuff pulls it off.

You kinda always have a screen protector or never have one. You could use the official samsung plastic one, I believe that has the anti reflective coating within it

[Joeeye]

I had my S24 Ultra for a year without a screen protector and had no issues with the oleophobic coating. I guess it's really down to user experience and how each device gets handled (as is the case with most phones I guess).

Since Samsung stopped equipping pre-installed screen protectors after the S21 series, these issues were bound to be more a concern though. Personally, I've since removed my screen protector on my S21 Ultra (2 years ago now) and find it's been perfectly fine (better to the touch) so I've never felt the need for replacing it.

[Tech_Master]

I have seen the same reports as you, although I can't comment on long-term use, I have tested 6 (six) S25 Ultra units for about two weeks each without a screen protector, installing apps, playing games etc, so a bit of swiping, and all the screens were still flawless.

However, the two S25 Ultras that we use daily, have screen protectors on them, hence I can't judge the long-term impact.

Two days seem very short for this to happen but I have a few theories:

1- Did you wipe your screen with alcohol or some unknown wet wipes when you installed your screen protector? I never let alcohol near any of those 6 units that I tested, so don't know how the coating reacts to that.

2- Do you have perfume, cream or similar on your fingers when using the phone?

3- Are you sure there are permanent marks? My Samsung TV also has anti reflective coating which easily gets marked, it's sensitive, I need to wipe the areas with microfiber and some warm water to get it off, and it's not easy.

4- Which production month is your phone from? You can tell from the 5th digit in your serial number, example 1 = January,  2 = February, etc. Now this theory is a stretch but I noticed a change in coatings in February production, I could tell from the change in the anti reflective tint of the display, so perhaps production of January and before was coming off and material changed in February and forward, as I said, this theory is a stretch because it's is based on observation, not concrete information.

[Tech_Master]

I don't necessarily agree, the phone comes from the factory with a black plastic sticker on the screen that you pull off before first use, unless you use alcohol or similar, I don't think the coating comes off from a sticker...

[arianwen27]

Sorry I should have specified a little more. There's 2 sorts of screen protectors that people go for. The one where its like the stickiness of tape, such as that black peel or a kinda cheap glass or plastic screen protector. The ones you can pull off with a finger nail.

Then there's the decent and more expensive ones that use a much more effective adhesive/epoxy. The ones that are easy apply or cost a decent amount. Those are the ones that can pull the coating away. So the good expensive ones do it, the cheaper ones usually don't.

My thought process was a really expensive phone would probably have one of those screen protectors on it, not a £9 one.

[Thomas André]

This is not something that is widespread. Several reviewers and users have switched tempered glass screen protector on and off without any issues. The things that can damage the coating is chemicals and aggressive cleaning products. The alcohol wipes that comes with the screen protector is likely safe. But I prefer not to use them. And I will install the screen protector as soon as the black protective cover is taken off the screen. Then the screen are 100% clean. I can never imagine that Samsung have made a screen that get damaged by a tempered glass screen protector. 

[S117]

Those 'stickers' that the phone has in the box aren't actually sticky though. There's no adhesive on them

[Tech_Master]

Not true, I removed and put back a bunch of those, they have a strong adhesive on them, I know because when I remove them I stick them to a sheet of plastic so I can stick them back on the screen if I want to ship the phone, and when trying to take them off that plastic sheet they are very sticky and leave adhesive residue behind, they come off easily off the phone screen just because of the oleophobic surface, but if you stick them on other surfaces or look at the adhesive side you will find a strong adhesive that is not easy to take off!

[Thomas André]

You are correct. The protective film is very adhesive and if you put it on a piece of paper it will tear of the top layer. So the screen is made to have a screen protector. The matter of fact is that Samsung also make screen protectors for their phones. If this was a serious problem it would have been addressed long time ago. 

As long as the screen protector is of good quality made by well known manufacturers it would not cause any issues.