Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Protecting our expensive new smartphone is a top priority for many of us, and online marketplaces are flooded with options, from cases to display protection. An increasingly popular product segment is camera lens protectors, which obviously make a lot of sense if you’ve just spent over $1,000 on one of the best camera phones on the market.
While sticking a cheap layer of plastic or even glass in front of your high-precision camera might help protect it from scratches, there’s a risk that it will lower the quality of the pictures you take. Not necessarily because a protector will defocus or blur your images — something this close to the lens is unlikely to do that — but even a very transparent, high-quality protective layer will slightly reduce the amount of light reaching the sensor. In the worst case, introducing impure optics may exacerbate issues like edge aberration and lens flare, or reduce the amount of detail captured. Not what you want from a top-tier camera phone.
Do you have a lens protector on your phone's camera? 22 votes Yes. 55 % No. 45 %
To see just how much of a problem this might be, I grabbed some very cheap, no-brand protection packages for under $10 from the sea of options on Amazon. I also purchased the more expensive Spigen GlasTR EZ Fit Optik for my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra ($18.99 from Amazon) and Google Pixel 9 Pro XL ($14.99 from Amazon) to see if there’s any difference between the budget and premium options. The results are quite surprising.
Before we get to that, though, we need a word on application. Ensuring the proper fit — free from air bubbles and dust — is key to setting up these protectors correctly. Get that wrong, and your pictures are bound to look bad no matter what. Thankfully, all four kits I chose came with dust cloths and tape to help remove grime. However, one of the cheaper options didn’t include a template mold to aid with application, making it trickier to apply to the Pixel.
Now for the pictures. I must admit, I found it surprisingly difficult to tell many of the images I took apart. I’d really expected the cheap lens protectors to absolutely ruin colors and detail, but in all honesty, the results on both phones were often essentially indistinguishable — at least when viewed in full-frame and taken in bright daylight.
Pixel 9 Pro XL - No Lens Protector Pixel 9 Pro XL - Cheap Lens Protector Galaxy S25 Ultra - No Lens Protector Galaxy S25 Ultra - Cheap Lens Protector
Looking at the photos above, the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s cheap lens protector is perhaps a fraction more washed-out and less detailed, but that’s in rather dim light. Likewise, there may be a touch more warmth and saturation without the lens protector on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but there’s really not much in it. Both of these phones seem powerful enough not to be bothered too much by an extra bit of glass in the way.
It's often hard to tell, but lens protectors can subtle change your photos.
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