I placed my order in eBay on February 1 and product ETA was listed between February 26–March 23. I paid $29.99 for the product. (At the time of writing, the product is available in Amazon for about $7 less.) A back story and TL;DR is available towards the end of this post.
I installed the GodoSmith Ice Max 3D on my iPhone 6 Plus yesterday and it took me a disturbing amount of time to get the installation right.
It should be noted that prior to receiving my shipment, I watched a lot of installation tutorials, product problem videos not just exclusive to the specific Ice Max. I was also reading through this thread and learned that the adhesive is not working 100% perfect for everybody.
So I got into cleaning my workspace, removed the product from the packaging, and noticed that the instruction manual is not updated. The manual still says, the dust removal tool is a blue sticker, when what included is actually a packaging tape like sticky product. Nothing too major, just simple details that seem to be overlooked.
I powered off my phone to prevent the display from turning on if I ever accidentally press the sleep/wake or home button during installation. Cleaned the display with the alcohol pad, then wiped it off with an included microfiber cloth, used the included dust removal tool to remove any remaining debris, and finally removed the GodoSmith's protective hard sticker.
With my first attempt, a vertical line of air bubble won't disappear despite massaging them. I figured the product is not aligned properly as somebody mentioned in the linked thread above as to why the bubbles are exclusive to one side. I tried to reposition it by slowly removing it from the top and surprisingly, the product is very easy to reapply. With this second attempt, no more air bubbles are visible and I turn on my iPhone.
However, this is when I noticed the major problem: the cutouts are not perfectly aligned. In the installation process, I used the home button as a benchmark of the Ice Max's alignment. When I got into the home screen, I immediately noticed that a few pixels of the dock is blocked from view by the bezels. The status bar doesn't seem to be affected.
I removed the Ice Max once again and tried to reposition it. With my newfound knowledge that the cutouts are not precise, I had to make the compromise that the display be slightly cut in the status bar and dock if I want the view to be symmetrical. This, in turn, resulted in the cutouts for the FaceTime camera/speaker/ambient & proximity sensors, and home button be slightly below their optimal locations. With this third installation, bubbles appeared in the lower portion of the display. The bubbles not appearing on the extreme edges means that the fit is already perfect so I just simply raised the Ice Max from the top and used a microfiber cloth to slowly reapply the adhesive in an upward motion.
Now back to the inaccurate cutouts issue, I am actually hesitant to contact GodoSmith for a few reasons: 1)English is not their first language as seen with the various grammatical errors in the product packaging; 2)not sure if the replacement product will satisfy my concerns; 3)if it's worth getting charged again at the post for the replacement.
Despite the jarring section of the display being blocked by the Ice Max's bezels, I kept it installed. It's smoother than the iPhone's original glass and has an amazing oleophobic coating. But to be fair, it's been only a day and I immediately wiped the display with the alcohol pad because I had to take a phone call right after the third installation. I may update the review to see how the coating wears off.
It's also doesn't feel like 0.19mm thin since its almost as thick as my 0.3 Moshi iVisor tempered glass from before. But I am only speaking from memory so I may be wrong.
There also is no noticeable reduction with regards to touch sensitivity. Even the extreme edges are accessible despite the cutouts issue. When using swipe gestures, it still feels like there is a corner where your thumb meets the tempered glass from the aluminum body despite the Ice Max being curved.
I'm also happy to report that using it with the Apple Leather Case (in this case the 2014 natural leather version) does not push the Ice Max off the iPhone's display.
A little backstory: I used my iPhone 6 Plus for about half a year naked—no case, no screen protector. It wasn't until Cinder was announced that started to fuel my desire to protect my investment. I had troubles looking for an edge-to-edge tempered glass as with everyone else when the 6 was announced. I found about Moshi's iVisor Glass which was offered locally so I purchased that one instead. The iVisor is edge-to-edge but unfortunately, the edges are not curved. The reason for this is that Moshi makes sure that every screen protector they produce is compatible with their cases, and their cases has a lip to protect the display when placed flat, face down. My first installation of the iVisor was a bit troublesome it was not properly aligned and when I lifted the tempered glass using the suction cup included in the package, it cracked. Thankfully, the local store where I purchased it was willing to give me a replacement for free. Fast forward late 2015, the Moshi iVisor developed a crack and the MicroGrid—a feature to prevent the loss of touch sensitivity—became 200% obvious than before and both problems only seemed to worsen when further applied with pressure. This time, I contacted Moshi support directly, explained my situation, and in lieu of sending them my iVisor, I was sent one free of charge. I did not install this one and this is what led to my purchase of the Ice Max.
After carefully reading reviews between the GodoSmith and Cinder, I noticed that both reviews were mixed. What won me over the Ice Max, however was the price and customer support. If you look at Cinder videos on YouTube, you'll basically see everyone stating in the comments that their support is trash. I figured the Ice Max is available for almost half the price, so that should save me some disappointment.
The product took a surprisingly long time to arrive and I was not available to pick it up at home so I had to go grab my shipment from the post. Hence the long time between placement of purchase and product installation.
TL;DR: a 3/5 product that delivers for it's price but unfortunately had some quality assurance faults.
Photo gallery: http://imgur.com/a/t9Q7o
I installed the GodoSmith Ice Max 3D on my iPhone 6 Plus yesterday and it took me a disturbing amount of time to get the installation right.
It should be noted that prior to receiving my shipment, I watched a lot of installation tutorials, product problem videos not just exclusive to the specific Ice Max. I was also reading through this thread and learned that the adhesive is not working 100% perfect for everybody.
So I got into cleaning my workspace, removed the product from the packaging, and noticed that the instruction manual is not updated. The manual still says, the dust removal tool is a blue sticker, when what included is actually a packaging tape like sticky product. Nothing too major, just simple details that seem to be overlooked.
I powered off my phone to prevent the display from turning on if I ever accidentally press the sleep/wake or home button during installation. Cleaned the display with the alcohol pad, then wiped it off with an included microfiber cloth, used the included dust removal tool to remove any remaining debris, and finally removed the GodoSmith's protective hard sticker.
With my first attempt, a vertical line of air bubble won't disappear despite massaging them. I figured the product is not aligned properly as somebody mentioned in the linked thread above as to why the bubbles are exclusive to one side. I tried to reposition it by slowly removing it from the top and surprisingly, the product is very easy to reapply. With this second attempt, no more air bubbles are visible and I turn on my iPhone.
However, this is when I noticed the major problem: the cutouts are not perfectly aligned. In the installation process, I used the home button as a benchmark of the Ice Max's alignment. When I got into the home screen, I immediately noticed that a few pixels of the dock is blocked from view by the bezels. The status bar doesn't seem to be affected.
I removed the Ice Max once again and tried to reposition it. With my newfound knowledge that the cutouts are not precise, I had to make the compromise that the display be slightly cut in the status bar and dock if I want the view to be symmetrical. This, in turn, resulted in the cutouts for the FaceTime camera/speaker/ambient & proximity sensors, and home button be slightly below their optimal locations. With this third installation, bubbles appeared in the lower portion of the display. The bubbles not appearing on the extreme edges means that the fit is already perfect so I just simply raised the Ice Max from the top and used a microfiber cloth to slowly reapply the adhesive in an upward motion.
Now back to the inaccurate cutouts issue, I am actually hesitant to contact GodoSmith for a few reasons: 1)English is not their first language as seen with the various grammatical errors in the product packaging; 2)not sure if the replacement product will satisfy my concerns; 3)if it's worth getting charged again at the post for the replacement.
Despite the jarring section of the display being blocked by the Ice Max's bezels, I kept it installed. It's smoother than the iPhone's original glass and has an amazing oleophobic coating. But to be fair, it's been only a day and I immediately wiped the display with the alcohol pad because I had to take a phone call right after the third installation. I may update the review to see how the coating wears off.
It's also doesn't feel like 0.19mm thin since its almost as thick as my 0.3 Moshi iVisor tempered glass from before. But I am only speaking from memory so I may be wrong.
There also is no noticeable reduction with regards to touch sensitivity. Even the extreme edges are accessible despite the cutouts issue. When using swipe gestures, it still feels like there is a corner where your thumb meets the tempered glass from the aluminum body despite the Ice Max being curved.
I'm also happy to report that using it with the Apple Leather Case (in this case the 2014 natural leather version) does not push the Ice Max off the iPhone's display.
A little backstory: I used my iPhone 6 Plus for about half a year naked—no case, no screen protector. It wasn't until Cinder was announced that started to fuel my desire to protect my investment. I had troubles looking for an edge-to-edge tempered glass as with everyone else when the 6 was announced. I found about Moshi's iVisor Glass which was offered locally so I purchased that one instead. The iVisor is edge-to-edge but unfortunately, the edges are not curved. The reason for this is that Moshi makes sure that every screen protector they produce is compatible with their cases, and their cases has a lip to protect the display when placed flat, face down. My first installation of the iVisor was a bit troublesome it was not properly aligned and when I lifted the tempered glass using the suction cup included in the package, it cracked. Thankfully, the local store where I purchased it was willing to give me a replacement for free. Fast forward late 2015, the Moshi iVisor developed a crack and the MicroGrid—a feature to prevent the loss of touch sensitivity—became 200% obvious than before and both problems only seemed to worsen when further applied with pressure. This time, I contacted Moshi support directly, explained my situation, and in lieu of sending them my iVisor, I was sent one free of charge. I did not install this one and this is what led to my purchase of the Ice Max.
After carefully reading reviews between the GodoSmith and Cinder, I noticed that both reviews were mixed. What won me over the Ice Max, however was the price and customer support. If you look at Cinder videos on YouTube, you'll basically see everyone stating in the comments that their support is trash. I figured the Ice Max is available for almost half the price, so that should save me some disappointment.
The product took a surprisingly long time to arrive and I was not available to pick it up at home so I had to go grab my shipment from the post. Hence the long time between placement of purchase and product installation.
TL;DR: a 3/5 product that delivers for it's price but unfortunately had some quality assurance faults.
Photo gallery: http://imgur.com/a/t9Q7o
