Rhino Shield Protects Your Smartphone’s Screen Against Heavy Impacts

 Rhino Shield can develop to be the next big thing in protective foils, as it sets to cover and repel any threatening factors that can endanger the integrity of smartphones and tablets alike. Although most of these devices come with a thin glass shield right out-of-the box, usually Gorilla-made, Rhino Shield acts as an extra boost, one which insures to keep the glass out of harms way in many situations.

Developed by a group of students at the Cambridge University, Rhino Shield is one of today’s interesting projects on KickStarter, where the product can be backed-up in exchange of a decent sum. Besides top-notch protection, developers claim to be ready for mass-production and release until April, this year. From point on, the shield would be made available for most devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S III and the iPad.

What makes Rhino Shield so tough?

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Rhino Shield is said to redefine screen protection for smart devices. Although we’ve seen similar projects at CES this year, we dare to say Rhino Shield is a note above. At its origin, this product aims to completely protect the screen of smart devices, without considering any other parts of the body. While this may seem a bit relentless, we stand to remind ourselves that the screen is, usually, the most expensive part in a smartphone and especially, in a tablet. Also, the most fragile.

In a few words, Rhino Shield is a custom made polymer that offers great impact absorption, high force dispersions and excellent transparency. Only three times thicker than a sheet of paper, 0.028 cm to be precise, Rhino has a smooth, silky texture which allows it to be used with any other case or, for those venturous enough, with its own.

In reality, Rhino Shield can absorb up to five times more impact energy than conventional Gorilla Glass shields, even more than the latest version of the design. Using a scratch resistance coating, the foil also comes with an anti-fingerprint smudge layer, which reduces fingerprint tracks and makes the phone easier to clean. The best part of the product though is hidden underneath.

Under its glossy surface, Rhino Shield conceives no less than six layers with special properties, which include an oil repelling layer, and impact dispersion and damping layer and a high-strength foil. All of these will ensure high protection, against most impacts. As proof, the Evolutive team has released a “damaging” video, where an iPhone screen is put up against a metal golf bal and 48 centimeters of free drop.

GENERAL AVAILABILITY

At this moment, Rhino Shield can only be purchased from KickStarter , where a basic model costs around $12. The product will be delivered around April, and it works for the moment with the following:

• Samsung Galaxy S3
• HTC One X+
• Galaxy Nexus
• Galaxy Note 2
• iPhone 4/4S/5
• LG Nexus 4
• BlackBerry Z10
• HTC Butterfly
• iPad Mini
• Asus Nexus 7 and 10
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 2
• Kindle Fire
• iPad (all generations)
• Galaxy Note 10.1

Editor’s Note: we haven’t tested ourselves the Rhino Shield and all the conclusions are based on what the project promises to achieve.