Reflections on the display are annoying, and lately manufacturers have been advertising anti-reflective screen protectors as the fix. You kept bringing it up with me, especially one particular Torras model that gets a lot of love in the comments. So I tested two AR protectors and added a matte film, because matte displays chase the same goal. The result is sobering.
The Three Contenders
Torras OrigArmor AR glass: about $46, about $39 on sale, and that gets you exactly one protector.
ESR AR glass: about $33 for two, so roughly $16 each.
JETech matte film: about $12. It’s no longer listed, and it has just 1.5 stars on Amazon.
The Face ID Problem
There’s a specific reason for the matte film’s bad ratings, and it affects every matte film for this iPhone. On the iPhone 18 Pro, the infrared camera for Face ID sits at the top center of the display. You can see it if you turn the display off and hold it under bright light, and a small circle appears.
So far, manufacturers have only cut out the notch. The infrared camera sits outside that area, and a matte layer blocks it. In my test, Face ID simply stopped working with the matte film. The iPhone just vibrated and never recognized my face.
For me that’s a deal breaker. Face ID is one of the reasons to use an iPhone in the first place. The two AR glasses don’t have this problem, by the way, and Face ID works normally with them.
How Well Do They Cut Glare?
For the comparison I aimed a lamp directly at the display, recorded it with no protection, and then repeated the same shot with each protector.
The matte film cuts glare best. You basically can’t see the lamp anymore. The price is display quality: the image is no longer razor sharp and looks slightly grainy.
The Torras comes second, clearly ahead of the ESR, but the lamp is still visible as a patch. The colors also look shifted, and the image is less neutral than with no protector at all.
The ESR cuts the least glare of the three.
The Air Gap: The Real Annoyance
Both AR protectors have the same problem a lot of iPhone 18 Pro owners are complaining about right now: the glass doesn’t stick at the edge, and a narrow ring of air stays there. On the ESR there was also a strange bubble in the middle that came back after every press.
With the Torras I tried patience and held it down firmly for five seconds. The bubbles at the edge still came right back. On a $46 protector that’s hard to accept. On a $11 one you could look past it.
So I measured:
✗ ESR: 73.4 mm, ring of air all around
✗ Torras OrigArmor: 74.6 mm, sticks at the sides but not along the bottom
What’s interesting is that they fail in different ways. The smaller one doesn’t reach far enough across the curved edge; the larger one sits well at the sides but not at the bottom. I don’t know yet exactly why. It’s also possible that some displays aren’t perfectly flat from the factory. To check that I’ve ordered a straightedge for about $32, a razor-sharp ruler you lay on the screen and hold against the light. I’ll show the result in a separate video. There’s more on sizes and the air gap in my iPhone 18 Pro screen protector test.
Installation
A word on the installation aid, because it matters more than you’d think. The JETech matte film comes with a simple frame you place on the display and then have to lay the film into yourself. Mine ended up crooked, and that’s exactly where the air gap came from.
ESR and Torras use trays you drop the iPhone into, which keeps the protector straight. The Torras setup is more convoluted, though, and produces a lot of plastic waste.
Verdict
Honestly, I wouldn’t buy any of the three.
✗ The ESR doesn’t stick at the edge.
✗ The Torras OrigArmor is far too expensive for what it delivers, and it doesn’t stick along the bottom either.
✗ The matte film cuts glare best but makes Face ID unusable.
As soon as matte films arrive with a cutout for the Face ID camera, that would be the best answer to reflections for me. I expect manufacturers to catch up soon, and I’ll test them when they do. Until then, a normal screen protector is the smarter buy.
More iPhone 18 Pro Tests
Which clear protectors survive scratch and bend tests is in my big screen protector comparison. You’ll find matching cases in my test of the best iPhone 18 Pro cases. For the foldable iPhone, see my tests of iPhone Duo cases and iPhone Duo screen protectors. And my free Charge Check shows how fast your charger really charges.