What does an Oleophobic Screen do for the iPhone 3GS

The iPhone 3GS boasts of something called an “oleophobic” coating on its screen. What this basically does is that it prevents oil from your skin from sticking on it. In other words, little to no fingerprints on your iPhone 3GS screen.

How does it work? An oleophobic (which means aversion to oil by the way) polymer compound is bonded with the glass that is used for the screen. The polymer will allow the oil coming from your fingers to bunch together to form something like a droplet that washes off the surface easily.

Nice? The thing is, you would probably use a screen protector on your iPhone which would probably attract fingerprints anyway. Also, why didn’t they use this oleophobic polymer on the back panel of the iPhone?

I hope this technology gets used a lot especially on glossy laptop surfaces.

[Gizmodo]