Is Glass Screen Protector Better Than Plastic For Your Phone? The plastic screen protectors are much cheaper than tempered glass protectors. Tempered glass is almost always sturdier than the plastic and will better protect your phone. But, glass protectors are generally around 0.35 mm in thickness, and the plastic is around 0.1-0.2 mm thickness. Because of the larger thickness of the glass protector, when installed on some phones, the protector is slightly raised from the flush finish of the phone edges. On some phones, this means that the Home Button becomes recessed, which may cause some sensitivity issues when the button is pressed. As a rule of thumb, if the glass protector thickness suits your phone than clearly the tempered glass is a winner over the plastic protector.