Once you’ve got the World’s Greatest Gadget, a.k.a. the iPhone, you’ll want to protect it from scratches, scrapes and other abuse.

A great way to do that is with the ZAGG InvisibleShield. The shield is basically a heavy-duty piece of precision-cut plastic that adheres to the phone. The shield comes in half- and full-body versions; the half version is for the face of the iPhone.

Applying the shield is somewhat tricky; you need to get it really wet so you can slide it around easily into place. After positioning it correctly, you can use the included squeegee device to push the bubbles out that will undoubtedly still be left under the surface. Even after that, there will likely still be some small bubbles. In my case, they dissolved after four or five days, leaving me with a smooth surface.

My shield has been on my iPhone for about six months now, and it works flawlessly. One of my concerns is that it would de-sensitize the touchscreen, making it harder to do things like swipe, pinch and so on. Although it might have made it a bit less sensitive, it hasn’t hampered my use of the phone at all. And it’s a small price to pay for the protection it gives my phone. It has resisted everything — there are no marks of any kind on my phone. That peace of mind is nice to have.

One hidden advantage of the shield is that is makes the phone tackier and easier to grip. The iPhone is very smooth, and can be slippery. The plastic covering provided by the shield gives a better grip, making it less likely that you’ll drop the phone.

In all, I have no complaints about my ZAGG shield. If you value your iPhone the way I do mine, you’ll think seriously about getting one. (And there are InvisibleShields available for many models of phone as well.)