Flexible film: TPU, TPH, EPU, UV.

What flexible film is

It is a thin polymer sheet, flexible enough to follow a curved surface, delivered in sheets that load into a cutting station. You trim it to the outline of the device, lift its liner, apply it and push the air out. Oryx Nova film is TPU, TPH, EPU or UV: those are polymer families, not brands, and that is what the sheet of each reference states.

The same product carries another name on the shelves: it is sold in shops as hydrogel film. Oryx Nova does not call it that, because the word describes the material poorly, but the customer walking into a shop often asks for it by that name. Both words point to the same thing: a flexible sheet cut on demand, as opposed to a rigid plate sold model by model.

TPU, TPH, EPU, UV: four materials, one principle

Four families, one principle: a flexible polymer delivered in sheet form. What follows is what Oryx Nova states about its film, and nothing more.

• TPU: thermoplastic polyurethane, the most widespread family for flexible protective film.
• TPH: a variant of the same family, used in the Oryx Nova range.
• EPU: the third material of the range, flexible as well and delivered in sheets.
• UV: flexible too, but hardened under a lamp after the application. It has its own section below.
• All four are cut on the same station, from the same device library.
• The finishes of the range change the visual effect of the applied film, not the material it is made of.
• The exact thickness of a reference is written on its quotation, with its code.

An abbreviation is not a brand: it names a family of polymers. If a seller will not say which family their film belongs to, that is the first thing to note on your comparison.

UV film, and the lamp that hardens it

UV film is applied like the others: you cut it to the outline, lift the liner, lay it down and push the air out. The difference comes afterwards. The screen passes under an ultraviolet lamp, and the light hardens the surface of the film. The UV lamp in the Oryx Nova catalogue is made for that step, and that is why it sits beside the cutting stations. Oryx Nova UV film is ordered in 0.2 mm or 0.25 mm, in clear, matte and privacy.

Two cautions. The first: UV film is not UV glue. UV glue is a liquid poured under a rigid glass plate, another product, with its own faults, and Oryx Nova does not sell it. The second: the result depends on the lamp as much as on the film, so a UV sheet is ordered knowing which lamp will cure it.

The thicknesses, tier by tier

Oryx Nova publishes the thickness of every tier of its range, which almost nobody on this market does. It is not a quality ladder: a thin film and a thick film do not serve the same purpose, and the right choice is made with the device in hand.

• Basic: 0.11 to 0.12 mm. The same product and the same quality from one sheet to the next, with a slight variation in thickness. It is the thinnest of the range, and the touch stays that of bare glass.
• Standard: 0.13 mm. Premium: 0.15 mm. The two thicknesses the market handles most often, and the ones that suit the majority of phones.
• Signature: 0.25 mm or 0.35 mm. The top of the range puts the most material between the screen and the outside world.
• Privacy: 0.18 mm, the same thickness whether it is Standard, Premium or Signature. The filter imposes its own build, and that is what decides, not the tier.

The thinner the film, the more it is forgotten under the finger and the more easily the fingerprint reader under the screen works. The thicker it is, the more material stands in front of the screen, and the more it shows on a strongly curved edge. The thickness of the reference you order is on its product page and on its quotation.

The finishes, and what they change

The finish is the effect of the film once applied. The material stays the same; the surface is what changes.

• Clear: the film is forgotten, the screen keeps its look.
• Matte: reflections are diffused, the surface becomes less glossy.
• Privacy: the screen reads head-on and blurs from the side.
• Anti-blue-light: a portion of the blue light is filtered.
• Anti-reflective: reflections on the surface are reduced.

The choice of finish belongs to the end customer, not to the counter. The shop's job is to show the difference, which means having the finishes at hand, so ordering them in sheets rather than waiting for a model-by-model order.

Applying it, in six gestures

Application is learned in one session and is lost if nobody practises it. The six gestures, in order.

• Clean the screen, then dust it a second time: dust shows after the application, never before.
• Check the cut outline against the device, dry, before lifting the liner.
• Align one edge first, the one with the sensors or the notch, not the middle.
• Lay it by rolling, not by pressing flat: the air leaves ahead of the sheet instead of staying under it.
• Push bubbles from the centre towards the edges, with the squeegee, without forcing.
• Check on a white background and on a black one: the two do not show the same defects.

An air bubble caught in time is pushed out; a speck of dust caught under the film calls for a re-cut. That is what the re-cut is for: making the piece again for the same device, with no discussion.

Flexible film and tempered glass

Two different products, and the question that comes back at every counter. Here is what the trade's buying guides document, and only that.

• A flexible film produces no shard: it does not break into pieces when it takes a knock.
• A cracked tempered glass protector leaves sharp edges and fissures, and those guides advise removing and replacing it without waiting.

Oryx Nova does not sell tempered glass and publishes no resistance measurement on its film. The points above come from the trade's buying guides and not from an Oryx Nova test: that is why no figure goes with them.

Stocking material instead of models

This is the difference that matters to a business, and it is not a technical one.

• A stock by model ages: every device released turns part of your boxes into stock you cannot sell.
• A stock of sheets does not age the same way: the same sheet serves today's device and next month's.
• The space taken on the counter is no longer proportional to the number of models covered.
• Running out no longer concerns one model but the material, which can be seen coming and ordered ahead.

It also changes the conversation with the customer: instead of « I do not have it for that model », you ask which finish they want.

Recognising a sheet that is worth nothing

The market is full of copies, and a bad sheet sells for the same price as a good one. Five things are visible with no instrument, on two sheets taken from a batch as it arrives.

• The liner lifts without carrying the adhesive away and without leaving a veil: a sheet that clings to its liner is already damaged.
• The sheet goes flat again when released. One that keeps a crease was stored under load or got too warm.
• The applied surface has neither orange peel nor specks under a grazing light: look at the screen from an angle, not head-on.
• The edges hold after a night. A weak adhesive lets go on the curves first, and that is where to come back and look.
• Two sheets from the same batch give the same result. An uneven batch is the clearest sign of a material nobody checked.

None of those five points needs a measuring instrument, and all five can be done before ordering a carton. A supplier confident in its material does not mind you doing them.

Where the quality of an Oryx Nova sheet comes from

Oryx Nova sells the station and the material that goes through it. The station gives the shape; the material gives what the end customer feels under the finger and sees on the screen. Here is the work behind the material.

• The grade: at a manufacturer, the same material exists in several grades. Oryx Nova takes the high grade, not the middle one.
• The supplier: several were tried and compared, and one was kept for the range.
• The two criteria that decide: how the film takes on the screen, and what image the screen keeps. The rest comes after.
• Three checks, at three moments: every new reference before it enters the range, every batch on arrival, every piece before it leaves.
• The range holds five finishes and a Signature tier at the top. What separates Signature from the Premium tier is on the quotation, not here.
• And after the sale: installation, training and resupply of the material, because a station with no sheets is of no use.

That is also why the range is short: a material that does not pass the checks does not enter it. The detail of what is measured, and against what, belongs to Oryx Nova and is not published here.

What to ask a film supplier

Six questions, the same ones for any supplier, Oryx Nova included.

• What material is the film, in the terms of its family: TPU, TPH, EPU, UV or another?
• What thickness, for the exact reference you are going to receive, and written where?
• In what form is it delivered, and in which finishes?
• How long between the order and the delivery, in writing?
• What happens if a sheet arrives damaged, and who answers when something goes wrong?
• Is cutting possible for a device that is not yet in the library?

The false ideas you will hear

Four sentences that go around, and what to make of them.

• « Flexible film is cheap plastic. » It is a family of polymers, used precisely because it follows the curves a rigid plate does not.
• « Hydrogel means it is wet. » No: it is a shop name, the sheet is dry to the touch and is applied dry on the screen.
• « Film cut on the spot is less precise than factory film. » Precision comes from the shape held in the library and from the blade, not from where the cut happens.
• « All flexible sheets are the same. » That is the sentence you hear right before opening an uneven carton.

Eight words that keep coming back

The vocabulary of the material, in the sense this guide uses it.

• Flexible film: a flexible polymer sheet, cut to the outline of a device.
• TPU, TPH, EPU, UV: the four material families of the Oryx Nova range.
• UV film: flexible film hardened under an ultraviolet lamp after the application.
• Thickness: the distance between the two faces of the film. The range runs from 0.11 to 0.35 mm, and every tier has its own.
• Finish: the effect of the applied film, clear, matte, privacy, anti-blue-light or anti-reflective.
• Sheet: the form the film arrives in, to be loaded into the station.
• Liner: the layer lifted before applying, which protects the adhesive.
• Re-cut: making the piece again for the same device, when the application went wrong.

The sources of this guide

The materials of the range, the finishes, the form of delivery, the thickness range, the checks and what comes with a station are the facts the owner of Oryx Nova established, recorded in the code of this site. The thickness families of the market come from the sheets published by film manufacturers. The comparison with tempered glass comes from the trade's buying guides and stops at what they document: a cracked glass protector leaves sharp edges, a flexible film produces no shard. The trade name used in shops is an observation of the market, reported as such and never as the nature of the product. Neither the thickness of a precise reference, nor a service life, nor a price appears here: those values belong to the quotation and to the sheet of the reference ordered.

The questions we are asked

Oryx Nova guide, last reviewed on October 19, 2026. The materials, the finishes, the thickness range and the checks come from the owner's facts; the thickness of a precise reference and prices belong to the quotation.