The tinted glass is very different from the tinted film. The main difference is that the film cannot adhere well enough around printed articles on the glass - this affects ALL film. The 4 main considerations are:
* That means you will have an air gap where the dot matrix is - you can see this as a white mark around the rear window and the small rear windows.
* When looking in your rear view mirror, you will also have much larger light diffraction from the film where it is bending around the heating elements on the rear window - the effect you will see is blurred headlights in the vertical plane.
* You will also see the heating elements (which are orange in colour) from the outisde and the darker you go (or the darker the inside of the vehicle - the more noticeable this is.
* The film takes more care to clean and scratches more easily than the glass. Becomes more of an issue on sportback / coupe models where there is no window frame.
At factory, the glass is tinted, so you don't have these issues. It's worth the £300 over the film, especially as a good tinting company will remove all the trim and tint the whole glass so you cannot see the edges of it.
* That means you will have an air gap where the dot matrix is - you can see this as a white mark around the rear window and the small rear windows.
* When looking in your rear view mirror, you will also have much larger light diffraction from the film where it is bending around the heating elements on the rear window - the effect you will see is blurred headlights in the vertical plane.
* You will also see the heating elements (which are orange in colour) from the outisde and the darker you go (or the darker the inside of the vehicle - the more noticeable this is.
* The film takes more care to clean and scratches more easily than the glass. Becomes more of an issue on sportback / coupe models where there is no window frame.
At factory, the glass is tinted, so you don't have these issues. It's worth the £300 over the film, especially as a good tinting company will remove all the trim and tint the whole glass so you cannot see the edges of it.