Review: Black Diamond Heavyweight Screentap Gloves

Pair weight - 70 g, cost - $40, fabric - Polartec Power Stretch Pro

Universal gloves for the city and hiking in which you can work with touch screens (touch screen) and feel normal at temperatures down to -4.

Pros: work with touch screens, lightweight
Disadvantages: touch area only on the fingertips, they warm worse than fleece ones

In the spring of 2017, I filmed a video blog about trekking to Everest. The filming process required constant work with a bunch of devices (camera, microphones, smartphone, tripod), precise finger movements were needed, despite the fact that it was not summer at all. At an altitude of 5000 meters, even on sunny days, the temperature is near zero and hands without gloves quickly freeze and lose sensitivity. I got used to performing most operations in ordinary fleece gloves, but I couldn’t work with the touchscreen in them. I had to constantly take off and put on gloves, which only added to the hassle of an already frantic schedule. So upon returning to Kathmandu, I went shopping in search of the perfect touch screen gloves.

I went to all the branded stores and tried a dozen models of gloves. I just put them on and tried to type text and work with a map on a smartphone, and also pressed buttons and turned the wheels on a DSLR. Based on the results of this simple testing, the Black Diamond Heavyweight Screentap gloves turned out to be the absolute champion. They are not bulky, fit well on the hand, and most importantly, they had the highest percentage of activation and hitting the right keys on the touch screen. Please note that “highest” does not mean “100%” - just higher than competitors.

As a result, I bought these gloves and since then I have been actively using them not only on hikes, but also in the city. In principle, I am pleased with them, but there are several negative aspects that I would like to talk about.

Durable. Heavyweight Screentap gloves are made from Power Stretch Pro material. They are fluffy on the inside (like regular fleece), and smooth on the outside - just a woven surface, without lint. From an aesthetic point of view, this is a plus as long as the gloves are new and intact. They look stricter and more respectable than fleece fluffies. But when the fabric begins to wear out, the fleece gloves will retain their decent appearance longer. And the dirt on them is less noticeable, which I will discuss in more detail below.

Warmth. On the glove label, operating temperatures were indicated as "-4...+4". I understood that these are conditional figures and should not be taken seriously. Previously, I wore regular fleece gloves (Polartek 200) from the same manufacturer. They had “0...+7” on the label. Those. it was assumed that the new sensor gloves were at least 4 degrees “warmer” than regular fleece gloves. At the same time, they are a couple of millimeters thinner and 15 grams lighter. Strange? And not very believable, I tell you! Later, my hypothesis was confirmed, the touch mittens actually warmed a little worse than fleece ones (but this is not critical), and the lower level of comfort temperature is indeed located around -4. Then it turns out that the error is precisely in assessing the comfort temperature of ordinary fleece gloves.

Sensory. In these gloves, the sensory area occupies only the lower surface of the finger (where the pads are). This is a strip of special fabric about one and a half centimeters wide. And it turned out that during operation the glove on the index finger is slightly twisted and the pressure zone falls right on the seam between the regular and “touch” fabric.

Do not read for the faint of heart. On many hikes, gloves not only protect your hands, but also work as a handkerchief. The dry and cold air of the highlands irritates the nasal mucosa and chronic runny nose is normal there. Your nose drips almost constantly, and if you reach into your pocket for a napkin every time, you won’t have time to go. And you won’t have enough napkins. And they always have gloves at hand. I simply blew my nose into it as I walked (without taking it off), shook it off onto the ground, and the issue was closed. So, in terms of blowing your nose, ordinary fleece gloves outperform the heroes of today’s review. Fleece is more gentle, which is important since the wings of the nose are always burned by ultraviolet radiation and irritated due to blowing the nose. And the remains of snot on the fleece are somehow less noticeable. Sorry for the details, of course, but who will tell you this if not me))

Kirill Yasko, January 27, 2019