With smartphone screens getting bigger, bezels getting narrower and thickness greatly reduced, it is of no surprise that consumers are also met with great anxiety to protect their phones with heavy artillery much effort like buying protective cases and screen protectors. However, as technology advances, Corning Incorporated is set to help consumers around the world protect their screens too. Make no mistake about it, the latest breakthrough in consumer electronics material design has been announced and it is none other than the Corning® Gorilla® Glass 4 with “up to two times better performance over competitive glasses when dropped on rough surfaces,” claims Corning.
Corning Gorilla Glass 4’s design framework is aimed to significantly improve protection against sharp contact damage which is the “primary reason that mobile devices break,” according to Senior Vice President and General Manager of Corning Specialty Materials, James R. Steiner. Hence, scientists at Corning have developed and adopted a new drop-test method which are closer to real world break events and have also undergone meticulous analysis (and thousands of hours) of cover glass breaking done in the lab.
The drop-test involves devices dropped from a height of one meter (face down) to ensure that the cover glass has direct contact with the rough surface upon impact. The findings prove to be very promising.
- Gorilla Glass 4 is up to two times tougher than competitive glasses
- Gorilla Glass 4 survives up to 80 percent of the time
- Soda-lime glass, as deployed in today’s commercial devices, breaks nearly 100 percent of the time.
They also made comparisons between Gorilla Glass 3 with Gorilla Glass 4 to substantiate their findings.
It is very exciting to see what Corning Incorporated for consumers in the coming years as the company is still pushing its limit with the goal to create an indestructible cover glass screen as they are not satisfied with the 80% benchmark achieved. Corning also says that they’re already shipping out Gorilla Glass 4 and it is expected that consumer devices would be equipped with it within the quarter.
And as usual, Corning always has a quirky little video entailed in their news releases. Enjoy.
Source(s): Corning Incorporated, The Verge
