Corning, makers of the Gorilla Glass that sits atop the majority ofsmartphone screens, has announced the latest iteration of its most famous product. Gorilla Glass 4, the company claims, is "up to two times tougher than any competitive cover glass design now in the market". We presume that includes Gorilla Glass 3 too.
So could this mean the end of cracked phone screens etched with cobweb-patterned shards of glass?
Corning really hopes so. The company has been determinedly exploring ways to help consumers overcome the number one bane of expensive phone ownership -- screen breakage upon droppage. Researchers examined hundreds of broken devices and discovered that in more than 70 percent of cases, damage was caused by sharp contact.
In order to make sure their lab tests were reflecting real life, they developed a new drop-test that was supposed to most closely simulate the kinds of events that cause breakages. The test involves making sure that the device is dropped face down from a height of one meter and that the cover glass comes into direct contact with a rough surface.
When they used the test to assess the superpowers of Gorilla Glass 4, they found it was able to survive around eighty percent of time. Obviously this doesn't mean your super-expensive smartphone is entirely drop resistant. If it takes a tumble as described in the drop test there is a one in five chance that it will break.
Other findings showed that Gorilla Glass 4 supposedly provides at least two times improved damage resistance when compared to competitors. This was measured according to the strength it retained after damaging events.
Kommentare
