Corning's Gorilla Glass 6 Promises Colossus-Like Phone Protection Surviving 15 Punishing Drops
According to Corning, the average person drops their smartphone 7 times a year. While those of us who prefer to ensconce our smartphones in protective cases drop them without giving it a second thought, those that like to "live dangerously" without a case likely pick up their phone after a drop praying that the screen (and back glass) are intact.
To that end, Corning says that Gorilla Glass 6 can withstand 15 consecutive drops from a distance of 1-meter onto a rough surface without failing. The company also takes a dig at competitors using soda lime and aluminosilicate for display glass, saying that these glass compositions would likely fail after the first drop.
It should be noted that surviving repeated drops without cracking isn't the only advancement over Gorilla Glass 5; Gorilla Glass 6 is also more resistant to annoying scratches that sometimes mysteriously appear on your display after months of regular use.
“Gorilla Glass 6 is an entirely new glass composition that can be chemically strengthened to give it significantly higher levels of compression than is possible with Gorilla Glass 5,” said Dr. Jaymin Amin, vice president of technology and product development, Corning Gorilla Glass and Corning Specialty Materials. “Moreover, with breaks during drops being a probabilistic event, the added compression helps increase, on average, the likelihood of survival through multiple drop events.”
Nearly 50 major brands rely on Corning Gorilla Glass for their devices including current smartphone flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S9 and the Apple iPhone X. And we're almost certain that devices new year's Galaxy S10 and other 2019 Android flagships will embrace Gorilla Glass 6 (and perhaps the 2018 family of iPhones later this year).
