Gorilla Glass 4 Cometh And It’s Tough And Mean Against Abuse And Drops
Even the most dextrous people on the planet have their moments of clumsiness, and it usually happens when holding a pricey (and uninsured) smartphone. For whatever reason, those suckers like to squirt right out of our hands, especially if we happen to be trotting along on a tough surface like concrete (something about Murphy's law). The good news? Corning just announced its Gorilla Glass 4, which is supposedly up to two times tougher than any competitive glass design now in the market.
According to Corning, it formulated its newest glass material to address the number one issue brought up by consumers -- screen breakage from everyday drops. With that in mind, Gorilla Glass 4 is at least twice as damage resistant over competitive aluminosilicate glass, the company claims.
"Corning Gorilla Glass has outperformed competing materials, such as soda-lime glass and other strengthened glass, since it was introduced in 2007, and we’re always innovating to push the limits of what glass can do," said James R. Steiner, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Specialty Materials. "With Gorilla Glass 4, we have focused on significantly improving protection against sharp contact damage, which is the primary reason that mobile devices break. Dropping and breaking a phone is a common problem, and one that our customers have asked us to help address."
Indeed it is, hence why aftermarket screen protectors and smartphone cases are so popular. Whether or not Corning's Gorilla Glass 4 offers enough protection (to the display) on its own is something we'll find out in due time, but for now, we're happy the company continues to make improvements.
Corning says it tasked its scientists with examining hundreds of broken devices. After analyzing broken glass displays for thousands of hours, they concluded that sharp contact accounted for more than 70 percent of field failures. Using that info, they developed new drop-test methods to simulate real-world accidents. During their tests, Gorilla Glass 4 survived 80 percent of the time, versus soda-lime class, which broke almost every time.
Corning has begun sampling and shipping its Gorilla Glass 4 to more than 40 manufacturers.
According to Corning, it formulated its newest glass material to address the number one issue brought up by consumers -- screen breakage from everyday drops. With that in mind, Gorilla Glass 4 is at least twice as damage resistant over competitive aluminosilicate glass, the company claims.
"Corning Gorilla Glass has outperformed competing materials, such as soda-lime glass and other strengthened glass, since it was introduced in 2007, and we’re always innovating to push the limits of what glass can do," said James R. Steiner, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Specialty Materials. "With Gorilla Glass 4, we have focused on significantly improving protection against sharp contact damage, which is the primary reason that mobile devices break. Dropping and breaking a phone is a common problem, and one that our customers have asked us to help address."
Indeed it is, hence why aftermarket screen protectors and smartphone cases are so popular. Whether or not Corning's Gorilla Glass 4 offers enough protection (to the display) on its own is something we'll find out in due time, but for now, we're happy the company continues to make improvements.
Corning says it tasked its scientists with examining hundreds of broken devices. After analyzing broken glass displays for thousands of hours, they concluded that sharp contact accounted for more than 70 percent of field failures. Using that info, they developed new drop-test methods to simulate real-world accidents. During their tests, Gorilla Glass 4 survived 80 percent of the time, versus soda-lime class, which broke almost every time.
Corning has begun sampling and shipping its Gorilla Glass 4 to more than 40 manufacturers.
