In case you weren’t aware, the super-touch glass that covers your shiny new phone’s touchscreen display is called Gorilla Glass. It’s an unbelievably strong surface, which can resist everything from trial by thumbtack to being run over. Except, that was only version 3. Corning, Gorilla Glass’ manufacturer, has just come out with version 4, and it looks almost indestructible. In fact, it is twice as strong as the previous generation.
Best of all, though, the company has a brilliant sense of humor when it comes to launch videos…
According to Corning, most screen breakages occur when we clumsily drop our phone, from a height of around one meter, onto a road-like surface. Using this as a benchmark test, the company found that version 4 withstood 80% of these painful falls, compared with version 3 (found on the current iPhones and the Galaxy S4) which only held up 40% of the time.
Considering that the added strength has no effect on clarity, that’s a mighty impressive improvement. In addition, Corning suggests that the improved durability will allow phone and tablet makers to use thinner Gorilla Glass-covered screens, meaning even thinner devices. If that’s possible.
The science behind it all is explained succinctly by the Mythbusters team.
Version 4 will be used on a number of upcoming handsets, although Apple planned to use sapphire glass on the next generation of iPhones. Production troubles are making this an unlikely outcome, however, so Gorilla Glass 4 may yet find its way onto next year’s handset. For a writer who currently uses a phone with a cracked screen (no kidding!), that can’t come soon enough…
Source: The Verge via Apple Insider
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