Smart Glass Glimpse, 07/25/16

Smart Glass Glimpse brings you the latest technology news in the glass and glazing industry so you can easily keep updated.

Corning Pioneers The End of Smartphone Screen Breakage

How often do you drop your phone? With the constant use of our mobile devices the possibility of dropping them is almost too real. Every time your phone falls, you dread picking it up in fear to see the broken screen. Then, you muster the courage to face your phone and whisper a blessing when you see that the screen is intact. However, we’re not always that lucky, phones break all the time.

What if I told you that the age of broken screens may be coming to an end? At least that is being proposed with Corning’s new Gorilla Glass 5. Corning announced the latest generation of its glass panels last Friday and expects it to be the most efficient technology for smart phone screens. Corning’s announcement is perfectly aligned with the upcoming release of the Galaxy Note 7 and iPhone 7, so we can expect to see Gorilla Glass 5 in millions of future generation smartphones.

Now, why is Gorilla Glass 5 so great? Corning’s previous glass technology survived waist-height drops, which is decent, but not ideal. Corning claims that Gorilla Glass 5 can survive drops of 1.6 meters, which is shoulder-height. During testing, the displays landed face-down onto hard surfaces such as asphalt and breakage did not occur in 80 percent of cases.

I don’t know about you, but shoulder-height drops sound pretty intense, so smartphones resistant to these are an exciting possibility. With Gorilla Glass 5 in the market, there will be a much lesser chance of screen breakage when you drop your phone. I know this doesn’t fix all of your smartphone problems because it’s still going to suck if you drop your phone in the pool or the toilet. Nonetheless, you won’t have to worry about your screen shattering anymore.

Perhaps this is a great time to upgrade your smartphone, so what will it be: Galaxy Note 7 or iPhone 7? Let us know in the comments section below.