Corning unveils Gorilla Glass 5, evolutionary successor for iPhone screens

AppleInsider

A new version of the Corning Gorilla Glass used in iPhone screens since launch promises better impact resistance for equipped devices, with the improved glass panels surviving falls from greater heights than previous versions.

The new cover glass has been formulated to provide enhanced protection against breakage from everyday drops. To better test the improvements on the new glass, Corning altered its evaluation process to better reflect actual use cases and drop conditions.

According to Corning, the new product survives up to 80 percent of the time when dropped face-down from a height of 1.6 meters (five feet, three inches) onto rough surfaces, as opposed to the smoother surfaces that previous testing was performed on. Previous drop testing was performed from one meter.

Gorilla Glass 5 is currently available for manufacturers and designers. Corning expects appearances of Gorilla Glass 5 on consumer electronics later this year.

Gorilla Glass 4 was revealed in November 2014, and emphasized sharp-corner breakage resistance. Apple only very rarely discloses component suppliers, but it is known the company has been using Corning's Gorilla Glass in all iPhone models since the launch of the product.

Corning executives claim that the sapphire glass used in the Apple Watch, some iPhone camera lenses, and the Touch ID sensor, is 1.6 times heavier, transmits less light, and is ten times more expensive than its own Gorilla Glass.

MacPro

I bet Corning toast Steve every year on the anniversary of the day he asked them to make it!

cali

digitalclips said:

I bet Corning toast Steve every year on the anniversary of the day he asked them to make it!

Wow what didn't Steve do?

sflocal

digitalclips said:

I bet Corning toast Steve every year on the anniversary of the day he asked them to make it!

Seriously.  Sure while Steve Jobs didn't invent all this stuff, he was gifted with insight on what was out there, how to make it work, and change the industry.  Corning should be figuratively kissing Steve's headstone every year for getting Corning to use what they thought was useless tech.  Samsung should do the same.

zimmie

It greatly amused me a few years ago when Gorilla Glass officially launched and people went on and on about how Apple should switch to it. "Surely, this new glass will help keep iPhone screens from breaking!" the pundits cried. The original formula is what iPhone used from day 1, and they've upgraded with each successive formula improvement.

linkman

If Corning's 80% success rate is true and based on how many iPhones I have seen in use with cracked/smashed screens, then some people sure have dropped their phone a lot of times. I have dropped mine to a hard surface about 5 times over 4 years and have yet to get a crack or dent -- but I use some sort of protective case. All of my 4 immediate family members use cases and have yet to have such a failure. Use a case!

teaearlegreyhot

linkman said:

I have dropped mine to a hard surface about 5 times over 4 years and have yet to get a crack or dent -- but I use some sort of protective case. All of my 4 immediate family members use cases and have yet to have such a failure. Use a case!

Problem with your anecdotal report is that you didn't try dropping your phone without a case.  It might have survived your drops just as well without the case. Scientific studies are properly controlled. Yours was not.  (I'm still totally glad your phone didn't break, I'm just saying that there's no evidence that your case is responsible for saving it.)

lank

linkman said:

If Corning's 80% success rate is true and based on how many iPhones I have seen in use with cracked/smashed screens, then some people sure have dropped their phone a lot of times. I have dropped mine to a hard surface about 5 times over 4 years and have yet to get a crack or dent -- but I use some sort of protective case. All of my 4 immediate family members use cases and have yet to have such a failure. Use a case!

Do you keep all your jewelry and dinner ware encased in a protective wrapping so they don't get broken? The iPhone is a beautiful thin and light device that is a joy to use the way Apple designed it. Why do you want to hide it and add a bunch of bulk and weight to such a well designed device. Despite their fine packaging, I don't know of anyone who leaves theirs in the box. I have carried iPhones since the first one and not had a loss that would have been prevented by a case. If you want to hide your jewelry you are welcome to, but don't tell other people what to do with theirs.

blurpbleepbloop

I realize the danger of making assumptions but I'll hazard it anyway and posit that Corning has been making Gorilla Glass more flexible in the last generation or so to aid in drop surviability in contrast to a harder screen that is more scratch resistant. Anecdotally, I've scratched my first iPhone glass on my 6s after having owned each model from the 5s and earlier. I hope people ARE seeing fewer cracked screens because I'm really bummed about this scratch.

elijahg

blurpbleepbloop said:

I realize the danger of making assumptions but I'll hazard it anyway and posit that Corning has been making Gorilla Glass more flexible in the last generation or so to aid in drop surviability in contrast to a harder screen that is more scratch resistant. Anecdotally, I've scratched my first iPhone glass on my 6s after having owned each model from the 5s and earlier. I hope people ARE seeing fewer cracked screens because I'm really bummed about this scratch.

Apple coats the glass with an oleophobic layer, which is almost certainly softer and more scratchable than glass. I'd rather fingerprints over scratches!

freerange

They previously primarily tested for "sharp-corner breakage resistance" yet last week I dropped my 6s Plus from just 1 meter covered with a leather Apple case and the case itself actually pushed into the lower corner of the screen and cracked it. Sorry, this glass is not as strong as claimed. Fortunately, I took the phone to an Apple Store to replace the screen for $150 and they were unable to repair it to proper working condition, even though it was a small crack, and no damage to the case, so they gave me a brand new phone. Apparently these touch screens require a special machine to replace and are very delicate in the process so this is a relatively common occurrence. Great customer service!

macxpress

lank said:

linkman said:

If Corning's 80% success rate is true and based on how many iPhones I have seen in use with cracked/smashed screens, then some people sure have dropped their phone a lot of times. I have dropped mine to a hard surface about 5 times over 4 years and have yet to get a crack or dent -- but I use some sort of protective case. All of my 4 immediate family members use cases and have yet to have such a failure. Use a case!

Do you keep all your jewelry and dinner ware encased in a protective wrapping so they don't get broken? The iPhone is a beautiful thin and light device that is a joy to use the way Apple designed it. Why do you want to hide it and add a bunch of bulk and weight to such a well designed device. Despite their fine packaging, I don't know of anyone who leaves theirs in the box. I have carried iPhones since the first one and not had a loss that would have been prevented by a case. If you want to hide your jewelry you are welcome to, but don't tell other people what to do with theirs.

You want to do this so in the event you do drop it accidentally, or it falls off a table, etc it doesn't get broken, scratched, etc. Yes its pretty, but I'm not gonna continuously shell out $100 for replacement phones or let it get all scratched up so it doesn't look so pretty anymore just so I can show off a phone everyone else already has. For me, I want the best resale value I can get as it pays for my replacement phone when my contract is up. The replacement is $199 (+ AppleCare+) and I can typically sell my old phone and make up that cost. If the phone is all scratched to hell with broken glass it isn't gonna sell for shit. 

Plus, people know what an iPhone looks like...its not like you or I are the only ones running around with an iPhone in their hand/pocket. I don't need to show it off to everyone. 

damonf

So I presume this year's iPhone will have this 5th gen glass?  If so, that gives this year's model something else going for it.  I wonder if the glass is waterproof. 

dasanman69

digitalclips said:

I bet Corning toast Steve every year on the anniversary of the day he asked them to make it!

If I remember correctly they had already invented it but was shelved because there was still no real world use for it yet. They went also not sure that they could produce enough panels in the time SJ was asking for, but they should still toast to him. (sorry for the bold letting, it's the only way the cursor doesn't automatically jump into the OP's comment and stay there) 

MacPro

dasanman69 said:

digitalclips said:

I bet Corning toast Steve every year on the anniversary of the day he asked them to make it!

If I remember correctly they had already invented it but was shelved because there was still no real world use for it yet. They went also not sure that they could produce enough panels in the time SJ was asking for, but they should still toast to him. (sorry for the bold letting, it's the only way the cursor doesn't automatically jump into the OP's comment and stay there) 

If I'd added  '... make it for iPhone'.  Then I guess it would be more accurate.

MacPro

cali said:

digitalclips said:

I bet Corning toast Steve every year on the anniversary of the day he asked them to make it!

Wow what didn't Steve do?

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you agree (*as you've read the history) with me in this, yes hard to find much in Tech these day and age Steve hasn't had a hand in for sure .

Inventing the Future: 

There are many examples of the power of this technique, but one of my favorites is in the recently released biography of the late Steve Jobs. 

In the 1960s, Corning Glass had developed a very durable type of glass they called "gorilla glass", because it was so tough. They had stopped making it, but in 2005 the CEO of Corning (Wendell Weeks) explained the material to Jobs, who immediately wanted to use gorilla glass for the first iPhone. 

"[Jobs] said he wanted as much gorilla glass as Corning could make within six months.'We don't have the capacity,' Weeks replied. 'None of our plants make the glass now.' 

'Don't be afraid,' Jobs replied. This stunned Weeks, who was good-humored and confident but not used to Jobs' reality distortion field. He tried to explain that a false sense of confidence would not overcome engineering challenges, but that was a premise that Jobs had repeatedly shown he didn't accept. He stared at Weeks unblinking. 'Yes, you can do it,' he said. 'Get your mind around it. You can do it." 

As Weeks retold this story, he shook his head in astonishment. 'We did it in under six months,' he said. 'We produced a glass that had never been made.' Corning's facility in Harrisburg, Kentucky, which had been making LCD displays, was converted almost overnight to make gorilla glass full-time. 'We put our best scientists and engineers on it, and we just made it work.' In his airy office, Weeks has just one framed memento on display. It's a message Jobs sent the day the iPhone came out: 'We couldn't have done it without you.'" 

Weeks is a brilliant businessman who knows how to make glass, but his initial inclination was "it can't be done". It was only by confronting Jobs' challenge (and I mean really confronting it) that he and his company were able to make it happen (to his own surprise). Of course, we can't just ignore real physical constraints, but most of the time constraints are self-imposed and say more about us than they say about actual limitations on our actions.

http://www.boardwalkcm.com/blog-profile.php?ID=22

lank

macxpress said:

lank said:

Do you keep all your jewelry and dinner ware encased in a protective wrapping so they don't get broken? The iPhone is a beautiful thin and light device that is a joy to use the way Apple designed it. Why do you want to hide it and add a bunch of bulk and weight to such a well designed device. Despite their fine packaging, I don't know of anyone who leaves theirs in the box. I have carried iPhones since the first one and not had a loss that would have been prevented by a case. If you want to hide your jewelry you are welcome to, but don't tell other people what to do with theirs.

You want to do this so in the event you do drop it accidentally, or it falls off a table, etc it doesn't get broken, scratched, etc. Yes its pretty, but I'm not gonna continuously shell out $100 for replacement phones or let it get all scratched up so it doesn't look so pretty anymore just so I can show off a phone everyone else already has. For me, I want the best resale value I can get as it pays for my replacement phone when my contract is up. The replacement is $199 (+ AppleCare+) and I can typically sell my old phone and make up that cost. If the phone is all scratched to hell with broken glass it isn't gonna sell for shit. 

Plus, people know what an iPhone looks like...its not like you or I are the only ones running around with an iPhone in their hand/pocket. I don't need to show it off to everyone. 

I said nothing about showing it off! I enjoy using a well designed product. It slips easily into and out of my pocket. (Except my jeans when I am sitting down.) It feels good in my hand and fits in my pocket. I enjoy looking at it. I really don't care if anyone else sees me using it. I do not "show it off." It is the gargantuan ugly encased in rubber androids, or the bling encased gaudy messes that I notice people "showing off." By the way my grandkids also enjoy using my unincased iPhone regularly, and have never broken one. They treat it like the valuable thing that it is. Just like my family and friends enjoy using my dishes that are not encased in rubber to avoid breakage. Oh, and by the way, I have never had a problem reselling or passing on my older iPhones and they are not "all scratched to hell with broken glass."