Tim Bejarin doesn't "refute" anything with his article. All he does is outline some of the well-known (except to him, apparently) reasons why sapphire would not make as good a screen cover as more conventional glass coverings.
Everyone (except Tim before his "investigation") already knows that Sapphire is more likely to shatter on impact, is heavier, less clear, and costlier to produce. But each of these obstacles could have been overcome by Apple and/or GTAT.
Let's take sapphires propensity to shatter more easily, its weight, and lower translucency: Apple was granted a patent to fuse sapphire with other materials - so Apple could have designed a screen that consists of a very thin layer of sapphire over more conventional glass-based layer(s). Since very thin sheets of graphite would flex more, they would not be as prone to shattering as a thicker 100% sapphire screen. Thinner sapphire layer also implies less weight and higher translucency, no? In addition, I believe I saw another article about how sapphire can be made less shatter prone by the deliberate creation of microscopic scratches (scoring?) in the sapphire surface.
Look, I'm an outsider - just as Tim appears to be. So I don't know for sure. But Matt Margolis (the analyst Tim is badmouthing) seems to have come to a reasonable conclusion given the amount of sapphire that he thought was being produced in Arizona by GTAT.
How do we know who's ultimately right? I guess instead of listening to guys like Tim (or Matt for that matter), let's wait until September 29th - apparently GTAT has a conference call after market closes on that day. Maybe they will shine some light onto the situation.
It's most likely to break if it lands on a corner.
You'd think, right?
When the previously mentioned 4 in a pretty substantial case smashed anyway, I decided not to bother putting the replacement in a case. THAT one sailed WAAAY high in the air and landed on its corner (or at least I think it did -- the corner was the only area with visible damage). In that instance the screen did not break, despite an impact that was enough to scramble the phone's innards. Go figure.
"And next year, two of three Apple Watch models will also feature sapphire covers, and the material will also be used on the back to protect the wearable device's heart rate sensor."
Sapphire is not used to protect the sensors on the back of the watch, rather it's used for the superior dielectric and light transfer properties. Skin doesn't scratch glass, use some common sense.
It's probably being used for protection too. Despite skin being much softer than glass, very small particles can get on skin and scratch the bottom. If it's dusty outside, that dust, which partly consists of fine particles of quartz, will scratch the glass.
For record playback, and you remember those, I hope, a diamond stylus wears out after 1,000 hours of play, even though the pure vinyl used is much softer than the diamond stylus. Again, dust.
When the previously mentioned 4 in a pretty substantial case smashed anyway, I decided not to bother putting the replacement in a case. THAT one sailed WAAAY high in the air and landed on its corner (or at least I think it did -- the corner was the only area with visible damage). In that instance the screen did not break, despite an impact that was enough to scramble the phone's innards. Go figure.
That is weird. Each landing is unique though, and without knowing exactly what happened upon impact, it's impossible to give a reason.
When we bought our 4S's, my daughter promptly dropped hers on the top right corner onto the concrete of a sidewalk. That top corner had cracks extending out about .5". She never took the phone in for replacement of that screen, though with the AppleCare, she could have. It worked well though. A year later, when we moved to Verizon, she still got $228 for that 64GB model from Verizon as a trade in for the 5.
Some of the problems mentioned in Tim's article aren't exactly correct. A major one which I'll highlight is the cracking mode. The mode mentioned has to do with multi crystalline structures, where a scratch can open to a crack along crystal surfaces. But these are single crystal boules, just as with single crystal metals, this is much stronger. I think it still needs to be investigated.
But phone design plays just as much into whether a screen will crack, as the material itself. When Apple went from the 4 series to the 5 series, the percentages of cracked screens dropped dramatically. The reason is due to the case design, which protects the corners of the screen. With the 6, we're seeing a return to an unprotected edge. Since there is still just one glass surface, we should see less cracking than with the 4 series. But just as the significantly lower weight of the 5 series also contributed to less cracking, the higher weight of these larger models will increase the chances.
It's why I always use a silicone case.
More to the point, the entire reason anyone cracks a screen at all, is not from dropping, but from putting objects on it (eg sitting on it, if it's a in rear pocket, a problem endemic to flip phones as well.)
Sapphire is "too hard" to survive a drop test under some conditions (eg landing on a corner, rather than the face or back)
My iPad, has only been dropped once... onto the floor of an Amtrak station, and the screen completely survived, but if you look at it at eye level, you see that the corner that hit has been dog-eared, and likely will not survive a second drop onto any corner because that one corner is now under stress from being buckled by the metal. If it was Sapphire it would have shattered, if it was plastic, it would have destroyed the corner.
I've dropped other devices, like a Nintendo DSi (and kicked it half way across the train terminal by accident because it fell out of a front pocket) and all that happened to it was the surface that it landed on got horribly scratched up. However years after that incident, guess what stopped working? The shoulder button that it was likely hit the ground.
I do feel it's time to finally get an iPhone (I've been using a Nokia phone that is as old as the first generation iPhone) and I no doubt will try to keep it as long as possible. Sapphire was not on my list. LTE, VoLTE and NFC payments was on my list. Android was never on my list, and after experiencing how horrible it is with Bluestacks, I'll likely never consider an Android device.
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">...need to stop putting their phones in their back pocket... my theory is when the sit on it they are bending the phone placing the display under stress and when it is drop of hit the display breaks much easier than if they had not done that in the first place.</span>
I kept all my iPhones in my back pocket since the original, and I've never had a problem of easily cracking the screen when it's dropped. If you're noticing more cracked screens with women, it's more likely that they have smaller hands making it more difficult to hold onto their phones, increasing the odds of it being dropped.
Women are weaker, too, so more likely to drop them.
It's plausible but I doubt it would be much of a selling point. I don't recall many people being bothered by display scratches on their phones, they seem pretty durable as it is. It's better than not adding it I suppose and they usually do a speed boost too.
I agree sapphire wouldn't be a major selling point for the 6S. I'm actually curious what Apple will do to differentiate the 6S from the 6 though.
I would assume optical image stabilization will come to the smaller model and maybe more RAM as well but what will the distinguishing feature be?
Likely not sapphire because consumers could care less.
iPhone 7 in two years will have an ion-infused sapphire screen and a liquid metal body!! iPhone 7 will bounce when dropped and the ion-infusion process on the sapphire screen will make it lighter, clearer, and shatter-proof!!
I begin this rumor now knowing that idiotic 'analysts' will pick up on it and spread it starting early 2016 (6 months after iPhone 6S is released). I will be quoted as an 'anonymous source knowledgeable of the inner workings of Apple'!!
:-)
What's the point in making such durable phones if we get rid of them every two years?
Apple should make a 100% biodegradable phone and sell it for half the price.
More to the point, the entire reason anyone cracks a screen at all, is not from dropping, but from putting objects on it (eg sitting on it, if it's a in rear pocket, a problem endemic to flip phones as well.)
Sapphire is "too hard" to survive a drop test under some conditions (eg landing on a corner, rather than the face or back)
My iPad, has only been dropped once... onto the floor of an Amtrak station, and the screen completely survived, but if you look at it at eye level, you see that the corner that hit has been dog-eared, and likely will not survive a second drop onto any corner because that one corner is now under stress from being buckled by the metal. If it was Sapphire it would have shattered, if it was plastic, it would have destroyed the corner.
I've dropped other devices, like a Nintendo DSi (and kicked it half way across the train terminal by accident because it fell out of a front pocket) and all that happened to it was the surface that it landed on got horribly scratched up. However years after that incident, guess what stopped working? The shoulder button that it was likely hit the ground.
I do feel it's time to finally get an iPhone (I've been using a Nokia phone that is as old as the first generation iPhone) and I no doubt will try to keep it as long as possible. Sapphire was not on my list. LTE, VoLTE and NFC payments was on my list. Android was never on my list, and after experiencing how horrible it is with Bluestacks, I'll likely never consider an Android device.
I don't know how you can make a statement like that. Many screens are broken because that are dropped. As far as I know, that's the main mode for breakage. If you don't agree, I'd like to see something showing that.
Comments
I thought we discovered that that wasn’t LiquidMetal.
The inventer co_inventor seems to think it is a Liquidmetal Technology alloy.
Liquidmetal created SIM ejector tool for Apple's iPhone, iPad
Everyone (except Tim before his "investigation") already knows that Sapphire is more likely to shatter on impact, is heavier, less clear, and costlier to produce. But each of these obstacles could have been overcome by Apple and/or GTAT.
Let's take sapphires propensity to shatter more easily, its weight, and lower translucency: Apple was granted a patent to fuse sapphire with other materials - so Apple could have designed a screen that consists of a very thin layer of sapphire over more conventional glass-based layer(s). Since very thin sheets of graphite would flex more, they would not be as prone to shattering as a thicker 100% sapphire screen. Thinner sapphire layer also implies less weight and higher translucency, no? In addition, I believe I saw another article about how sapphire can be made less shatter prone by the deliberate creation of microscopic scratches (scoring?) in the sapphire surface.
Look, I'm an outsider - just as Tim appears to be. So I don't know for sure. But Matt Margolis (the analyst Tim is badmouthing) seems to have come to a reasonable conclusion given the amount of sapphire that he thought was being produced in Arizona by GTAT.
How do we know who's ultimately right? I guess instead of listening to guys like Tim (or Matt for that matter), let's wait until September 29th - apparently GTAT has a conference call after market closes on that day. Maybe they will shine some light onto the situation.
If that happens I'll eat one of your socks. If it doesn't, you eat one of mine. Deal?
You'd think, right?
When the previously mentioned 4 in a pretty substantial case smashed anyway, I decided not to bother putting the replacement in a case. THAT one sailed WAAAY high in the air and landed on its corner (or at least I think it did -- the corner was the only area with visible damage). In that instance the screen did not break, despite an impact that was enough to scramble the phone's innards. Go figure.
It's probably being used for protection too. Despite skin being much softer than glass, very small particles can get on skin and scratch the bottom. If it's dusty outside, that dust, which partly consists of fine particles of quartz, will scratch the glass.
For record playback, and you remember those, I hope, a diamond stylus wears out after 1,000 hours of play, even though the pure vinyl used is much softer than the diamond stylus. Again, dust.
No, one was. I still have that one. It's pretty strong.
That is weird. Each landing is unique though, and without knowing exactly what happened upon impact, it's impossible to give a reason.
When we bought our 4S's, my daughter promptly dropped hers on the top right corner onto the concrete of a sidewalk. That top corner had cracks extending out about .5". She never took the phone in for replacement of that screen, though with the AppleCare, she could have. It worked well though. A year later, when we moved to Verizon, she still got $228 for that 64GB model from Verizon as a trade in for the 5.
More to the point, the entire reason anyone cracks a screen at all, is not from dropping, but from putting objects on it (eg sitting on it, if it's a in rear pocket, a problem endemic to flip phones as well.)
Sapphire is "too hard" to survive a drop test under some conditions (eg landing on a corner, rather than the face or back)
My iPad, has only been dropped once... onto the floor of an Amtrak station, and the screen completely survived, but if you look at it at eye level, you see that the corner that hit has been dog-eared, and likely will not survive a second drop onto any corner because that one corner is now under stress from being buckled by the metal. If it was Sapphire it would have shattered, if it was plastic, it would have destroyed the corner.
I've dropped other devices, like a Nintendo DSi (and kicked it half way across the train terminal by accident because it fell out of a front pocket) and all that happened to it was the surface that it landed on got horribly scratched up. However years after that incident, guess what stopped working? The shoulder button that it was likely hit the ground.
I do feel it's time to finally get an iPhone (I've been using a Nokia phone that is as old as the first generation iPhone) and I no doubt will try to keep it as long as possible. Sapphire was not on my list. LTE, VoLTE and NFC payments was on my list. Android was never on my list, and after experiencing how horrible it is with Bluestacks, I'll likely never consider an Android device.
Women are weaker, too, so more likely to drop them.
Removable SD Card.
What's the point in making such durable phones if we get rid of them every two years?
Apple should make a 100% biodegradable phone and sell it for half the price.
Resale value!!
I don't know how you can make a statement like that. Many screens are broken because that are dropped. As far as I know, that's the main mode for breakage. If you don't agree, I'd like to see something showing that.