There’s one thing I’m so sure of, and that is the fact that every person who uses a mobile phone has at least once in his/her life dropped the phone ‘mistakenly’. It’s quite frightening at first but becomes saddening if after picking up the phone, you discover that your screen has been cracked. Some of us get away with just a scratch on the body of the phone while others aren’t so lucky.
Glass maker Corning wants to reduce the probability that you’ll end up with a cracked screen when your phone drops. The company recently announced the fifth iteration of its super durable glass called Gorilla Glass 5. This chemically strengthened glass is the successor to the Corning Gorilla Glass 4, which was launched in 2014.
According to the company, the new Gorilla Glass 5 is stronger than its successor. Whereas the Gorilla Glass 4 could only survive falls from about a meter, Corning says that its latest creation has been designed to survive 80% of drops from 1.6 meters.
But then again, I must let you know that it’s not just the strength of the glass that determines whether or not it will crack when it falls from a certain height. The thickness of the glass as well as the design of the phone also play a part in determining whether or not the screen cracks. Let’s not forget also that the way the phone falls is also a factor. A colleague’s phone fell several times on its face and back without cracking but one day, it landed on a hard floor with one of its edges and the screen cracked horribly.
Finally Corning says that the Gorilla Glass 5 is already in production. I guess that means we shouldn’t be surprised to hear smartphone manufacturers touting the new screen when launching new smartphones in coming months.