There’s a good chance your smartphone’s screen is protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass, as that, or another form of tough cover glass, is basically the only thing giving it the slightest chance of surviving a fall. But next year’s phones could be far more durable, as Corning has just announced Gorilla Glass 6.
Compared to Gorilla Glass 5, which is used in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Sony Xperia XZ2, Gorilla Glass 6 is designed to survive drops from higher heights, but also to survive a greater number of drops.
On average in lab tests Gorilla Glass 6 survived drops from 1 meter on to rough surfaces 15 times, which is apparently up to two times better than Gorilla Glass 5, while some competitive glass compositions didn’t even survive the first drop.
Apparently to achieve this Gorilla Glass 6 uses an entirely new glass composition with significantly higher levels of compression than Gorilla Glass 5.
Just a few months away
So it certainly sounds good and all the more important now that bezels are on the way out, the big remaining question is what phones Gorilla Glass 6 will get used in.
Corning claims that the new glass is being “evaluated by multiple customers” and is expected to hit the market in the next several months. So it’s possible that phones like the iPhone XI or Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will use it. But by next year we’d expect most high-profile flagships among many other phones will, so the Samsung Galaxy S10 is an obvious candidate.
- The OnePlus 7 might use it too
