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Corning Unveils Gorilla Glass 5, Can Survive Drops 'Up To 80% Of The Time' (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Verge: Corning has unveiled their new Gorilla Glass 5, which should make its way to high-end smartphones and other electronic devices later this year and into 2017. Gorilla Glass 5 is designed to improve drop performance from devices that are dropped onto rough surfaces from waist heigh to shoulder height. Corning says it can survive up to 80 percent of the time when dropped from 1.6 meters. For comparison, Gorilla Glass 4, which was released in the fall of 2014, was marketed as being twice as tough as the previous version and twice as likely to survive drops onto uneven surfaces from about a meter high. Some things to note include the fact that in Corning's tests, the 80 percent survival rate was with pieces of glass that were 0.6mm thick -- Corning now makes glass as thin as 0.4mm. Depending on how thin manufacturers want the glass in their devices, the durability results may vary. Also, most of demos consisted of dropping the glass face down, rather than on its side or corner. Corning's vice president and general manger John Bayne said if the glass is dropped in such a way, it's going to depend on the overall design of the phone, not just the glass. Gorilla Glass 5 is currently in production, though the company says we'll hear more about it "in the next few months." There's no word as to whether or not the glass will be ready in time for the wave of devices expected this fall.
The "For comparison" does not allow you to make a comparison...
Also what does "up to 80%" mean?
Corning says it can survive up to 80 percent of the time when dropped from 1.6 meters. For comparison, Gorilla Glass 4, which was released in the fall of 2014, was marketed as being twice as tough as the previous version and twice as likely to survive drops onto uneven surfaces from about a meter high.
How is that "for comparison"? There is absolutely nothing there that can be compared.
I quite often hold mine at knee height, especially for taking photographs.
Of, umm, insects and flowers and stuff. Yes, that's it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Funny, phones are so fragile now days that we need to add extra armor just to keep it going... How about actually build that phone properly in first place?
The main problem is that too much phone manufacturers pandered to those who value form over function by making phones in heavy metal. These phones are denser and have more chances to break when they reach the ground. Plastic can bend and absorbs some shock. Metal will transmit the shock to the display and other components. Plastic phones are much better, but some reviewers decided they "felt cheap" (whatever that means).
A lite plastic phone with gorilla glass has high survivability to drops. Just don't make it in metal.
Synthetic Sapphire (Corundum) crystal is very hard and scratch resistant, but also very brittle. I would expect it to be inferior to Corning's solution unless it was much thicker.
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