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Apple's Use Of 'Sapphire' in iPhone Camera Lens Questioned in New Tests (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the in-quest-of-real-sapphire dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Apple has been using sapphire on its iPhone camera lenses for a few years now since the launch of the iPhone 5S, but it might not be as scratch resistant as you'd expect. A new video raises questions over Apple's use of sapphire in its iPhone camera lens, and includes scratch tests to rate its durability. While Apple claims it uses sapphire crystal in its iPhone lens, tests by YouTuber JerryRigEverything show that Apple could be using a more cost effective sapphire laminate on top of regular glass. JerryRigEverything tested Apple's iPhone lens with an XRF machine and electron microscope, and concluded that Apple doesn't use pure sapphire in its lenses. The underside of the lens contains less sapphire than the exposed part, and a scratching comparison with a Tissot sapphire watch showed that the lens cover will scratch at a level 6 on Mohs Scale of Hardness, compared to level 8 for the Tissot watch.

5 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Hard enough? by Aaden42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Did pulling it out of my pants a few hundred times a month scratch it? No? Good. Guess it was hard enough.

    Oh... And my phone's okay too!

    1. Re:Hard enough? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Keys in pockets don't scratch modern phones. What does is sand. Sand and grit is all over the place - and yes, it gets in your pocket and on your keys. Some of that grit is of a hardness that will scratch the screens. For sure. It shouldn't scratch sapphire - but then this article says the lens isn't actually fully sapphire.

  2. Re:Did Apple say it was pure sapphire? by blane.bramble · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Quite. Welcome to marketing, where the language is both very precise and very loose at the same time.

    A point in case, does:

    "A first for Company X"

    Mean that Company X is the first in the world to do something, or just that this is the first time they have done it, and others may have been doing it for years...

  3. Sapphire crystal lens cover by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you check their website Apple states 'Sapphire crystal lens cover' in the specs of their phones: http://www.apple.com/ca/iphone... , so if you are trying to scratch the underside claiming sapphire, then you are probably doing something wrong?

    Is this a non-story or did I miss something?

    --
    Jumpstart the tartan drive.
  4. False advertising regardless by grimJester · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they imply it has hardness 9 like sapphire does and it only has 6 that's false advertising. In practice that's the difference between being scratched by sand or not.