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Gorilla Glass 5 protects your smartphone from bigger drops

Corning has been refining Gorilla Glass for years and its latest iteration is the toughest yet. The glass-making company is now showing off Gorilla Glass 5, which aims to protect smartphones from damage when landing on rough surfaces as high as 1.6 meters, or somewhere between average waist and shoulder height.

Gorilla Glass 5 currently survives drops of 1.6 meters 80 percent of the time, which is a pretty high success rate. This is also a boost from 2014’s Gorilla Glass 4, which could survive drops on to rough surfaces but only from around one meter high.

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According to The Verge, a Corning internal report showed that around 85 percent of smartphone owners have dropped their phone at least once in the last 12 months. Two thirds of those drops happened around waist to shoulder height, so Gorilla Glass 5 stands a good chance of lessening smartphone damage for a lot of users.

It is worth noting that the 80 percent survival tests were conducted using 0.6mm glass, but Corning does make Gorilla Glass as thin as 0.4mm, which would make it a bit weaker. If a smartphone maker opts for the thinner glass, it will be more prone to shattering, compared to the slightly thicker variant.

Gorilla Glass 5 is now in production, so we may see companies like Samsung, HTC, LG and Huawei opt to use it on future smartphones.

KitGuru Says: I have seen many smartphone displays shatter as the result of one unlucky drop. Over the years though, it seems to have become less of an issue. Still, it is great to see Corning continuing to refine its Gorilla Glass to help strengthen smartphone screens even further. Have any of you suffered a bad smartphone drop recently?

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7 comments

  1. yep, and often phones land on corners or something that pokes said glass, so often it will shatter anyways even if dropped at say waste level, they should make them like windshields which take ALOT to actually break through, yes would increase cost but most of these phones are VERY $$$ so might as well give them best protection they can have and not skimp to save a penny but still charge the consumers tens to hundreds instead 🙁

  2. WINvidia or AMDream

    ” should make them like windshields” Then your phone becomes twice as thick and heavy. Also, Windshields are not even remotely as durable per square inch of glass.

  3. umm yes they are, if you get a rock flying at saif GG and it is a bit to much what happens and I have seen many times, it SHATTERS does not hold itself together, unlike a windshield which has that layering sheet between the “panes” so even if does “break” very very rare does it break through, they designed to NOT allow that, so there is nothing saying they cant use say 2 4mm sheets of GG with a layer between for extra durability etc, not to mention, most folks want durable expensive things, not paper thin cooks you alive barely has capacity far to easy to bend/break”fit in your pocket”

    This is all I was alluding too, not make it a damn windshield, rather use similar concept, mehh whatever, “here is your sign” fellow 🙂

  4. Windshields are thick and have many multiple protective layers. Gorilla Glass, or any mobile screen alternatives, are far far thinner; typically less than 1mm and will thus probably never be able to withstand high velocity rocks. Part of that is due to touchscreen performance, which degrades with thickness, and partly because mobile devices are very thin.

    I don’t know if you’ve looked at a ruler in a while but 8mm is almost as thick as the device itself. Not exactly practical.

  5. I dropped my cheap Samsung phone fromn wasit height onto concrete screen first and only got a small crack in one corner. Impressive for a cheap phone and from such a height (I am rather tall).

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  7. I’m just surprised they haven’t opted to use sapphire screens yet.