Cracking down on smashed phone screens thanks to new Gorilla Glass

There exists no other anguish quite like the feeling of dropping your phone from your grasp and watching it descend, as if in slow motion, towards the concrete floor. The harsh sound as it collides with the hard floor leaves you with the anxious moment, in which you slowly pick it up and turn the phone around to inspect the damage done to the screen, cursing yourself for not buying that screen protector you told yourself you would. However, the clumsiest among us will be relieved to hear that this could be a thing of the past thanks to the new version of Gorilla Glass developed by glass-maker Corning.

Gorilla Glass 6 is set to hit the market in the second half of this year and will replace the older Gorilla Glass 5 which is used in the majority of premium smartphones in the UK. This means that the new selection of iPhones and Google Pixel smartphones which are expected towards the end of 2018 will have twice the protection from damage caused by dropping phones.

The harsh sound as it collides with the hard floor leaves you with the anxious moment, in which you slowly pick it up and turn the phone around to inspect the damage done to the screen

The enhanced drop protection comes as a result of the new chemical strength and high compression of the glass. Dr Jaymin Amin, vice president of Technology and Product Development at Corning, explained that “the added compression helps increase, on average, the likelihood of survival through multiple drop events.” This means that not only is damage less likely to be caused from an individual drop or a drop from higher heights, but that damage is less likely to be caused by multiple drops either, with the new glass possessing greater durability.

As a result, those of you who do gain a new smartphone will have less cause for panic even if you do drop your phone on several occasions. In laboratory testing, Gorilla Glass 6 survived 15 drops from a height of a metre on average compared to 11 for Gorilla Glass 5. Therefore, the new glass is not invincible, but if you do drop your fancy new smartphone 15 times from a height of a metre, perhaps you deserve to be taught a lesson for your clumsiness.