For all the competition that"s happening in the smart-device market there"s only one company that OEMs turn to when they want a really tough glass screen: Corning. The makers of Gorilla Glass have shot to fame almost overnight thanks to their super strong screens and scratch resistant products. Corning said that Gorilla Glass 3 would be 40% more scratch resistant and 50% stronger than the previous GG2. Unfortunately we still have some way to go until we actually get an impact resistant screen.
Corning"s latest, Gorilla Glass 3 may be a lot harder to scratch but it"s not impact resistant. The new type of glass is featured on Samsung"s Galaxy S4 that"s just hitting the markets now. As you can see in the video below, the new glass is put through its paces in a drop test while going head to head with the older iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III screens, both of which feature Gorilla Glass 2.
Though the screen handles the first two drops remarkably well, you can see how bad it shatters once it gets impacted directly. The glass shatters completely due to the way it"s actually strengthened. The process involves creating a lot of tension inside the glass so when the tiniest imperfection appears, say from a scratch due to the drop, all that stored energy is released shattering the whole structure of the glass.
Unfortunately this means users still need to be very careful with their phones if they don"t want to replace the screen regularly.
Source: GizmoSlip (Youtube) | Image via Fonearena