Two years after it introduced Gorilla Glass 5, Corning, the leading toughened glass manufacturer for phones and portable devices, has launched the Gorilla Glass 6. The new Gorilla Glass 6 is made of an entirely new glass composition and can withstand 2X as many drops as the Gorilla Glass 5.
The 2X damage resistance metric is exactly the same as what Gorilla Glass 5 offered over the Gorilla Glass 4. Corning’s tests show that the Gorilla Glass 6 can survive fifteen drops from 1-meter height before breaking.
The thing with ion-strengthened glasses is, that the more shatterproof they become, the more are they susceptible to scratches. In order to improve drop resistant, glass has to become softer which makes it easier to scratch. This is also why the Gorilla Glass 3 is more scratch resistant than the Gorilla Glass 5.
At the launch event, Corning also demonstrated a new Ink Jet technology that can be used to add colors and customize glass texture for the back panel of glass body phones.
Gorilla Glass 6 VS Gorilla Glass 5: What has changed?
- Gorilla Glass 6 is made of an entirely new chemical composition.
- Gorilla Glass 6 is 2X resistant to damage from drops compared to Gorilla Glass 5
- Gorilla Glass 6 is as scratch resistant as Gorilla Glass 5
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So, will the Gorilla Glass 6 be less scratch resistant than Gorilla Glass 5?
No. Thanks to the new chemical composition, the Gorilla Glass 6 will be as scratch resistant as Gorilla Glass 5, even while being 2x Drop resistant. The new composition makes it feasible to increase the level of compression in glass, thus making it more damage resistant.
It must be noted that these results were derived from Corning’s ‘internal scratch testing’. We will still have to wait some more before Gorilla Glass 6 hits real-world devices and before it’s tested outside of lab conditions to be sure.
List of phones with Gorilla Glass 6 touch protection:
The Gorilla Glass 6 is already being tested by several OEMs. Here are a few phones that are already available with Gorilla Glass 6.
- OnePlus 6T
- Oppo F9 Pro and Oppo F9
- Oppo R17 Pro
In addition to addressing drop height and drop frequency, Gorilla Glass 6 was also developed to meet the requirements of modern designs that use glass for more than 85 percent of the enclosure. With both its aesthetic and performance advantages, glass is on the right side of the technology curve and will continue to be the material of choice for mobile consumer electronics.” said Scott Forester, division vice president, Marketing and Innovation Products, Corning Gorilla Glass
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