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Corning Pits Gorilla Glass 3 Against Sapphire, Plans Reflection Reduction and Antimicrobial Technology

As others have said, it is all about the scratch. Your camera lens imbedded in a phone, isn't going to shatter. But scratching it in the wrong spot will effect every picture you ever take. You aren't going to find the current version of Gorilla Glass on a Breitling or Rolex either, and I don't know of people reporting problems with their watch crystals shattering.
 
Chaszmyr said:
This video seems to be missing the point. Sapphire is used because (in theory) it's harder to scratch, this video just shows it shatters more easily.
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They're trying to promote Gorilla Glass. You expect them to include something positive about the competition? Seriously? ;)
 
It's biased. It always is.
In fact, the entire article is a paid advertising. No surprise here :)
 
NT1440 said:
What glass is curved on the SIII? Are you talking about the slightly curved plastic laminate that is on top of the the SIII LCD screen? :confused:
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"Beveled" may be a better way to describe how the glass is shaped. It is one of the reasons the phone feels so good in the hand - it is not squared off or merely chamfered, but is instead smoothly rounded.
 
Did anyone notice that the Sapphire glass was also longer which means the weight was more concentrated at it's breaking point. Not a fair test it seems. I want to see this test repeated with glass of the exact same dimensions.
 
Chuck-Norris said:
hence why apple is makign the ipad more like the ipad mini design
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I haven't used the Mini, so I don't know if it's any better. However, from pictures it looks like the glass is still flush with the front (no inset at all), so I doubt it'll hold up much better.

At the same time, Apple have been making the glass thinner with every revision. I'm not sure what the effect of that is on shatter resistance, but I'm not convinced it's helping the issue.
 
roow110 said:
Both products are very good, they just have different advantages.

Sapphire is more resistent to scratching.

Gorilla glass is more resistant to shattering.

Now, how I see it, I would rather have a scratched screen than a shattered one. You can get sapphire crystal screen protectors if you dont want to get scratches on your gorilla glass; or any screen protector for that matter...

If you have a Sapphire screen, sure it won't scratch, but if it shatters you then have to replace the glass and the screen glued onto it. You can live with a scratched screen, but not a broken one. I'm all for gorilla glass in this case...
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But a falling phone is likely to land on an edge instead of face down. So is Gorilla Glass 3 any more resistant to edge shock than 1, 2 or non glorilla?

iPhone 5 is much better than the 4 in that regard as the glass edges are less exposed.
 
anubis said:
Sapphire is hard, but brittle. Meaning, you wouldn't get any scratches on it but would be prone to shattering from small drops. Also it's insanely expensive to make.
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Right, but is GG3 as scratch resistant as sapphire?
 
What a quick way to waste a lot of money.

I don't put a protective color on my sapphire face watch. And I've hit it on everything without it chipping/scratching. Would love to be able to do that with my phone.
 
Saladinos said:
I haven't used the Mini, so I don't know if it's any better. However, from pictures it looks like the glass is still flush with the front (no inset at all), so I doubt it'll hold up much better.

At the same time, Apple have been making the glass thinner with every revision. I'm not sure what the effect of that is on shatter resistance, but I'm not convinced it's helping the issue.
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i think someone needs a spanking
 
Interesting. Next time i press 300 pounds slowly into the center of my phone I'll note this. Honestly, we want to see if it can stand drops... fast hard hits. However I didn't realize saphire shattered that easily, so forget the idea of it being in smartphones, the LAST thing they need are screens that are easier to break.
 
Chaszmyr said:
This video seems to be missing the point. Sapphire is used because (in theory) it's harder to scratch, this video just shows it shatters more easily.
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The question is --- what's the problem to be solved?
Realistically (ie across the entire spectrum of users) is shattered screens (from dropping) a bigger problem then scratches? I'd say, based on both personal experience and complaints one sees on the internet, yes. So it makes sense to use the solution which reduces the actual problem (shattering) rather than one the one which reduces the non-problem (scratching).

The camera lenses are a different issue. Shattering there is less a problem (because the rest of the phone takes the hit first), while even small non-visible scratches could be visible on photos. So in that case it makes sense to optimize for scratch resistance.

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notabadname said:
As others have said, it is all about the scratch. Your camera lens imbedded in a phone, isn't going to shatter. But scratching it in the wrong spot will effect every picture you ever take. You aren't going to find the current version of Gorilla Glass on a Breitling or Rolex either, and I don't know of people reporting problems with their watch crystals shattering.
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Your point about watch covers is not really relevant because watches are rarely subject to the dropping that is unfortunately all too common with phones. Your watch spends most of its time on your wrist, and on those rare occasions you take it off, chances are you're doing it above carpet or a bed. Your phone is handled (with the chance of a drop) dozens of times a day, frequently above concrete or stone or other hard surfaces.
 
I don't want more anti-microbial crap out into the environment. Our immune systems are getting lazy and the microbes are getting super resistant. There's no reason to pursue anti-microbial junk in consumer products this voraciously.
 
"What would people say if someone invented a cover that was about half the weight, used 99 percent less energy to make, provided brighter displays, and cost less than a tenth of sapphire? I think they'd say that sapphire was in real trouble."


Anyone could make a cheap a$$ piece of plastic to use on smart phones and say the exact same thing about gorilla glass. But it doesn't mean it's better.

If anything, the above quote tells me that Corning is scared to death at the idea of sapphire being used.
 
i would love for an iPhone to be somewhat water resistent like the Sony Xwhatever or the new new galaxy s 4 and also sand repellent (is that the proper term?)
 
rainmanbk said:
I agree with these portions of what you said completely. Asked a little more plainly, doesn't hitting glass on an edge versus bending it, test two completely different strengths?

I'm not sure about designing different products, it's clear Apple thinks a large glass window into your iPhone is the proper way to make a phone. But I'm sure there is other research that could be done to improve this issue of glass shattering.
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The short answer is that they are different, but they are related. The failure force for a crack from an edge is related to sqrt(G.E). Brittle materials like glass have a low G value but a high E value. Failure by bending is much less reliant on G, much more reliant on E.

Basically Corning are claiming that their glass is stronger (has a higher value of E) which is probably true, and that it also has a higher value of G, which is also probably true. The thing is that sqrt(G.E) is still so low that their glass cannot withstand cracks from side impact very well - GG3 probably does it better than sapphire but that's not saying a lot, it still does an inadequate job. Its very difficult to make any glass which doesn't fracture, which is why it is down to the design of the product and not the material to minimise this problem.

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jamesnajera said:
Right, but is GG3 as scratch resistant as sapphire?
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Not even close. For some perspective: if you had a sapphire screen on your phone and you took a hardened steels tool to it, the screen would scratch the tool. The only way to scratch sapphire is with precious gems. If you carry a lot of those in your pocket then I am afraid to say that maybe the iPhone 6/7 isn't for you.
 
This is a bit of nonsens, it is well known that Sapphire has a very high scratch resistance, but breaks very easily. Scratching the surface or braking it, are simply two completly different things. Funny, also to see, that Corning it not showing the difference in scratch risistance between Gorilla glass and Sapphire...........because they know that they will not win on this point.

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thepowerofnone said:
The short answer is that they are different, but they are related. The failure force for a crack from an edge is related to sqrt(G.E). Brittle materials like glass have a low G value but a high E value. Failure by bending is much less reliant on G, much more reliant on E.

Basically Corning are claiming that their glass is stronger (has a higher value of E) which is probably true, and that it also has a higher value of G, which is also probably true. The thing is that sqrt(G.E) is still so low that their glass cannot withstand cracks from side impact very well - GG3 probably does it better than sapphire but that's not saying a lot, it still does an inadequate job. Its very difficult to make any glass which doesn't fracture, which is why it is down to the design of the product and not the material to minimise this problem.

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Not even close. For some perspective: if you had a sapphire screen on your phone and you took a hardened steels tool to it, the screen would scratch the tool. The only way to scratch sapphire is with precious gems. If you carry a lot of those in your pocket then I am afraid to say that maybe the iPhone 6/7 isn't for you.
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I have a watch with a natural saphire glass, the steel (type 316L steel) surrounding the glass shows many small scratches, but the glass itself is still as new, not a single scratch over 7 years......Harder than steel.

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anubis said:
Sapphire is hard, but brittle. Meaning, you wouldn't get any scratches on it but would be prone to shattering from small drops. Also it's insanely expensive to make.
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Actually you have artifical sapphire and natural sapphire, the second one (used by Rolex, Breitling and Ebel) is real expensive one. It polished from a rough sapphire stone/cryrstal

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Chaszmyr said:
This video seems to be missing the point. Sapphire is used because (in theory) it's harder to scratch, this video just shows it shatters more easily.
Click to expand...

Exactly, bananas taste better then sapphire........not very usefull comparison
 
JDee said:
I dunno' about this whole Gorilla Glass thing to be honest. The iPhone 5 has 'Gorilla Glass 2' and I still see loads of the displays being broken. I know it's not invincible but it's not as hard as they make it out to be in these videos.
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I'm flabbergasted that people complain that there's a kind of glass that once in a rare while breaks when you drop it on the pavement. Try dropping a drinking glass, lightbulb, or a camera lens and see what happens.
 
anubis said:
Sapphire is hard, but brittle. Meaning, you wouldn't get any scratches on it but would be prone to shattering from small drops. Also it's insanely expensive to make.
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Sapphire is indeed expensive, but not "insanely" expensive - - the price quoted in the previous article was ~$20 for the entire faceplate of an iPhone.
 
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