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Future Smartphone Displays May Use Sapphire Instead of Glass

vpro said:
this is sick, this is what Mother nature needs more destructive practices and more demand for minerals from which slave labour market shall perpetuate to keep costs low for consumers. a sad and unforgivable move.
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Sapphire glass is produced synthetically and not mined.
 
fruitpunch.ben said:
It's arrogant because you suggested apple shouldn't care about making their phones stronger because YOU are never careless and never drop your phone. Have a thought to the busier/more clumsy members of the world rather than just yourself perhaps?
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Isn't it interesting that I never even had any of those thoughts on my mind? Even more to the fact that I never even said any of the such. Did you take a class on throwing words in people's mouth?

Those were just thoughts in YOUR head. With that tone of yours it looks like I struck a nerve. Maybe you should stop drumming up so many thoughts in your head. ;)

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mdelvecchio said:
yeah, youre impervious to accidents. could never happen to you. riiight.
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Usually it's the ones that would be offended by such a comment (that wasn't directed to anyone) are the ones it happens to the most. :)
 
LastMinuteMike said:
Good. Anyone who doesn't act effing ridiculous and treat their iPhone like a precious new born baby know it will eventually accumulate many scratches.
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Does anyone here on this forum have a scratched screen? I have only seen shattered screens not scratched ones on an iPhone.
 
How will that help against drop cracks ?

I don't know that scratch-related hardness is the same as drop-proof.
Even diamond will cleave easily with a tap of the cutters mallet. To protect from scratches, a thin coat is good. But a flexible substrate that will bend and not crack is what I want for drop-proof gadgets. Maybe plastic below and sapphire on top ?????
 
szw-mapple fan said:
Does anyone here on this forum have a scratched screen? I have only seen shattered screens not scratched ones on an iPhone.
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Nope, but my iPhone 4 has been in a Griffin Survivor case since I purchased it (with the exception that I removed it from the case a couple times for cleanings).
 
Did Apple get this idea from the camera is made of the same stuff ?


So, we have gone from Carbon, to Sapphire..... Make up your mind Apple.

Your going from plastic (hard plastic), but still plastic, but now Glass again (which you previosly got rid of in an effort to make the phone lighter)

Now, it will just be heavy as usual, and more breakable as it ever was.

By the time they decide, many new phones would be out from other companies, Samsung would have a Galaxy S5.
 
Tech198 said:
Did Apple get this idea from the camera is made of the same stuff ?


So, we have gone from Carbon, to Sapphire..... Make up your mind Apple.

Your going from plastic (hard plastic), but still plastic, but now Glass again (which you previosly got rid of in an effort to make the phone lighter)

Now, it will just be heavy as usual, and more breakable as it ever was.

By the time they decide, many new phones would be out from other companies, Samsung would have a Galaxy S5.
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When did Apple get rid of glass? By the way, Galaxys use glass as well.
 
I doubt it will happen. It'll add too much cost to the phone. You use sapphire on a time piece that you want to use for years to come. You don't use it on a cellphone that you want obsolete and updated by people every 1-2 years. IMHO...
 
daneoni said:
Sweet. My watch has a sapphire face and whilst there are scratches all over the bracelet, the face is still pristine. Problem with sapphire on a phone is that although scratch resistant, it easily shatters.
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My experience with sapphire on my watch face has also been excellent.
 
Tech198 said:
They got rid of glass on the back didn't they ?
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You said glass again. What's that supposed to mean? They have used glass for all of the iPhones. Nobody said anything about glass on the back of the 5s. it's the screen.
 
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szw-mapple fan said:
You said glass again. What's that supposed to mean? They have used glass for all of the iPhones. Nobody said anything about glass on the back of the 5s. it's the screen.
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I was referring to the glass of the back of the iphone 4s.... Nothing to do with the 5....because i already know there was none of the iphone 5's back
 
FYI: It's synthetic sapphire.

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daneoni said:
Sweet. My watch has a sapphire face and whilst there are scratches all over the bracelet, the face is still pristine. Problem with sapphire on a phone is that although scratch resistant, it easily shatters.
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There are massive difference of quality between synthetic sapphire crystals in watches... luckily phones tend to have flat screens, so that makes manufacturing them easier.
 
Apparently by getting rid of the small rubber-like joint there was on pre-iPhone 4 iPod Touches, iPhones, and current iPads, Apple dramatically increased the likelyhood a device will be shattered in case of a fall. My iPad 2 has been dropped twice, and except from dents in ths case, everything is fine. Probably wouldn't be able to say the same from an iPhone 4+.
 
fruitpunch.ben said:
I've dropped my phone twice, one onto its back once onto its front. No scratches on the screen, just some dings in the bezel. I was lucky!
Sure it was because I was careless. I was holding my phone as a flashlight and it slipped out of my hand. Or once I was holding my phone while getting my son out the car and dropped it onto the parking lot. But just because I was a bit careless doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate Apple making efforts where they can to protect against it.
Accidents happen to everybody. Are you really that arrogant to suggest they never happen to you?
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Exactly this.

But no, I was like the poster you replied with before until it happened to me.

It happened to my iPhone 5 thrice. First was when it fell down my pocket the first day I got it. My pocket had a hole that I didn't know. It fell at least 3 feet.

The next two were in the same day. The first one when I was in the office and I was trying to reach something at the back of my table when my phone dropped from the table to the concrete ground since my earphones were attached to it. No scratches, thank God it was in a case. It fell from the tip first. That was stupid but sometime you wouldn't really notice it.

The last one was the at night when I was wiping the screen and it suddenly slipped out of my hands. No case on it. I thought it would shatter or give me another dent but thank God it didn't
 
I actually think that the iPhone 5 is quite slippery and easy to drop. Ditto for the iPad. A case is almost a must.
 
If you look at the sapphire displays on the Vertu phones they don't look as good on an angle. There is a trade off there.
 
Tried all kinds of cases and whatnot and just use a nekid phone. If I drop it Ill buy a new one. I have a white 5, and no bezel marks. I just make sure I don't put it in a pocket with keys or hard objects, and realize if I break it a new one is $600+. A lot of incentive to not treat it like its disposable.


Drop a phone = don't be an idiot. I just watched a review with a 4 in a Armor case, and it more than doubled the thickness of the original phone. If you need that amount of protection you should probably not own a smart phone in the first place.
 
djacopille said:
Harder things are more scratch resistant, but also more brittle. If the problem is shattering the solution is not making the screen more brittle.

A non-brittle, impact resistant material coated with an extremely thing coating of sapphire, or better yet diamond, would be ideal.
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yeah, because that wouldn't be a fortune to produce or a fortune for consumers...
 
That extra $20 means a 15% increase on BOM costs however…  that means Apple will have to increase the price points of the iPhone by $100 to maintain their 50% margins.
 
Lol @ people upset their phone broke after being dropped on a hard surface.

If you are dumb enough to not put a case on a 600+$ phone, YOU DESERVE TO HAVE A BROKEN SCREEN.

Even if you are good with not dropping phones, someone may still knock it out of your hand or knock it off of a table.


I don't think sapphire is needed, just an added expense, if people were smarter and protected their investment, this wouldn't be an issue

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wshyang said:
That extra $20 means a 15% increase on BOM costs however… that means Apple will have to increase the price points of the iPhone by $100 to maintain their 50% margins.
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Yeah, we see how apple screws people over on capacity. It DOES NOT cost 100 bucks to go from 16 to 32gb of flash storage nor does it cost another hundred to go to 64.

If I can buy it at retail for less, I know a company mass purchasing it can get it for less.
 
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