Exactly. In order to get a durable sapphire screen it would have to be so thick that the phone would be rather heavy.
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What's the deal with sapphire glass, or is it all just hype?
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Exactly. In order to get a durable sapphire screen it would have to be so thick that the phone would be rather heavy.
sapphire is probably a bit better, but not as much as apple would have you believe. Gorilla glass is very scratch resistant.
The main m.o. for Apple using sapphire is so that they can charge you more for their products. They're not going to mark up the price purely to cover costs. They're going to mark up the price even higher than usual b/c of sapphire.
Apple is in the luxury market for every single item that they sell, and it's the only market that they are forever interested in. The 5c may have midrange specs, but it's still got a high end price vs the competition. It's just the way Apple operates. It obviously makes them barrels of money!
The main m.o. for Apple using sapphire is so that they can charge you more for their products. They're not going to mark up the price purely to cover costs. They're going to mark up the price even higher than usual b/c of sapphire.
Apple is in the luxury market for every single item that they sell, and it's the only market that they are forever interested in. The 5c may have midrange specs, but it's still got a high end price vs the competition. It's just the way Apple operates. It obviously makes them barrels of money!
Actually if you have something very hard the best way to make it shatter resistant is to make it thin. Thin hard things will flex whereas thick hard things will break, which is why optical fibres are flexible but exactly the same glass made thicker will be rigid and snap very easily.
The oleophobic coating used on glass probably won't stick to sapphire. I'd assume they're trying to develop a coating if there isn't already one.
Scratches apply to everyone and doesn't discriminate. Sapphire will make screen protectors a thing of the past.
It is NOT shatterproof as I have had to replace the sapphire face on my watch at a whopping $750 !
There are no optical fibres in the world that would be made out of glass.
Seriously? Have you tried bending glass? How did that work?
Optical fibres are made out of plastic.
Thats is rarely the case with any material.
Materials that we are talking about he will show there brittleness or resistances to breaking with deformation to be more accurate with their thickness.
Glass, ice, sapphire, etc etc become more prone to shattering the thinner they get, less impact required. Its not until the actual material is altered that it can be made less brittle, tempering, adding material like in safety glass etc etc.
The entire selling point of Gorilla Glass 3 is with a different formula/process they are able to make thinner then GG2 and be just as strong. Obviously if all they have to do was just make it thinner they would have done that with GG1.
Figuring that the iPhone is the top selling phone in the country, it seems its much more than "soccer moms, rich old ladies and others who get their identity from possessions." Maybe because so many people think they create a better phone and an even better OS?
I don't see the 'deal' with sapphire glass, but I also see the 'deal'
Sapphire, as probably mentioned before is 9 (corundum) on the hardness scale. (I still can't carry my diamonds in the same pocket as my phone, darn)
Sure, it will be scratch-resistant, but from what I've heard, sapphire will not crack, but shatter to pieces instead.
It will probably cost a bit more for having the luxury, and I probably won't mind paying a bit extra for it.
But that's just me.
-Juan
Sapphire, as probably mentioned before is 9 (corundum) on the hardness scale. (I still can't carry my diamonds in the same pocket as my phone, darn)
Sure, it will be scratch-resistant, but from what I've heard, sapphire will not crack, but shatter to pieces instead.
It will probably cost a bit more for having the luxury, and I probably won't mind paying a bit extra for it.
But that's just me.
-Juan
More recent optical fibres can indeed be made from plastic, but the first ones and ones used for transmitting long distances are definitely made from glass. The key thing is to keep the bend radius much higher than the thickness, by reducing the thickness you can reduce the bend radius. The usual figure for safe bending is 15 times the thickness/diameter, given that fibre can be thinner than hair this is still quite tight.
There's a trade off between shatter resistance and strength, you want a certain amount of rigidity in a screen which means you can't go too thin. However going thinner will certainly increase flexibility and hence shatter resistance. It will reduce strength, but that's not the same thing. Corning have changed the glass to achieve the same strength with a thinner sheet, not to improve shatter resistance. It might not be possible to achieve a thin enough sapphire to be shatter resistant without making it too flexible.
Safety glass isn't less likely to shatter, it's formulated so that the surface is under tension and the centre is under compression which means that when it does shatter the corners pull in and they aren't as sharp. In fact it's more likely to shatter, which you mitigate by using two sheets with a sheet of plastic in between, this isn't an option in a phone where thinness is prized.
Altering composition can change the properties, as Corning have done. I don't know if you can dope sapphire to improve its mechanical properties without compromising the optical, but I'll bet that's an active research topic right now.
Apple likes being in the forefront. Apple (Steve Jobs? Jon Ivy?) has had a fascination with glass. They revived Gorilla Glass from obscurity. The've had the largest glass sheets ever made produced for their stores.
Apple's demands for these materials bring with it an economy of scale that brings new products to the market and reduces costs.
It's a good thing, not just for Apple, or for Apple customers, but for humanity in general. Other phones got Gorilla Glass. More architecture will be created with giant sheets of glass. New applications will emerge for sapphire, now that it is possible to make it in larger sizes, and can be done less expensively.
And, yes, watch crystals will get less expensive. Your Timex will use a sapphire crystal.
Poo-poo it if you want. I think it's great that Apple is spending some of it's cash hoard to advance the application of material science.
Apple's demands for these materials bring with it an economy of scale that brings new products to the market and reduces costs.
It's a good thing, not just for Apple, or for Apple customers, but for humanity in general. Other phones got Gorilla Glass. More architecture will be created with giant sheets of glass. New applications will emerge for sapphire, now that it is possible to make it in larger sizes, and can be done less expensively.
And, yes, watch crystals will get less expensive. Your Timex will use a sapphire crystal.
Poo-poo it if you want. I think it's great that Apple is spending some of it's cash hoard to advance the application of material science.
All of this we do not know what Apple plans are for this Sapphire.
A sapphire screen would be very nice indeed but it would not be a deal breaker if not.
A sapphire screen would be very nice indeed but it would not be a deal breaker if not.
Here's the deal: Sapphire is MUCH harder than glass, and most anything else it'll come in contact with, so it is unlikely to scratch. The primary benefit of this isn't just cosmetic; it's that chips and scratches lead to stress concentrations, and when you drop your phone THAT is where a crack will start.
A factory fresh Gorilla Glass phone will probably be a bit more shatter-resistant than a sapphire phone, but after a few months of even minor wear and tear the sapphire phone will be FAR better.
A factory fresh Gorilla Glass phone will probably be a bit more shatter-resistant than a sapphire phone, but after a few months of even minor wear and tear the sapphire phone will be FAR better.
extreme scratch resistance
The benefit is primarily scratch resistance since this is the most common form of non-reported damage. Gorilla Glass or sapphire won't survive a tall drop typically. Sapphire also has a high dielectric constant making it better for capacitive touch applications. I recall Apple patented a system that would have two very thin sapphire layers top and bottom sandwiching a layer of glass with adhesive layers. Won't know what the final mix will be until we see it. Diamond saws are used to slice sapphire ultra slim. It will not likely be one thick sapphire layer. Some companies already sell sapphire screen protectors.
The benefit is primarily scratch resistance since this is the most common form of non-reported damage. Gorilla Glass or sapphire won't survive a tall drop typically. Sapphire also has a high dielectric constant making it better for capacitive touch applications. I recall Apple patented a system that would have two very thin sapphire layers top and bottom sandwiching a layer of glass with adhesive layers. Won't know what the final mix will be until we see it. Diamond saws are used to slice sapphire ultra slim. It will not likely be one thick sapphire layer. Some companies already sell sapphire screen protectors.
no means to deposit
That would be my guess too. If they can't make a deposit technique for carbon in the production of graphene yet... I would say graphene is diamond but just 1 atom thick.
That would be my guess too. If they can't make a deposit technique for carbon in the production of graphene yet... I would say graphene is diamond but just 1 atom thick.
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