Apple’s iPhone has had its screen protected with Gorilla Glass ever since the debut of the first iPhone. Now Corning Glass has debuted Gorilla Glass 5, which offers improved resistance against breakage from everyday drops.
Gorilla Glass 5 touts dramatically improved drop performance compared with competitive glass designs and earlier versions of Gorilla Glass. How dramatic? The glass delivers an up to four times improvement in drop height to failure and can survive drops up to 1.6 meters (which just happens to be the global human height average), up to 80 percent of the time. Because of this, we believe that consumers will see improved drop performance in devices with Gorilla Glass 5.
Corning has changed its testing procedures to better reflect real life usage. They previously performed drop tests onto a smooth surface from a height of one meter. The now do testing from a height of 1.6 meters, onto rough surfaces.
Corning expects the new Gorilla Glass to show up on consumer electronic devices later this year. Apple will likely be one of the companies using the protective glass on their mobile devices, as they have used the tough glass on all of their iPhones since the device debuted in 2007.
