The other day Corning unveiled Gorilla Glass 4, which obviously is the fourth iteration of its strengthen glass product made for mobile device.
As you would imagine, Corning’s latest product builds on top of its predecessor, Gorilla Glass 3, promising the hardest glass material yet; though not as strong as the much more expensive sapphire glass, which is still reserved for just a few phones, mostly those costing several thousand dollars (plus Kyocera Brigadier).
Here are 3 things you should know about Gorilla Glass 4:
- Gorilla Glass 4 can survive drops from 1m (3.3ft) on rough surfaces like asphalt about 80% of the time. According to Corning, competing products survive about half as often. These sort of drops, the press release reads, account for 70% of broken screens.
- Compared to the current Gorilla Glass 3, the new Glass is not only tougher but also thinner. A 0.4mm-thick Gorilla Glass 4 is slightly tougher than a 0.7mm Glass 3. This in turn allows handset and tablet makers to improve the durability of their phones without using thicker and heavier glass.
- The first device equipped with Gorilla Glass 4 will be out early next year. Sampling has already started with Corning’s partners testing out the product as we speak
For those who count, Gorilla Glass has been used in 1,395 different products from 40 different vendors, totaling 3 billion devices. With 7.4% stake in the company, Samsung is one of Corning’s biggest shareholders.