Your subsequent smartphone could also be higher at withstanding drops on concrete, if Corning’s new glass lives as much as its claims.
The corporate launched Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on Wednesday, the most recent model of its sturdy glass for smartphones. Corning says the brand new glass ought to present higher drop resistance on rougher surfaces.
The announcement is important as a result of Corning’s Gorilla Glass will be discovered on outstanding telephones from corporations like Samsung and Google, presumably offering a preview of what to anticipate from subsequent 12 months’s new gadgets. The primary merchandise to function the brand new glass ought to hit the market within the subsequent few months, though Corning could not share further particulars. Corning’s extra sturdy smartphone glass arrives amid a renewed curiosity in extending the lifespan of cellular gadgets, for each environmental and economic causes.
Among the many greatest variations between Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and the present model is that the brand new iteration ought to higher stand up to drops on harder surfaces. The brand new glass was capable of endure falls from as much as one meter onto a floor replicating concrete in lab checks, the corporate says. The present Gorilla Glass Victus, by comparability, was examined on surfaces meant to simulate asphalt.
“We needed to discover a good harder take a look at to interrogate the floor,” stated John Bayne, senior vp and basic supervisor of Corning’s cellular client electronics division. “And concrete is precisely that. It is truly tougher than asphalt.”
The corporate makes use of supplies that replicate concrete as a substitute of precise concrete as a result of real-world surfaces degrade after repetitive drops, Corning stated.
Gorilla Glass Victus 2 also needs to present higher cowl glass safety for bigger and heavier telephones, in response to Corning. The take a look at puck that the corporate makes use of to simulate the scale and weight of an actual telephone throughout the testing course of is now roughly 15% heavier to extra precisely mirror at present’s bigger measurement gadgets. That may very well be notably helpful for foldable telephones just like the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which weighs 263 grams, making it noticeably heavier than even the 228-gram Galaxy S22 Ultra. The Galaxy Z Fold 4’s cowl display and rear glass already use Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus Plus, which is a model of the glass that is unique to Samsung’s Galaxy gadgets.
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Corning typically releases new versions of its glass every 18 to 24 months, Bayne said. But the arrival of Gorilla Glass Vicus 2 comes as consumers have been holding onto their devices for longer periods of time, underscoring the need for more durable products.
Data from Assurant, an insurance provider that also helps companies develop device trade-in programs, suggests that consumers are now waiting three and a half years before trading in their devices to upgrade to a new phone. Two smartphone screens are also cracked every second in the US, according to a 2021 report from the electronics repair brand UBreakIFix.
Part of the reason why people may not be upgrading their phones as frequently as they used to is that annual upgrades aren’t as compelling as they used to be. But Bayne thinks there’s still plenty of room for smartphone durability to improve, particularly when it comes to developing glass that’s tough but also thin.
“Our work will never be done, to tell you the truth,” he said.
