If you need your subsequent smartphone to be higher at withstanding drops on concrete, then you definitely higher hope that Corning’s new glass lives as much as its claims.
The firm launched Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on Wednesday, the newest 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 critical as a result of Corning’s Gorilla Glass could be discovered on distinguished telephones from corporations like Samsung and Google, presumably offering a preview of what to anticipate from subsequent 12 months’s new units. The first merchandise to characteristic 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 cell units, for each environmental and financial causes.
Among the most important variations between Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and the present model is that the brand new iteration ought to higher face up to drops on harder surfaces. The new glass was in a position to endure falls from as much as one meter onto a floor replicating concrete in lab assessments, 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,” mentioned John Bayne, senior vice chairman and basic supervisor of Corning’s cell shopper electronics division. “And concrete is precisely that. It’s really tougher than asphalt.”
The firm makes use of supplies that replicate concrete as an alternative of precise concrete as a result of real-world surfaces degrade after repetitive drops, Corning mentioned.
Gorilla Glass Victus 2 also needs to present higher cowl glass safety for bigger and heavier telephones, in keeping with Corning. The take a look at puck that the corporate makes use of to simulate the scale and weight of an actual telephone through the testing course of is now roughly 15% heavier to extra precisely mirror right this moment’s bigger dimension units. 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 screen 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 units.
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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.
