Why do flagship phones (Gorilla Glass) continue to scratch easily?

Mobile phones progress every year from a variety of perspectives: processing power, storage capacity, data security, image quality and more, but one of its most important features, line resistance and scratch, does not change much. Slowly

Most of the current mobile phones are covered with Gorilla Glass, a glass that is made by Corning Corporation and designed to withstand collisions and other physical damage. But glass gadgets still scratch in your pocket or purse, even if you care hard for them. If you follow up on recent flagship smartphones, including the iPhone, X, Pixel 2, Galaxy and others, we still see scratches and deep damage in the body with the slightest mistreatment.

what is the problem? Are Gorilla Glass's new generation really less resilient than before, or is our expectation too high? Of course, it's hard to come up with a definitive result, but even Corning's figures do not show improvement.

The story goes back to both the market's requirements and the natural and natural characteristics of the glass. Since glass can not be completely scratched and anti-shock, Corning and other companies have to prioritize one of these features, and Corning has chosen to resist the collapse.

Corning's decision to make stretchable glasses comes back a long time ago. Steve Jobs, of Corning's CEO, called for glass to protect the iPhone against scratch and cracking. Prior to that, most touch-screen mobile tablets had a soft plastic casing that was suitable for the Stylus, but did not touch the touch with the finger. Corning had only six months to deliver the result to Jobs, and here was Gorilla Glass's first born.

Like the first Gorilla Glass, Corning's current strategy is determined by the demand of mobile makers. Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Google and others are looking for thinner and lighter glasses, and Corning has to make the thin glass more resistant to collapse. "John Bain", director of Gorilla Glass's department at Corning, explained this contradiction this year:

Breaking the glass on the screen is still a primary concern and concern for users, so in the recent generations of Gorilla Glass, we have set the resistance to collapse as a priority.

The Gorilla Glass 5 was introduced in 2016, with its equipped handsets, including Galaxy, LG G7, VanPlus 6 and so on, compared with previous generations of higher resistance to mechanical crashes and strokes. Gorilla Glass 6 has just been introduced and will soon be available on the market. Corning says the mobiles equipped with this glass can withstand at least 15 times the height of one meter.

To reach this level of resistance, Corning must get fragility from the glass. First, the glass is immersed in a chemical salt, and then the compressive stress is applied to the inner layer. This internal tension helps the glass thwart the external impact of the collapse. In recent years, most companies have used thin glasses in their beautiful products, and Corning has also increased internal tensions to increase the flexibility of the glass, but the problem is that the more internal stress it gets, the easier it is to scratch the glass. Falls

The main method of glass refining is a process called Templings, either made either by intense heat or by chemical action (like the salt bath that we mentioned earlier). William Johnson, a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), says the increase in internal stress reduces glass resistance to stress on the surface. In other words, when you get the glass getting scratched, it's easier to scratch (of course, Corning is claiming a tempering operation, increasing the strength of the glass against the line and scratches).



Johnson says that eventually everything will hardly hit the surface of the glass. Tempering reduces the stiffness to the flexibility, which increases the total resistance of the glass to the bend due to the fall, but the total hardness of the glass does not increase or even decrease. Glass hardness means resistance to lines and scratches.

According to Corning testing, Gorilla Glass's resistance to surface scratches has not changed since 2014. For several generations, Corning has been pointing to Gorilla Glass's resistance, but now changing its testing method does not give us enough information to compare Gorilla Glass's generations 3, 4, 5 and 6.

In 2013, Corning used the Knoop visual scan test, but the following year, there was no reference to this test, and for this reason, there was no clear comparison between the various generations. "We changed the testing methods over time," says Gorilla Glass, Scot's Forster. Scratch is a complex subject, so you do not see a dramatic change in this section, but progress in the fall is significant. "

The Gorilla Glass 5 specification sheet in 2016 can clarify some of the things. In the photo above, you will see the results of three different tests, including Taber Test, Garnet Test, and Tumble Test. In the Taber Test, which measures long-term exhaustion, Gorilla Glass 3 is clearly better off than Gorilla Glass 4, and Gorilla Glass is placed between them. The Garnet test uses a sandpaper to screw portions of the Gorilla Glass 5 more than the other parts, and can not result in a definite result. The stinging pattern of Gorilla Glass 3 and 4 looks more stable. If we want to conclude on the Taber test, Gorilla Glass 3 is more resistant than Gorilla Glass 4, but based on the total results, it's not possible to come to the exact conclusion.

If we look at product tabs and do not include numerical results, then Corning seems to be reluctant to provide accurate responses to scratch resistance. Only in the Tumble test can see that Gorilla Glass 3 is down 0.52 percent and Gorilla Glass 4 and 5 are down 0.39 percent, which means the situation is slightly improved. Corning also says that this number has not changed in Gorilla Glass. Thus, the three last generations of Gorilla Glass have not made any progress in terms of scratch resistance, according to the Tumble test.



In Corning's new test images, we even see Gorilla Glass 6 weaker than the previous generation. For example, in the Tumble test that simulates the collision of coins inside the wallet with the glass, Gorilla Glass 6 is more scratched. Forster of Corning says that a single test can not determine the resistance of the glass, and different tests will have different results. He also says that the removal of numbers from the profile sheet is purely for the sake of beauty and has no other reason.

Forrester also says that the differences between generations do not appear to be appearing, and should be looked at more closely for comparison. Creating a balance between glass thickness, durability and resistance is another matter to consider. Forrester claims that every time glass jets have been sent to mobile makers, they are not welcome because of their high thickness, and they all want narrow glass.

The new generation of Gorilla Glass are thinner than before, but they are still quite prone to scratch, and users need to shield their screen layers to protect them. In this way, the thickness of the glass on the display will be greatly increased. The screen saver is usually not expensive, but when you buy several million dollars for a flagship smartphone, the purchase of accessories will be a bit annoying. On the other hand, obvious scratches on the mobile display will cause a sharp drop in prices.



Corning has, of course, developed a number of products that will be available in the near future. Gorilla Glass SR+ and DX+, used in the new Samsung Galaxy Wave, are a new type of smart watch and wearable gadget with very high scratch resistance. However, Forster says the two products are facing a scalability problem and can not currently produce them in large dimensions (for mobile):

We first scratched the + SR to compete with Sapphire glass scratch resistance. This glass is unique and its main application will be wearable.

If SR+ and DX+ come to the world with the same name or other name, then perhaps the flagship smartphones could really get scratched on the market and could easily be removed from the screensavers. At the moment, however, we should be content with the same shredded glass, even though we have paid several million dollars, because whatever it is, the glass is the same glass and its nature can not be changed.