Protective Gorilla Glass. Gorilla Glass in a smartphone - what is it, what are the differences between versions Smartphones with gorilla glass 4
Apparently, this time Corning decided not to wait until the start of the annual CES to introduce the fourth generation of Gorilla Glass.
Gorilla Glass has gained popularity since the advent of the mobile era for its enhanced scratch and shock resistance. Last year, with the release of Gorilla Glass 3, produced using Native Damage Resistance (NDR) technology, the company gave mobile devices, more specifically their screens, the ability to withstand a multitude of daily threats, including meeting with a bunch of keys in one tight pocket. However, as many smartphone owners could be convinced by their bitter experience, the displays protected by Gorilla Glass 3 still have an unpleasant tendency to break. In developing Gorilla Glass 4, Corning tried to focus on the biggest threat - falling.
Corning says its engineers are researching hundreds of broken devices and shattered displays during the development of Gorilla Glass 4 to determine the latter's Achilles heel. What Corning was able to find as a result is not a big surprise for ordinary consumers: more often than not, contact with a rough hard surface like asphalt or concrete ends up very badly for smartphones.
Corning researchers had to revise their internal strength tests and make changes accordingly. In particular, they came up with another new strength test using 180 grit sandpaper to simulate a rough surface. During the crash test, devices with Gorilla Glass 4 and competing solutions were dropped from a height of one meter. Gorilla Glass 4 managed to show twice best result compared to Gorilla Glass 3 and other toughened aluminosilicate glasses. The test results showed that in 80% of cases Gorilla Glass 4 "came out dry from the water", while soda-lime-silicate glass shattered in almost 100% of cases. Of course, 80% is far from the best result, but it's worth remembering that we are talking about glass.
Currently, preview samples of Gorilla Glass 4 are already shipped to customers. The first consumer devices with displays protected by Gorilla Glass 4 should appear by the end of this year. Corning recognizes that there is no limit to excellence. There are many other areas in which significant improvements are planned for the near future: the development of anti-reflective coatings and.
Gorilla Glass - why is it so popular?
Corning revolutionized the mobile industry in 2005 with a specialty material made from Al (aluminum), O (oxygen) and Si (silicon). Him main feature became light weight, small thickness (about one and a half millimeters) and high strength. It is very difficult to damage such a film.
However, at that time, the technology was used in various industries (automotive, household appliances), but only started to be used in smartphones in 2007. It was then that Apple introduced its first iPhone with a special screen protector and an oleophobic coating. To find out if your smartphone has Gorilla Glass, follow the link to the official Corning website, choose a brand, and look at the list of phones. Second version
5 years later, at the high-tech exhibition CES 2012, the manufacturer presented an improved glass. It was thinner by 0.3 mm and withstood a load of no more than 50 kg per square meter. The most popular Gorilla Glass 2 devices are the Google Nexus 4 and Samsung Galaxy S3. Third generation
Each subsequent update differed from previous developments in improved durability and resistance to scratches (thanks to the introduction of Native Damage Resistance technology) and other damage. And again the thickness became smaller and amounted to about 1 mm.
The list of phones with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 includes such well-known devices: Samsung Galaxy S4, Motorola Moto X / G.
Many people are still interested in the question - do you need an additional film for such phones? After all, shop assistants are constantly trying to impose all sorts of accessories on us.
In fact, there is no need for such spending. Gorilla Glass 3 provides excellent scratch protection. But nothing more. However, in the next generation this problem was partially eliminated. Useful content: What is OTG in a smartphone: how to use it?
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The fourth version was introduced in 2014. When creating it, the wishes of thousands of owners of mobile gadgets were taken into account. All of them complained that the screens have a low level of protection in case of falls (and such cases have become quite common with the increase in the display diagonal and the size of smartphones).
The manufacturer took these comments into account. As a result, the strength has almost doubled. ASUS ZenFone 2 and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 have successfully passed a series of crash tests, thanks to the "fourth Gorilla". Corning Gorilla Glass 5 - what is this glass?
The fifth generation has become one of the most popular and was massively used by device manufacturers even in mid-range models.
Official test results ensured that even if dropped from one and a half meters, the screen would not be seriously damaged. Small cracks are possible.
And if the height is up to a meter, then the probability of damage approaches zero. Again, the thickness of the film became less than a millimeter, which had a positive effect on the weight of the manufactured gadgets - Xiaomi Mi A2, Samsung S9. Sixth version
At the time of this writing, Gorilla Glass 6 is the latest modification. It was released in the summer of 2018. Security increased by 90%. Many Youtube bloggers conducted independent tests on their channels, in which they dropped the recent flagship Samsung Galaxy S10 from different heights (waist, head), on tiles, asphalt, soil, carpet, linoleum, etc.
Often, after 10 attempts, the screen received only minor damage. So far, a coating with such characteristics is used only in top-level devices - OPPO R17, iPhone Xs / Max. To find out if your smartphone has Gorilla Glass, follow the link to the official Corning website, choose a brand, and look at the list of phones.
Corning then "bathes" the glass sheets in a potassium ion bath that is heated to 400 degrees Celsius. After this procedure, the aluminosilicate becomes compressed with these ions. The pressure creates a protective layer and gives it a strength that ordinary glass does not have.
Scratch resistance does not change from year to year, but shock and drop resistance grows with every generation of Gorilla Glass. According to Corning, the latest generation of their glass can withstand up to 15 drops from a height of one meter. That's twice as much as Gorilla Glass 5 can handle. The latter withstood a 1.5m drop onto an uneven surface 80 percent of the time. - from a height of less than a meter.
Corning glasses are already used by more than 40 smartphone manufacturers in more than 4.5 billion devices. Corning partners with manufacturers to provide Gorilla Glass as part of the product's manufacturing process. Ordinary consumer can't go out and buy a Gorilla Glass sheet to install on an existing device. In this sense, Corning is an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). The finished product will contain a Corning sheet, but the final product will have another company's brand on it.
What kind of protective glass will be installed in a particular smartphone directly depends on price segment devices. For example, many state employees do not use Gorilla Glass at all, so their displays are quickly scratched and become unusable at the slightest drop. In smartphones of the middle price segment, you can often find fourth-generation Gorilla Glass, which is also a very high-quality glass. Such devices include, and even tablets - for example,.
Gorilla Glass 5 can already be found in smartphones costing 20,000 rubles and above, including the latest flagships. One of the most inexpensive gadgets with such glass is as well, however, the same technology is used in the new one.
The first smartphone with Gorilla Glass 6 was presented this year - this is the OPPO R17. Other vendors will join the Chinese manufacturer in the next few months.
Not only Gorilla
Many manufacturers choose not to disclose what kind of protective glass they use in their smartphones. Huawei, for example, did not hide that it prefers Gorilla Glass 5, but which glass is installed remains a mystery. However, many agree that this smartphone also protected by the fifth generation of Gorilla Glass.
Today, more and more smartphones are acquiring Gorilla Glass, and the scope of this glass is far from being limited to the sphere of smartphones.
Reliable insurance for modern gadgets
In this article, we will talk about the Gorilla Glass technology - glass that has become one of the trends in the world of mobile innovation. We will also get acquainted with the results of tests of this mighty coating carried out both by the company and by the users themselves, as well as with the prospects for the development of this technology.
A life modern man it's hard to imagine without gadgets. We are surrounded by smartphones, tablets, MP3 players, laptops and others mobile devices... New technologies are constantly moving forward, making our portable toys smaller, thinner, lighter and more durable every year. Each manufacturer seeks to attract buyers not only technical characteristics and the design of their products, but also technologies that allow to extend the life of devices, since devices experience serious stress during daily use. Not the least role in this is played by the shock and scratch-resistant coating of the screens.
Who hasn't heard of Gorilla Glass these days, an ultra-durable glass developed by Corning that protects the displays of mobile devices of many famous manufacturers? The company's products are striking in their characteristics, above all in their resistance to scratches and impacts. At the same time, the glass is very thin and, therefore, light. This gives two advantages - Gorilla Glass does not interfere with the correct operation of the touchscreen, and also does not burden the device with its weight.
Various types of high-strength glass from Corning have been installed on 4.5 billion devices, more than 40 different brands use Gorilla Glass in their products. But how does Corning's famed glass outperform competitors? What makes it different from other types of glass used for various gadgets? What makes the sensational Gorilla Glass one of the trends in the modern world mobile technologies? Let's try to figure it out.
Creation technology
First, let's try to reveal the secret of Gorilla Glass strength. As a rule, in the industry for the manufacture of glass, silicon dioxide, limestone and sodium carbonate are used as raw materials. To create its products, Corning uses silicon dioxide as the basis with a number of chemical additives. As a result of exposure to high temperatures (over 1000 ° C), a glass melt is obtained, which contains silicon, aluminum, oxygen and sodium ions. The glass obtained from it is called aluminosilicate. For the first time, Corning's special aluminosilicate glass was used to protect touch screen "Apple" iPhone smartphone first generation.
The molten glass enters a special container, the bottom of which has a V-shaped cross-section, constantly filling it. Then the molten glass, poured over the edges of the container, tends to flow along its sides. These streams merge into one just at the lower point of the V-shaped chute. The molten glass flows down from the mold and cools in a suspended state. During cooling, the molten glass layer is not exposed to any external mechanical stress, which makes it possible to obtain a perfectly smooth flawless surface with a thickness of 0.4 to 2 mm. A special robotic installation cuts off the finished glass layer, after which it is sent to further stages of the production process, which are associated with subsequent tempering, thanks to which the “very” high-strength Gorilla Glass is born.
Ion exchange is our everything!
To endow the glass with high strength and resistance to scratches and cracks, it is subjected to a subsequent chemical treatment, as a result of which sodium ions are replaced in the glass structure by larger potassium ions. Corning was not the first to pioneer this process, and many other manufacturers have previously used (and continue to use) ion exchange to temper glass, but it was the creators of Gorilla Glass that managed to find the formula that gives the ideal result today.
To carry out ion exchange, layers of aluminosilicate glass are placed in a salt bath with potassium ions, heated to 400 ° C. At this temperature, ionic bonds of sodium are destroyed, and ions are released. At the same time, potassium - as a heavier element in the periodic table - is able to form ionic bonds, replacing the released sodium. Potassium ions have a larger radius, therefore, after cooling the glass, they press against each other with greater force, creating compressive stress, due to which the surface is characterized by increased strength and resistance to external influences. In addition, during the ion exchange process, silicon ions also penetrate deep into the glass layer, strengthening it throughout its entire thickness.
Testing: not everything is so simple
In its tests, Corning usually compares the results obtained when testing its own samples of Gorilla Glass and aluminosilicate glass of competitors, as well as soda lime glass. In all respects, the company's products are superior to those compared with them.
In one of the tests recently published by the company, the resistance to falling of devices protected by latest version Gorilla Glass 4. The tests were carried out on a special installation that simulated the fall of the device from a height of up to one meter onto the most dangerous surface for gadgets, which no mobile device would like to meet - asphalt. As a result, it was revealed that after falling on the screen, the glass cracks two times less than aluminosilicate glass of competing brands. According to the assurances of specialists from Corning, with such a fall, the screen of the device survives in 80% of cases. However, as comforting as these results are, you shouldn't forget that Gorilla Glass can be broken, which is what most of those who want to attract traffic to their video blog are trying to achieve. This technology can significantly extend the life of the device and reduce the likelihood of damage to the screen, but still cannot fully protect it. For example, when a steel ball weighing more than 500 grams fell from a height of 180 cm, a 0.7 mm thick Gorilla Glass sample remained intact, although a ball weighing up to 130 grams is used for standard tests, and its fall height is 100 cm.
Gorilla Glass and mobile devices
Corning's toughened glass is used in a variety of well-known brands including Sony, Samsung, LG, Lenovo and even Apple.
Samsung has supplied Gorilla Glass 4 screens to a whole army of smartphone models, including curved display and glass back panel... Crash tests carried out by one enterprising user showed that when the device is dropped onto the asphalt from a height of about one and a half meters on the edge, the glass remains intact. However, when dropped on the cover or screen, cracks appear, which affects the aesthetic appearance of the device, but does not affect the functions of the display itself.
