What Kind of Glass is Used on Smartphones?

Everyone has dropped their smartphone at some point, because let’s face it, it’s inevitable. Once dropped, the glass on it could either break into a fabulous spiderweb of cracks, or if you’re lucky, just one or two fine cracks. The technology behind smartphone glass has progressed along with the tech inside the phones. The newer your phone is, the stronger the glass on it probably is. There are only a handful of companies that make glass for smartphones and tablets, though. The first to the market place is still on top, but the competition is building better, stronger products. If you’ve ever wondered what kind of glass is used on smartphone, read on to find out.

Gorilla Glass is the brand name for the Corning Corporation’s entry to the market. Steve Jobs was the impetus behind its creation. He approached the executives at Corning with a need for miles of durable glass for his new product, the iPhone. Corning dusted off an old product they created in the 1960s called Chemcor. They improved on the old formula, and the rest is history. Gorilla Glass is on version 5, and while it’s not unbreakable, it’s the strongest version yet with the ability to withstand shoulder-high drops. Chances are, if you have a smart phone or tablet from any manufacturer, Gorilla Glass is on it. There are benefits to being the first into the market place.

Sapphire is the second hardest mineral on earth, right behind diamond, so it makes sense that someone would develop it for use on smartphones. At present, there is only one phone in the world that uses a sapphire screen, the Vertu Ti. The technology is still being developed, but it’s in the works. Sapphire is almost completely scratch proof, which gives it an advantage over Gorilla Glass. Every time that a Gorilla Glass surface is scratched, it’s weakened. As the scratches build up, the screen becomes weaker. Eventually it will break from all the scratches. Apple elected to use sapphire glass on the Apple Watch, fueling speculation that they want to develop it themselves for use on iPhones and tablets.

In 2011, the Asahi Glass Company of Japan entered the durable glass world with DragonTrail. The product is very similar to Gorilla Glass; it’s highly durable and scratch resistant. DragonTrail is more popular with mid-tier, Chinese made phones. When DragonTrail and Gorilla Glass are compared side by side, there is little difference. They’re made through a similar process, are stronger than conventional soda-lime glass, and can withstand a hit from a hammer. Ad campaigns, time in the market place, and time overall seem to be the only difference between the two products. On a longer timeline, and the proliferation of high-tech gadgets, DragonTrail may slow walk its way to the top.