Gorilla Glass 5 Could Make Your Smartphone (Almost) Completely Drop-Proof

If you’ve ever owned a smartphone, chances are you’ve noticed how anything stronger than a slight breeze could crack your screen. Now, Corning are back with their latest formula – Gorilla Glass 5 – which they claim is designed to better survive drops.

They say this new Gorilla Glass could survive over 80% of drops from as high as 1.6 metres, a big jump from the 50% of drops that Gorilla Glass 4 could withstand

This is in response to research that over 85% of smartphone owners have dropped their phones at least once per year (the remaining 15% are liars).

So how does it work? Simple – the formulation is WAY stronger, making it twice as good at resisting scratches and other damage compared to what’s on the market right now.

BUT (and this is a big but), the strength has been tested with a couple of caveats. Firstly, Corning have just sampled the material on dummy phones dropped face down – no corner/side impacts that seem to be the main killer when it comes to glass. And secondly, many OEMs opt to use thinner glass panels than the one being tested here, in order to keep the phone thin.

While the second bit is an easy fix – nobody cares about having stupidly thin phones if it means a stronger screen and (drum roll) a better battery life, the first one makes me sceptical. Shock impacts on the side of a pane of glass cause just as much/if not more of the screen cracks. I’d like to see more real-world tests before putting this in the hands of the people.

As for now, however, all we can do is wait and see…