Corning's new Gorilla Glass can better survive concrete drops
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Corning unveiled the latest updates to its Gorilla Glass materials line with the introduction of Gorilla Glass Victus 2. This new glass is designed to better survive drops onto rough surfaces like concrete or asphalt.
According to Corning, 84% of consumers across China, India, and the US name durability as the primary consideration when buying a smartphone.
"Smartphones are the center of our digital lives, and the requirement for exceptional scratch and drop resistance has only increased with our growing reliance on clear, damage-free displays," noted David Velasquez, vice president and general manager for Gorilla Glass.
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One of the concrete analog blocks used in testing.
The company's testing of its new Victus 2 glass showed that it could survive drops of up to 1 meter on a "surface replicating concrete." Corning claims that "competitive aluminosilicate glasses from other manufacturers typically failed when dropped from half a meter or less." Further testing showed that Gorilla Glass Victus 2 could also survive drops of 2 meters (or a little over selfie-taking height) on an asphalt-analogue surface. It can also resist scratching "up to four times better" than competitors.
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Velasquez noted that Victus 2 was designed with today's larger, heavier smartphones in mind, saying, "With more sophisticated and varied designs, today's smartphones are nearly 15% heavier, and screen sizes are up to 10% larger, than they were four years ago -- increasing both the stress on the cover glass and the probability of damage."
Corning said Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is currently "being evaluated by multiple customers and is expected to reach the market within the next few months."
Previous versions of Gorilla Glass have shipped in more than 8 billion devices to date, with the first-generation Victus glass having been included in devices like Google's Pixel 7 Pro, Samsung's Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and many others.