- Samsung, in a bid to take on Corning and its Gorilla Glass, has come up with a glass panel of its own that is claimed to be ‘unbreakable’.
- In different tests carried out by Underwriters Laboratories testing company, the panel survived 1.2 meters, 1.8 meters drop tests without any damage at all.
- These panels are expected to be on Samsung’s next-gen flagship phones like Galaxy S10 and the flexible Galaxy X.
Gorilla Glass 6 was announced just recently by Corning. Gorilla Glass has been a standard on most flagship phones for more than a decade. Since its launch in 2007, Gorilla Glass has been used in more than six billion devices worldwide. Its latest variant, the Gorilla Glass 6’s defining feature is its ability to survive 15 continuous drops onto hard surfaces from a height of around 1 meter (3.2 feet) without breaking. Now, to tackle Corning, Samsung has now come up with its own glass panel which has been certified as ‘Unbreakable’ by the Underwriters Laboratories testing company. The new Samsung Display even surpassed the standards set out by the US Department of Defense.
The difference between Samsung’s panel and a normal glass panel is that instead of using just conventional glass for making it, Samsung developed the flexible OLED panel with an unbreakable plastic substrate and an overlay window securely bonded to it. This combination makes the panel quite tougher than the glass-and-OLED screens most phones nowadays use.
“This fortified plastic window is similar to glass in terms of weight, transmissivity, and hardness, so it should be able to replace glass without too much hassle”, said, Samsung Display’s general manager of the communication team, Hojung Kim.
The tests were conducted by product safety experts at Underwriters Laboratories (UL). The tests included a 1.2-meter drop test 26 times in succession, which the panel passed without any damage at all. Then there was a 1.8-meter drop test, which it passed too. Then it passed through high and low-temperature tests. The test results also saw the panel surpassing the military standards the UL use.
Samsung Display also released a video in which their panel is seen surviving several hammer strikes. The Samsung display offers the same visibility as a conventional glass, with the same weight, despite its extra toughness.
There are numerous benefits to having a light-weight glass-like unbreakable plastic panel on your phone. Let’s admit it, we are all a bit clumsy with our phones and drop them a lot. So a panel like this will make sure that the next time your phone hits the ground, the repair costs won’t burn a hole in your pocket.
Samsung Display hasn’t revealed any specific information about their unbreakable screens yet. The panels can be expected to be on the upcoming Samsung flagships like the Galaxy S10, or the Galaxy X flexible phone.
Considering how expensive the new flagships phones are getting, and how costly it is to repair them in case of some damage, it’s quite exciting to see a screen that could withstand heavy drops and shocks without breaking. Other than phones, there are many applications of such a glass panel in educational environments, cars, televisions, military service etc.