What Exactly Is Gorilla Glass?
In this industry, we hear a lot of buzzwords. Many of them are misunderstood or conflated or flat out nonsense. One thing I get asked about a lot is “Gorilla Glass” and there seems to be a lot of false preconceptions about what it is. So what’s the deal with Gorilla Glass (GG)?
According to Wikipedia, “Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning, now in its seventh generation, designed to be thin, light and damage-resistant. As a brand, Gorilla Glass is specific to Corning, but close equivalents exist, including AGC Inc.’s Dragontrail and Schott AG’s Xensation.” So, there you go. It’s just a brand name and, like iPhones, there’s a whole family of GG – different types and different versions as technology advances.
Many think Gorilla Glass is the Super Man of glass tech – bullet-proof even. While it is very strong, it’s not unbreakable. Corning boasts that GG’s 6th iteration can withstand 15 one-meter-plus drops onto hard surfaces and stay in one piece. While this is impressive, Samsung has revealed a new display panel that, according to the Underwriters Laboratories testing company, is certifiably unbreakable. (Personally, I won’t be holding my breath for this to come to market.)
So what phones use Gorilla Glass? The truth is that many electronics manufacturers don’t disclose this information. According to those in the know, Apple has been using GG in most of their iPhones since the iPhone XS, released in 2018. Asus, on the other hand, is happy to tout their Series 5 Republic Of Gamers phone features “featuring Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, the toughest Gorilla® Glass yet.”
So Gorilla Glass is impressively strong, lightweight, and scratch resistant but, as stated, it’s not indestructible. So I would recommend that you use a good quality case and glass screen protector regardless of what kind of screen your device is toting.