Corning Gorilla Glass 5 toughens 2016 handsets

Stop at this moment and take a look at your smartphone display. Chances are, you’re either looking at a liquid crystal diode (or LCD) display or an AMOLED display (acronymic for active-matrix-organic-light-emitting diode), but you’d be surprised that there’s another technology that strengthens and protects your display in the event of drops and tumble. The manufacturer responsible for the growing durability of smartphone displays is Corning, and the American company is back to announce its Gorilla Glass 5 display technology for upcoming 2016 handsets.

Gorilla Glass 5 is said to be drop-resistant from as high as 1.6 meters (or 5.2 feet), which is at about head height or chest height for many individuals. In Corning’s own tests at 5.2 feet above the floor, the display company discovered that 80% of all drops survived. The last tech release of Corning was in 2014 when the company announced the Galaxy Note 4. Gorilla Glass 5 will prove to be more drop-resistant than previous iterations of its glass panel technology, but it isn’t shatter-resistant or drop-proof.

The company made its announcement today at its facility headquarters in Palo Alto, California. “With each successive generation of Corning Gorilla Glass, we have taken cover glass technology to new levels. Gorilla Glass 5 is no exception, extending Corning’s advantage in drop performance over competitive glasses With many real-world drops occurring from between waist and shoulder height, we knew improving drop performance would be an important and necessary advancement,” said Corning VP and General Manager John Bayne.

Gorilla Glass 5 is said to have a target for late 2016 handsets, with Android OEMs Motorola, Asus, LG, and Samsung all set to announce new handsets in the next several weeks: Samsung will announce the very popular Galaxy Note 7, Motorola will release its Moto Z and Moto Z Force Droid phones but has a Droid Turbo 3 on the way, LG will announce the LG V20 as its successor to the LG V10, and other lesser-known OEMs will bring out their Fall releases, too. Corning has not said which handsets will feature its latest display tech, but we’ll be on the lookout when we find out.

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