Gorilla Glass 2: Explained

You may have seen the words "Gorilla Glass 2" written on packaging and labels for smartphones lately, on everything from the HTC One X and One S to the Samsung Galaxy S3 and the upcoming Nokia Lumia 920. So, what is it?

Gorilla Glass 2 is a special kind of sheet glass made by glass and ceramics manufacturer, Corning. At an equivalent thickness to ordinary glass, it's supposed to have extremely high resistance to pressure, scrapes, scratches and shocks.

But what better way to give you an idea than a demonstration?

Check this out:


Corning has published some test results of the Gorilla Glass 2 compared to supposedly "ordinary" glass. Here's a comparative microscopic view of the two after being attacked with a VPO (very pointy object) using equivalent movements, strengths and speeds:



The graphs below show Gorilla Glass 2's superior resistance:

• Left: the surfaces are subjected to pressure of constant weight. A 0.5-mm-thick GG2 panel breaks under just below 80 kg of pressure, whereas ordinary glass breaks under 5 kg of pressure (at least, so Corning says).
• Right: the surfaces are subjected to increasing amounts of pressure. With ordinary panels the rate of failure is both higher and more variable than GG2 panels at the same amount of applied pressure (again, so Corning says).

Methinks we might want to start introducing demolition tests to our smartphone, tablet and notebook reviews...