Corning’s new Gorilla Glass 6 will let your phone survive 15 drops

Corning’s new Gorilla Glass 6 will let your phone survive 15 drops

Corning just announced the release of Gorilla Glass 6, emphasizing that it’s more durable than previous models. The company says that the glass will survive up to 15 drops from a one meter height and can be “up to two times better” than Gorilla Glass 5.

“Corning Gorilla Glass 6 improves upon Gorilla Glass 5 by surviving drops from higher heights, but, more importantly, has been engineered to survive multiple drops,” said Corning Gorilla Glass vice president and general manager John Bayne in a statement.

As phones get slimmer and have ever sleeker glass displays, reports have appeared that the slimness may actually cancel out the improvements in new iterations of Gorilla Glass, since thinner glass is weaker glass, even if it’s become stronger. Still Corning argues that sleek edge-to-edge displays have actually led to stronger smartphones. Sometimes, in smartphones of previous years, the bezel would crack first, then leading to a weakness in the glass.

There’s also a tradeoff between drop resistance and scratch resistance, which Corning has admitted to in the past. Corning says that Gorilla Glass 6 will have the same amount of scratch resistance as previous generations. So although the company claims the new generation of Gorilla Glass is “better,” you shouldn’t expect new phones made with the glass to be more scratch-resistant.

Gorilla Glass 6 is in production now and available to smartphone makers. It’s expected to reach the market in the next several months.