Corning touts Gorilla Glass Victus’ scratch, drop resistance
Company was also developing a bendable glass
Corning has touted the scratch and drop resistance of its new Gorilla Glass Victus at an online briefing for South Korea on Tuesday.
Corning Gorilla Glass Korea president Jum Kim said the new glass had double the scratch resistance of its predecessors and can withstand 2m drops.
It is difficult to improve both scratch and drop resistance, Kim said, and Gorilla Glass 4 to 6 focused on improving drop resistance. Victus had a thickness of 0.4mm to 1mm, while Gorilla Glass 6’s was 0.4mm to 1.2mm. Victus, while maintaining the same thinness, improved both scratch and drop resistance, the president stressed.
Durability was the second most important thing after brand for smartphones in the world’s three major smartphone markets, Kim said, and consumers were willing to pay up to 40,000 won more to increase durability of their handsets.
Competing AlSi glass could only withstand up to 0.8 meters drop, Corning showed in a video demonstration. Victus’ scratch resistance was also quadruple of that of its competitor.
Victus will be applied first to a smartphone made by Samsung Electronics, Kim said, and Corning was in talks with other vendors as well.
On what impact COVID-19 will have to its bottom line, the president said it was hard to predict how the pandemic would impact its business but traditionally Gorilla Glass products showed the strongest sales in its first year debut.
Kim also said Corning was developing a bendable glass for use as cover windows for foldable smartphones, but declined to elaborate further. People familiar with the matter said the US company was part of the supply chain for the foldable phones made by Samsung Electronics’ mobile business. Corning was developing the mother glass for the cover windows, they said.
Samsung Display, meanwhile, was using the mother glass from Schott.