Hello Everyone,
I noticed many threads where members complain that their Gorilla glass
got scratched and broke when it fell, so i decided to make a post about
the issue and let people know what is Gorilla, Dragontrail, Tempered
Glass & Sapphire glass and what to except and general misconceptions
that people have about these glasses
Lets First get to know what is Gorilla Glass, Sapphire glass, Tempered Glass & Dragontrail glass
Gorilla Glass :
Gorilla glass is registered trademark of Corning Glass Company of USA,
it’s a alkali-aluminosilicate sheet toughened glass, it’s a special type
of glass which has following properties, its hard, thin, lightweight
& scratch resistant, after steve jobs used gorilla glass on Iphone,
gorilla glass became the choice of all high end device makers and used
in laptops, mobiles, tablets and other portable devices
Gorilla glass have different versions, like Gorilla glass 2 & newer
and better Gorilla glass 4, which is more shatter resistant the previous
generation glasses
Also please note that its not the glass which is scratch resistant but
it’s the “secret” coating these manufacturer make which gives the
hardness along with the chemical process of making glass bonds stronger
Dragontrail:
Dragontrail is also a alkali aluminosilicate glass which is made by
Asahi Glass company of Japan, Dragontrail is considered to be more
resistant than gorilla glass 2 and suppose to resist scratch better, it
can also support more weight upto 60kg. although in drop tests it does
not compare well against the Gorilla glass. it can break more easily
than GG3
Sapphire Glass:
Sapphire is not glass at all but it’s a crystalline material, sapphire
glass is made of synthetic sapphire which are made in labs. Synthetic
sapphire is generally made by applying incredibly high heat and pressure
to aluminum oxide powder and getting blocks of synthetic spphire, these
blocks are then cut and polished in screen sizes and this is what is
called a sapphire glass
Sapphire is very hard and compared to gorilla or dragontrail glass but
sapphire transmits 6% less light. Also its heavier than gorilla glass of
same thickness.
Sapphire glass is nothing new, infact high quality watches have been
using sapphire glass from a long time but the watch glass are usually 2
to 3 times thicker than the glass used on mobile devices. But all this
has now changed, as companies have found to produce sapphire glass as
screens. But sapphire are prone to shatters, they can shatter easily
compared to Gorilla Glass or Dragontrail glass.
Tempered Glass:
Tempered glass screen protectors are essentially toughened glass, they
are heat treated and chemically treated to make it stronger, it
essentially is same as a GG or Dragontrail glass but made to protect
devices. it contains different layers like silicon, PVC sheet between
glass layers to give it impact resistance. tempered glass are
essentially meant to give you the same glass feel of your device screen
but to protect against minor scratches, drops. thing to note here is
that many tempered glass vendors claim it to have hardness of 9, but
those claims are mostly false. they same similar hardness as your normal
GG
Hardness levels:
Now to understand what makes these glass resistant to scratches and so hard, we have to understand something called “Mohs scale of mineral hardness”
in layman terms, this scale means, anything that has hardness less than
the material will not scratch it. For example, quartz has hardness of 7
on Mohs scale, so a material likes copper will not be able to scratch
quartz
Coppers Mohs scale of hardness is 3, while quartz is 7
(Please note that Corning values on their official website on the
Vickers hardness scale, which is alternative to the Mohs scale)
Corning gorilla glass has a Mohs hardness of 6 for Gorilla glass 2 and
its suppose to be 6.7 for newer Gorilla glass 3. Dragontrail glass has
hardness of around 6.5 on mohs scale while sapphire glass has hardness
of 8 ~ 9
Now that we know the basics, lets clear few things:
Gorilla glass, Dragontrail glass, even your Tempered glass and sapphire
glass will all scratch, sapphire will be the hardest to scratch but will
scratch none the less, so once you put them or have them dont expect
your device to be impervious to damage. treated glass may resist
scratches better but tend to shatter
What will damage your screen most is “Sand” sand contains quartz,
which has more hardness than both Dragontrail and Gorilla glass, also
anything like diamond, steel files, abrasion papers with high hardness,
granite and many other materials will scratch your screen.
So if you live in sandy area or have sand or dust flying around as it is
the case in our dusty country, use a screen guard of good quality to
protect your screen. As sand has quartz in it and it will damage your
screen.
Gorilla glass. tempered glass & dragontrail glass will break too,
given the right circumstances, they are hard but the hardness also makes
them brittle, and can break easily. but any expert will tell you the
screen or glass breaking depends on the type of landing when your device
falls. some devices can fall from 6ft high and still survive but some
will fall just from 2ft and can have shattered glass. even corning and
Asahi Corp. dont claim their glass to be break resistant or scratch
resistant.
Never put pressure on screen when removing dust or sand, blow it away
first and then use a soft cloth to clean your device by sweeping away
the dust, rather than wiping it at first. if you are clumsy then use a
tempered glass protector and good bumper case, they provide added
protection and good bumber cases have been proven to protect your
device.
remember, you Costly phone might cost you 300$ but screen replacement unit
costs like 100$+ labour & tax which can be more than 50% of the
device cost. so spening a bit of money you
always go in good accessories to make your device more secure.
Happy Device user :)
