Impact-resistant glass vs Sapphire crystal
A leaked testing video has just displayed the durability of sapphire displays by smashing them with rocks and scratching them with stones.
Japanese electronics manufacturer Kyocera, well known for rugged handsets, is reportedly in the last stages of developing sapphire displays for smartphones.
A leaked video shows the company testing v3 of its sapphire smartphone displays with various torture techniques against a piece of “impact-resistant glass”.
A CNET source verified that this is a real testing video from the Kyocera labs, which is testing the two smartphone panels enclosed within a housing model for the tests.
Both panels were scratched hard with a rock. The impact resistant glass cracked under the pressure in places and had some pretty serious scratches across it. The sapphire panel on the other hand had some stuffing but was clearly a lot more resilient.
Kyocera then dropped the panels from an unknown height onto a small, pointed stone. Again, the impact-resistant glass shattered in a rather awesome circular spider-web pattern, but the sapphire didn’t have anywhere near as many impact marks.
The video is embedded below so you can take a look for yourself, but it’s looking pretty good for sapphire panels.
The latest rumours suggest that Apple is preparing to use sapphire crystal display technology for its upcoming iPhone 6.
A recently posted video demonstrating the durability of the iPhone 6 display panel showcased just how much it could take while it was subjected to knife attacks, key scratches and some pretty serious bending.
Apple already uses sapphire crystal to protect the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S’s home button and for the rear camera too, so it wouldn’t be an unusual material for the company to employ.
The iPhone 6 is expected to be officially unveiled in September with two different screen-size options – 4.7- and 5.5-inches – both protected by a layer of crystal sapphire.
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