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An Apple supplier has just unveiled a purportedly ‘unbreakable’ smartphone display made from sapphire.
Desay, a Chinese firm that currently supplies batteries for Apple, has showed off its ‘Magical Mirror X5’ smartphone, as reported by the WSJ.
The new handset makes use of a 5-inch display made out of sapphire, signalling an opportunity for Apple to potentially scoop up some sapphire-sired displays of its own.
This is particularly important because, as many of you will remember, the iPhone 6 was heavily tipped to use sapphire screens.
In fact, it’s generally accepted that Apple originally intended to use sapphire on the iPhone 6, had it not hit a production roadblock with partner GT Advanced.
This led to the iPhone 6 missing out on the screen ‘by weeks’, although there’s no saying Apple won’t opt for the gemstone display for the iPhone 6S.
Related: Apple iPhone 6S tipped with dual-lens camera, pressure sensor
Why should we care about sapphire, then? Well primarily because it counts itself as second only to diamond in terms of mineral hardness, making it a tough nut (or screen) to crack.
This marks it as a formidable rival to the also-hardy Gorilla Glass 4, the current flagship of the smartphone display world, if you will.
As far as the Magical Mirror X5 goes, you can pick one up through China Mobile for 999 yuan (£106).
That bargain basement price will get you the ritzy sapphire display, as well as a quad-core application processoer courtesy of MediaTek, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a svelte 6.95mm thick chassis.
