Gorilla Glass
- Thread starter dustrho
- Start date
"The iPad 2 and previous iPad both utilize Corning Gorilla Glass. This type of glass is an alkali-aluminosilicate, being primarily silica and aluminum with an alkali metal, along with other unspecified components mixed in to tweak its properties. The biggest benefit of alluminosilicate glasses, aside from being relatively tough to start with, is the fact that the rate of ion exchange is fairly high even at temperatures low enough that the structure cannot react, meaning it can be processed quickly and create deep protective layers in the glass. The iPad 2 has a modest reduction in the thickness of the glass (about 23% thinner, for those interested) compared to the first iPad, and the question of increased fracture risk has been posed. Given the identical surface quality between the two generations, the reduction of thickness should create no palpable change in toughness for the typical user. That is to say, a drop that would shatter the screen on the original iPad would likely do the same for the new model. That being said, several other design changes appear to account for the change, and might yield better performance in this department."
It is unlikely that the Ipad 3 uses anything but Gorilla Glass 2, but may use something even tougher (?).
For an example of this glass' strength and scratch resistance:
All glass will scratch or break, but Gorilla Glass should withstand years of moderate to heavy use by most users.
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I personally don't see any value in the "gorilla" glass product. Other than not scratching - which is a basic fact of glass vs. plastic going back for decades for products like sunglasses, it collapses and shatters when an ipad is dropped - so what is the advantage here?
Apple could have used some low-end glass and it wouldn't make a difference; if it cannot withstand the typical 2-foot drop - the way a blackberry can, for instance - why is it touted in any way (yes, I've dropped my blackberry onto concrete from about 3 feet and it did not shatter).
And since it does break when dropped, why is it so ridiculously expensive (like $300 or so) when replacing your screen?
It seems you get high cost, but no benefit to it.
Apple could have used some low-end glass and it wouldn't make a difference; if it cannot withstand the typical 2-foot drop - the way a blackberry can, for instance - why is it touted in any way (yes, I've dropped my blackberry onto concrete from about 3 feet and it did not shatter).
And since it does break when dropped, why is it so ridiculously expensive (like $300 or so) when replacing your screen?
It seems you get high cost, but no benefit to it.
followthesapper
iPF Novice
There is an oleophobic coating on the screen to repel fingerprints. It is likely this is what is scratched and not the glass itself.
Seadog
iPF Noob
The reason for the high replacement cost is that there are three components glued to the glass to my knowledge. The design of gorilla glass goes back over a half century, but did not have any applications until the costs were reduced and touch screens came into being. Glass can be made with a lot of different characteristics, but each has its limitations. For example, toughened (or commonly known as tempered) glass has a lot of virtues, but cannot be cut after tempering. Gorilla Glass is a modification of tempered glass as I understand it.
In the most popular techniques, the capacitive or resistive approach, there are typically four layers:
Screen breakage depends a lot on how it lands. I dropped my original iPad from 3 ft a long time ago. After my heart attack, I inspected it and found no damage, other than a corner chipped out of my Coveroo back cover. A different angle, a different floor material, a different possible outcome.
In the most popular techniques, the capacitive or resistive approach, there are typically four layers:
- Top polyester coated with a transparent metallic conductive coating on the bottom
- Adhesive spacer
- Glass layer coated with a transparent metallic conductive coating on the top
- Adhesive layer on the backside of the glass for mounting.
Screen breakage depends a lot on how it lands. I dropped my original iPad from 3 ft a long time ago. After my heart attack, I inspected it and found no damage, other than a corner chipped out of my Coveroo back cover. A different angle, a different floor material, a different possible outcome.
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HKey_Current_User
iPF Noob
Seadog said:
How true! My wife dropped hers on a tile floor, from about 3.5 feet. It landed face-down, and shattered. I thought she was going to cry!
HKey_Current_User said:
I've dropped my iPhone without a case so Many times on tile floor that I am truly shocked that it has not shattered or scratched so far. However I have heard of people just having one wrong hit and it's done.
No doubt iPad with it's much larger screen will not be as tough. I've heard shattered screens on iPads are about 9% of users over the lifetime of the device. Forget scratches, if you hit it hard enough to scratch glass chances are that it's going to shatter not scratch.
That's why I bought the AppleCare+. with these devices a good warranty is a necessity.
L
Lunar
Guest
I agree... I too am inclined to suspect it would not take much to scratch the coating, I actually managed to remove my coatng entirely on my old iPad 1, at least I think I did as it was harder to clean the finger marks off, due to stupidly using a commercial lcd cleaning liquid... supposedly safe on LCD screens, AIS I'm not certain, but strongly suspect thats what happened over time. So I advise users never to use any cleaning liquid at all.. even those that claim to be 100% safe.
The glass on the iPad 1 was quite tough, and much thicker.. hence the weight, our iPad 1 once fell from a height of around 5ft, Silly wife had it in a shopping bag which she hung on the coat hook in a ladies toilet and it survived without a single mark even though it dropped onto a solid tiled floor, though it did have a full hefty folio case on it, and of course it was also protected somewhat by the shopping bag. I suspect the iPad 2 with it's thinner glass would not take much of a drop at all, and the iPad 3 even less. You only have to look at the design of the later case edges to realise that glass has to be very thin indeed. Personally I've always prefered the square edges of the iPad 1, they could have still made it much thinner, but retain the practical square edges, the 30way connector and headphone jack plugs would have certainly fitted better.
When you consider the cost of the iPad 3 I think most people will be treating them with care, and yet I know 3 people, besides several on here who have managed to get scratches on the screen... and because my iPad will be doing an aweful lot of travelling away from home over the next 2 months I've relented and fitted a decent protector, whether it stays on permanently is another matter, though to be fair.. I cannot even tell it has one fitted.
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OP
OP
dustrho
iPF Noob
What really bothers me is that I've been extra careful with my iPad 3, I have a smart cover on it, always make sure there's nothing on the screen before using it (ie dust), and in less than one week I have two faint scratches on my screen. I'm definitely contemplating buying the Zagg shield for the screen, but haven't pulled the trigger on it yet.
Sent from my iPad 3 (WiFi only, 16 GB) using iPF
Sent from my iPad 3 (WiFi only, 16 GB) using iPF
L
Lunar
Guest
The brand is Technet, from Amazon £5.99 inc delivery so dirt cheap especially as you get 6 in a pack, though any protector obviously has to have some detremental effect, these are the best I've found so far... the antiglare matt type are a waste of money, and forget about those 100% bubble free antiglare ones.. they make the screen look really bad. I spent £30 on one of those.. These type I'm using are of the generic crystal clear variety, with no visible glue showing at all...though there is obviously some present to hold it in place, but the protector sheet does come off quite easy when your'e ready to replace it or to just remove. I just put a piece of sellotape on one corner and it will pull away from the screen dead easy. Never use your finger nail to lift it... much safer to lift it using a bit of adhesive tape.
The biggest problem is the old dreaded bubble and dust issue when putting them on... when my pack of 6 arrived, I wasn't feeing too confident having ruined several in the past... so TBH I was fully expecting to ruin all 6 of them trying....lol
There's nothing worse than seeing bubbles , but I managed to strike it lucky first time, only precautions I took was to fit it in the bathroom having run the hot shower for a few minutes to dampen down any dust that may be in the air. It's quite glossy, so if you can get it on without any bubbles at all, you really have to look very close indeed to tell there's a protector fitted, and unlike the others I've tried any degradation of the screen sharpness is very minimal... certainly not enought for me to notice.. and I'm pretty fussy.
I should add.. that I've fitted quite a few protectors to mainly the wifes and grand-childrens gadgets in the past, and this is the very first time I've managed to do it with no bubbles... infact I was starting to think it was impossible to do without getting any bubbles, whether I have similar success next time is very doubtful...but now I know it is possible.. it gives me a little more hope. The secret is getting it on first time, as IME once you start lifting it up again perhaps to reposition or to clear a spec of dust.. then one always seems to make matters worse. I also found that taping 2 several inch lengths of sellotape (folded over) to the 2 corners of the sheet of plastic you pull away when you apply it is also beneficial as it helps to keeps your left hand as much as possible outside the screen area. So in effect.. you just pull back about 0.5" just to get it aligned around the Home button and square down the edges, so your right hand is always over the top... smoothing it down as you work along, while at the same time the left hand is slowing pulling back the protection cover (number 1) sheet using the 2 tapes you previously taped to the number 1 sheets. Using the 2 pulling tapes will help to avoid depositing/generating any specs of dust which cause most of the bubbles
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