The question of if it’s possible to break Gorilla Glass is as old as the iPhone itself. Gorilla Glass is the brand name that the Corning Corporation gave to its tempered glass. You might be familiar with some of their other products, like Corningware. That’s the white cookware with glass lids your mom loves to serve her famous casserole in. In the 1960s, the people at Corning started playing around with chemically strengthened glass they thought would be good for phone booths, buildings, prisons, and even eyeglasses. Their enhanced glass never caught on, though, and the project was shelved. Then, in 2005, some guy named Steve Jobs came to them with a problem. He needed a super strong, lightweight glass to cover his new product, the iPhone. The rest is history.
If you own a smart phone of any kind, chances are it has Gorilla Glass on it. Every smart phone manufacturer uses it, and almost all use it on tablets, as well. The improvement and re-engineering of Gorilla Glass has been constant, and Corning has worked to improve on the product from the beginning, as they want to keep up with smart phone technology.
The screen on a cell phone can sometimes make us think it can defy the laws of physics. You can drop a tablet or smart phone off a parking garage’s fifth level into a toilet, and it will emerge without a scratch. Then, you can drop it on your desk from six inches away, and you’ll watch a magnificent spider web crack onto the entire surface. Everyone has experienced one of these phenomena at some point.
A prevailing theory in the smart phone repair world is that they just don’t make phones like they used to. As smartphones have gotten bigger and thinner, they have become more fragile and easier to break. Consumers want manufacturers to beef up their products and make an indestructible screen on the phone.
Some caution will go a long way to help you keep your phone safe until phone screens improve. Buy a strong case to protect your phone, and don’t pick something for how it looks or that’s flimsy. Gorilla Glass is more durable than its predecessors, of course, but it’s still prone to scratches and breaking. Things are improving, but sadly the answer to the question “Is it possible to break Gorilla Glass?” is still a resounding yes.
It’s really good to know that most phone screens can still crack if they are dropped on a hard floor. My wife and I want to get new phones this holiday season and I don’t know how to protect it. I think that getting a nice case that covers the screen from drops will put my mind at ease.