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iFixit says iPhone 4 has Gorilla Glass display

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The guys at repair (and teardown) site iFixit got their hands on an iPhone 4 and promptly tore it down to its bare components. The teardown is well documented and photographed (if you’re into that), but the big attention-getter is their claim that the front display is made of Corning’s super-strong Gorilla Glass.

Gorilla Glass has earned more and more of our attention as of late. We first noticed it late last year when Motion Computing started using it in their Tablet PCs, including the recently released ruggedized J3500. I tried and failed to shatter a piece at CES 2010 and wound up winning a Gorilla Glass-equipped Motorola Droid in the process. From everything we know firsthand about the product, it can take a beating. Thus, the claim that the iPhone 4 is sporting this material is welcomed news.

This puts a serious debunk on a previous claim from iFix your i that their sample display shattered after three drops. Gorilla Glass is hardly indestructible, but I’ve seen it withstand worse than what they claimed caused that damage. Another oddity is that Apple is not using the Gorilla Glass name in promoting the product. They do mention it’s made of aluminosilicate, which is also true of Gorilla Glass but they aren’t taking advantage of (or helping) the growing brand. Actually, it’s unclear exactly how iFixit knows the display is Gorilla Glass, as there do not appear to be any identifying marks. However, I trust them not to make such an assumption without evidence. Still, don’t expect me to give my iPhone 4 a hammer test to find out.

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. Nayan

    06/23/2010 at 6:34 am

    Corning Gorilla is used in many phones with glass window, including the first I-phone. Corning has come up with an improved version of gorilla last year.(https://www.corning.com/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=26021) . Anyway, don’t expect any magic between Iphone 3GS’s window and Iphone 4’s. It is improved but not enough to drop your phone on a concrete floor at 3ft. Ifixit guys dropped the phone without pcb which allows glass to bend more. And when there is guts inside, entire drop load will be directed to the glass and glass damage will be more sever than an empty phone. Don’t worry about my notes above;let’s wait and see. Finally, Iphone4 is an excellent choice even then and I am going to get it.

    • boovish

      09/12/2011 at 10:40 am

      actually the iPhone 4 can handle that to the front but not the 3gs

  2. Ben

    06/23/2010 at 4:26 pm

    I agree with you about how phone manufacturers are missing a big chance by not advertising that they use Gorilla Glass. The same could be said of Corning for not saying which devices use it (though that could be prohibited). I’d definitely be more likely to buy a device with Gorilla Glass.

    But this pattern is so common among device makers. We should know this by now. You can’t get detailed information on the maker of the parts of a computer. Everything is labeled as “active digitizer” or “128gb SSD” or “wxga screen”. The only thing that gets labeled with a name brand is Intel’s stuff. Sure, the ‘average’ consumer doesn’t care about these details, but us gadget lovers do. Such details are important for us, but the ‘average’ consumer will just ignore them anyway, so there’s no reason NOT to include them. sigh….

  3. ChrisRS

    06/23/2010 at 6:04 pm

    I suspect not alistinfg the individual component manufacturer information allows the manufaturer the ability to use/ multiple suppliers or change suppliers at will.

  4. Corning

    06/25/2010 at 5:15 am

    Dear all iphone users and GSMarena-er,

    I’m from corning, the company that sell the gorilla glass for apple. I want to set some fact straight, so that no finger pointing in the direction it should not.

    First,
    Apple bought a glass from us that called gorilla glass. It’s a gorilla, not king kong glass, not godzilla glass. The gorilla glass were designed with gorilla in our mind. Most of the time, gorilla only sit, and when it walk, it bend it’s body so the hip is not very high. The guy from iFixYouri, drop their iphone 4 too high. It should be noted that iPhone4 is designed to be dropped from the gorilla hip when the gorilla sit down. Therefore, iFixYouri action and reaction is as expected from corning.

    We notice there were some confusion among GSMarena-er about the glass. The video on how strength the glass were in iSteve presentation is the GodZilla glass. Please notice that the gozilla hip is around 20 storey high. At the time iphone 4 still in development, we were offering the GodZilla Glass to our friend in cupertino. Unfortunately, iSteve said the secret ingredient to all his product were, cheap stuff + cheap labor + apple greedy = great product. So, he refuse using GodZilla glass, as he deemed that US$50 for 2 side of the glass is too expensive. We were then offering him the king kong glass. The king kong hip is lot lower than godzilla hip. It’s only around 20 meter (66 feet), but again, that US$ 10 for 2 side of the glass is too expensive for iSteve. He prefer the gorilla glass, because the gorilla glass is the cheapest of them all, thus perfecting the secret ingredient for making a perfect iphone product. Cheap device, great profit. And as iSteve said, “iphone user just like gorilla, sitting around using the iphone all day, so why using king kong glass or godzilla glass?”

    We @ corning, really wish that no one blame us for the glass, as apple is the one who use our godzilla video for gorilla presentation.

  5. Designex Cabinets

    07/07/2010 at 10:16 am

    Any glass which is stronger than usual has got to be a bonus as I often knock or drop my phone any have got through so many.
    I’m not that clumsey its just my job that’s physically demanding and I need my phone with me as I go.

  6. Whatis

    02/21/2011 at 11:00 am

    What I’ve never understood is how that can be. The screens (and, on the iPhone 4, the back as well) are glass, for crying out loud. People carry their phones around in pockets with keys and change. People drop these things, toss them, scrape them. Why on earth don’t they get totally scratched up?

    I’ve just spent a year filming a new PBS Nova miniseries about, of all things, materials science. (I’m the host; it’s on in January. You can see the trailer here). Materials science is a little-known, multidisciplinary field — physics, chemistry, biology, nanotech and so on — where some absolutely mind-blowing advances are being made.

    Last week I was on a panel, presenting clips from the show at the annual conference of the Materials Research Society, a scientific group that helped advise us on the show. After the talk, a scientist came up to me and said, “You know, it looks like your show doesn’t cover one of the coolest materials that’s right under your nose: Gorilla Glass.”
    https://www.whatisguide.net/0112-gorilla-glass.html

  7. jackofalltrade69

    07/19/2011 at 12:57 am

    Check Corning Gorilla Glass main website (https://www.corninggorillaglass.com/#products-with-gorilla). Apple is not included in their list of brands that uses their special glass. Seems like Apple manufacture their own “aluminosilicate” glass for the glass display they use. Could be the reason why it’s not as tough as the original Corning Gorilla glass.

    • Emessage

      07/22/2011 at 6:30 am

      I heard iSteve use Asahi glass, any confirmation?

  8. The Calligrapher

    10/18/2011 at 7:53 am

    The claim is incorrect.

    iPhone 4 is using glass from Chinese manufacturer named Lens Technology. While there might be some truth to the claim that the properties of their class are similar to Gorilla Glass (I wonder if iFixit actually meant exactly that), in reality iPhone never used the actual Gorilla Glass. There are unconfirmed reports of other sources of glass used in some batches of iPhone 4, but none of them are Corning Technology glass.

    So, today the debate is already closed. No Gorilla Glass in iPhone 4.

  9. Gorilla Glass

    12/14/2011 at 11:04 pm

    Gorilla Glass is chemically enhanced through ion exchange, creating a deep layer of compression on the surface of the glass substrate. This layer acts as armor to reduce failures caused by end users. https://www.whatisall.com/

  10. magdaily

    09/02/2013 at 10:52 pm

    Gorilla Glass has earned more and more of our attention as of late. We first noticed it late last year when Motion Computing started using it in their Tablet PCs,

    So True Thanks….. https://omgtens.com

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