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- What Is Toughened Glass?
- How strong is Gorilla Glass and other toughened glass?
- List of Gorilla Glass Alternatives and Competitors: Other Screen Protection Brands Dragontrail Glass Xensation Glass Sapphire Glass Concore Glass Dinorex Glass Panda King Glass
- Conclusion
- Your Questions Answered Is Gorilla Glass unbreakable? Do you need tempered glass screen protector with Gorilla Glass?
What Is Toughened Glass?
Toughened or tempered glass is a type of safety glass processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass. Most are aluminosilicate sheet glass.
Having a toughened glass display makes your smartphone’s screen fairly scratch and damage resistant. Note that if your smartphone has toughened glass, it may not really need a screen protector.
Note also that it does not mean that your smartphone display is unbreakable or cannot be scratched at all. It just makes it more difficult. However, should your screen break or crack, it won’t shatter the way ordinary glass does. The cracked screen is likely to remain usable too. Without any form of toughened glass protection, the damaged screen would likely become totally useless.
Gorilla Glass and its alternatives are all one form of chemically toughened glass or the other. It bears repeating that while Gorilla Glass provides some protection from scratches and shatter, it is not scratch-proof or break-proof. So while your phone’s screen may not shatter if it drops, it may crack and is still prone to scratches.
Also note that the chemical composition of glass is impacted with each shock impact, so your phone screen may not shatter on the first few drops but it will at some point, if you keep dropping it.
Also, whether or not your phone screen cracks or breaks is dependent on a number of factors, including the distance of the fall, the hardness of the surface it falls on, and the thickness of the protective glass, among others.
How strong is Gorilla Glass and other toughened glass?
The simple answer is: It depends. The longer form is this: no matter how tough Gorilla Glass (or any of its alternatives) is, how each smartphone manufacturer uses it is what determines how strong it is. The factor we are looking at here is thickness. The thicker the layer of toughened glass protection, the stronger it is.
You would think that smartphone manufacturers would just put the thickest possible layer on their phones for maximum protection. But as you already know, smartphone makers are in a race to build the thinnest phones possible, so that never happens.
Apple’s iPhone has toughened glass protection but has a big crack rate. You know why: Apple aims for the thinnest possible profile for its phones. To achieve that, they often use the thinnest possible layer of toughened glass.
But note that even when cracked, the glass often does not shatter and the screen usually remains usable. Without the toughened glass, the damage would be greater and the screen likely unusable at all.
List of Gorilla Glass Alternatives and Competitors: Other Screen Protection Brands
Here is a breakdown of some of the most prominent Gorilla Glass alternatives and competitors in use today by mobile manufacturers:
Dragontrail Glass
Xensation Glass
Schott AG of Germany makes Xensation , another toughened glass brand. It is newer in the market than Gorilla Glass, and the brands that I can confirm use it include Huawei, Honor, OPPO, and Vivo. Some Fero phones also use Xensation Glass screen protection.
Sapphire Glass
There is also Sapphire glass . Being made from sapphire, it is really strong, though it is more of a scratch-resistant material than a shatter-resistant one. Sapphire scores just below diamond in terms of scratch-resistance. But the challenges with implementing it on mobile have been cost, thickness, and the fact that it isn’t malleable. However, it looks like Apple might be finding a way to deal with the first two of those issues.
Considering that almost a quarter of iPhone users end up with a broken screen (and Apple has refused to name the toughened glass used on iPhones till date), Sapphire glass on iPhones would be a welcome development. Are there any manufacturers already using sapphire glass now? Sure: Vertu. If you can afford their $10,000 TI, for example, you’ve got a display protected by the second toughest substance in nature.
Panda King Glass
Concore Glass
Cornings also produces a Gorilla Glass alternative, Concore Glass . What are the differences between Gorilla Glass and Concore Glass? Gorilla is built as a layer on the phone’s display, while Concore is built into the display – allowing for thinner displays. But – and a big but – building the protection glass into the display results in higher production costs.
It also means that should the display crack or break, you have to replace the whole screen unit, not just the toughened glass, as is the case with Gorilla Glass. Again, it boils down to costs: you spend more to repair a damaged Concore Glass display.
Dinorex Glass
Dinorex Glass is a product of Nippon Electric Glass (NEG). The name Dinorex is coined from the reputation of dinosaurs for toughness and strength. Manufacturers using Dinorex include: Umi, Meizu, and BQ.
Panda King Glass
Panda King Glass is an alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass – toughened glass – manufactured by Tunghsu Group. Panda makes screen protectors and cases for Apple iPhones. It is also in use on Fero smartphones.
Conclusion
In conclusion, that your smartphone does not have Gorilla Glass does not mean that it does not have screen protection. Check the specifications sheet. You may find some other brand of protection glass listed there.
Your Questions Answered
Is Gorilla Glass unbreakable?
Gorilla Glass is tough and strong but no glass is unbreakable. If enough force is applied, Gorilla Glass will break. Also, how well Gorilla Glass protects your phone screen depends on the thickness applied by the manufacturer. The thicker the layer of Gorilla Glass used, the stronger it is, which reduces the chances that it will break.
Do you need tempered glass screen protector with Gorilla Glass?
Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
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What do I mean when I say “ mirror your phone “? These days we can do many cool things with with our mobile devices, things we never could have imagined doing a few years ago. Have you ever thought, “All these nice content (pictures, movies, video clips, etc) I enjoy on my mobile, how can I share it to my TV at home?”
Sharing your phone’s screen to another screen is what is called mirroring. This piece might just be what will set you on track, as we will look at a variety of products and technologies that will transmit content from your device screen to your TV screen.
- Mirror Your Phone Using A Dongle
- Mirror Your Phone Using A Set-top Box
- Mirror Your Phone Directly
- Mirror Your Phone Using A Smart TV
Mirror Your Phone Using A Dongle
One of the cool ways of streaming your phone on your TV is by the use of dongles. Wikipedia defines dongle :
…a small piece of hardware that attaches to a computer, TV, or other electronic device in order to enable additional functions such as copy protection, audio, video, games, data, or other services. These services are available only when the dongle is attached.
A good example of a dongle is Chromecast. So you know what to look for when shopping for one, here is an image:
Chromecast
Chromecast is a dongle that cost about $35 or less, and using it is simple. Just plug it in the HDMI port of your TV, connect it with your WiFi and cast apps straight to your big screen. There’s also a guest mode feature where your visitors won’t have to connect to your WiFi but can still share content. More details and purchasing is on its official page . You can also buy (cheaper) Chinese made dongles from sites like Aliexpress or other Chinese shopping sites.
Mirror Your Phone Using A Set-top Box
What is a set-top box? Wikipedia says it is:
….an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output connected to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the source signal into content in a form that can then be displayed on the television screen or other display device. They are used in cable television, satellite television, and over-the-air television systems.
This is a device that brings a different kind of content (or digital content) to your TV screens. These set-top boxes also support mirroring of your device screens to your TV’s . Apple TV for iOS lovers is a good example. It has a feature called Airplay for streaming iDevices to TV screens.
Apple TV set-top box
There’s also another one called Roku which is multi-platform, supporting Androids, iOS, Windows 8 phones, Windows PC’s 8.1 and above, and any other hardware that supports mirroring.
Roku set-top box
Mirror Your Phone Directly
I learnt that with some Samsung phones, you can directly mirror your phone screen to PC or TV. This requires a Wi-Fi connection and the presence of the Smart View app on your Samsung smartphone. Other phone brands may have a similar feature.
You can mirror your Samsung phone to a TV directly
Mirror Your Phone Using A Smart TV
On a related note, if you do not own a smart television yet, I bet that you are interested in knowing the fastest way to get Netflix on your non-smart TV . Thank me later.
Author:Etoniru Chibueze
Chibueze is an award-winning gadget reviewer and geek. He loves research, while living and breathing tech. You can reach him on Facebook, Twitter ,OR LinkedIn
