# is a truly impact resistant smartphone screen anywhere in the near future? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 22, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990 "2013-05-22T05:02:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/1 "2013-05-22T05:02:14Z")
I recently got a nexus 4. Nice looking phone. Front and back have corning gorilla glass. I like how it feels without a bumper or case but a drop from chest level onto pavement would likely shatter it. I compromised and used just the bumper and hope for the best. Is there anything in development that will allow a reliably shatterproof glass? Say a 5 foot drop onto pavement ? Maybe they have it but can’t mass produce it economically yet? Or is corning in the same bind as battery makers where they’re hitting physics or chemistry barriers and improvements will be small and slow if at all? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/2 "2013-05-22T06:08:27Z")
No. Why? Because every tenth of a millimeter you spend on glass is a tenth you don’t spend on battery, or electronics, or just making a thin phone. Phone screens are astonishingly impact resistant for what they are. Gorilla Glass is getting slightly better over time, but to really make an impact resistant screen, you need something thicker. An alternative is to use a material with more yield, like plastic, but those materials are almost by definition softer, and therefore less scratch resistant. So there’s another tradeoff. Someday we’ll have solid diamond screens. But they’ll still shatter if they fall onto concrete the wrong way, because they’ll be just thick enough to survive your pocket, not a hard drop on to concrete. Most people don’t need their phones to be any stronger than that. ---
**Author:** ![Khendrask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@Khendrask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khendrask)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/3 "2013-05-22T10:41:07Z")
LG has an OLED flexible screen that they are going to debut at SIDs in Canada soon. > **[LG Hints at Optimus Phone With Unbreakable 5-Inch Flexible Display](https://www.gottabemobile.com/lg-hints-at-optimus-phone-with-unbreakable-5-inch-display/)** > > LG Display is showing off a concept for an unbreakable and flexible 5-inch OLED panel that could be employed in smartphones, like the company’s Optimus series, in the future. Unlike rival Samsung, which is using a different type of technology for its... ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/5 "2013-05-22T12:40:48Z")
> [@brownsugar](#): > > I have read in some article that is some kind of glass which is used in iPhone and HTC one is unbreakable even if you drop it from six feet they use Gorilla Glass 2, which is impact-_resistant_ and surface hardened to prevent scratching, but it’s still glass. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/6 "2013-05-22T13:01:42Z")
The next thing is likely to be synthetic sapphire - which is possible now but horrendously expensive. TAG and, I think Vertu, use it for their multi thousand dollar phones. Leica put it on the screens of some of their cameras too. But as **Dr. Strangelove** notes, this doesn’t get you shatterproof, just essentially scratch proof. Sapphire has been used for decades on better quality watches, but interestingly was not preferred for watches that are subject to physical abuse that may shatter the glass. Here acrylic or mineral glass were used. However, given that 99.9% of all such watches are now fashion accessories and not actually ever used in such rigorous circumstances sapphire has become ubiquitous. The problem with sapphire is that you have to grow a crystal, and that isn’t easy. Growing a nice long cylindrical crystal 40mm wide isn’t hard, and you can slice many watch glasses off one. But a phone screen cover requires a bigger crystal and you have to slice it lengthways (eg quarter sawn) so you get only a few sheets per crystal (and lots of smaller bits.) ETA - the other, and more likely, proposition is Corning’s Willow glass. It is so thin that its flexibility makes it close to shatterproof. Corning are pushing it for new applications, but as a cover glass it may well simply become a close to indestructible cover for ordinary phones. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/7 "2013-05-22T13:23:00Z")
> [@Quintas](#): > > Is there anything in development that will allow a reliably shatterproof glass? This question is impossible to answer until you define what you mean by “reliably shatterproof”. > [@Quintas](#): > > a drop from chest level onto pavement would likely shatter it. So you’re not really sure whether this would shatter it or not? Not even diamond is totally shatterproof. How reliable do you want it to be? ---
**Author:** ![Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Obnoxious\_Hood\_Ornament](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obnoxious_Hood_Ornament)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/8 "2013-05-22T16:44:17Z")
Do you want material that resists scratches, or resists impact? The harder the material, the more resistant it is to scratches, and more vulnerable to impact damage. Synthetic sapphire is being eyed for phones, which will be lovely for resisting minor scrapes and dings, but you won’t like what happens when you drop one. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/9 "2013-05-23T20:25:49Z")
How fragile are iPhones, anyway? I’ve dropped my Samsung so many times I can’t even tell and all it did was fall apart. No screen shatter at all. Snap it back together and you’re good to go! ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/10 "2013-05-23T20:36:59Z")
Aren’t sapphire windows used for supermarket barcode scanners? IIRC, they’re made to stand up to years of getting banged up by canned goods and other heavy objects. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-truly-impact-resistant-smartphone-screen-anywhere-in-the-near-future/658990/11 "2013-05-23T21:05:33Z")
> [@lazybratsche](#): > > Aren’t sapphire windows used for supermarket barcode scanners? IIRC, they’re made to stand up to years of getting banged up by canned goods and other heavy objects. And, how thick is the window? You could easily make a phone proof from any normal injury if you made it with 3" thick armored glass, but that might make it difficult to put in your pocket. There’s no substance that is scratch and impact proof in the thickness that cell phones demand.