This is how strong Corning’s new Gorilla Glass 3 is

Corning CES 2013 booth

Apple’s been using Corning’s tough cover glass on all iPhone models, up to the point where you could safely conclude the iPhone helped Corning a great deal make a name for itself. Ahead of CES, the New York-based company announced its third-generation Corning Glass, 40 percent more scratch resistant and 50 percent stronger. Here’s a nice demonstration of just how strong it really is. I’m sure it’ll give you a pause, it’s right past the fold…

Here we see that dropping a 130-gram ball on the Gorilla Glass 3 doesn’t even leave a scratch on it, let alone smash it into pieces.


Engadget went hands-on, here’s what they discovered:

Once the pane had survived gravity’s examination, we took it out and started bending it, and while no-company would let anyone play with something it wasn’t sure would hold up, this model did appear to be hardier by a small margin. 

Pretty impressive, no?

Corning will be ramping up production during the first quarter of 2013, meaning Gorilla Glass 3 could find its way into all of Apple’s mobile products this year, including the next iPhone and iPad.

Corning also demoed the new 100-foot (30 meter) optical Thunderbolt cables (see below) that significantly extend the data transmission range past the limits of copper-based cables, seen below.

Corning Thudnerbolt optical cable

Intel, too, yesterday made waves with its own optical Thunderbolt cable. 9to5Mac had a chance to spend some time with the product to note it’s “as thin and flexible as any USB cable” while still carrying a bus-powered charge for devices.

The top image of the Corning booth at CES is credited  to iDB’s own Jim Gresham.