Corning develops smartphone glass that is as scratch-resistant as sapphire

Corning, known for the popular Gorilla Glass, has announced that it will introduce new glass for smartphones. This material should be even more scratch-resistant than the glass the company previously developed. According to Corning, the scratch resistance is comparable to sapphire.

The new product was announced by Corning on Friday at an event hosted for investors. According to Cnet, CEO James Clappin announced Project Phire there: under this name Corning is developing a new glass product that should be more scratch-resistant than the previous glass types in the Gorilla Glass series, which is used by many manufacturers for smartphones.

Corning made a comparison with sapphire for the scratch resistance of the new glass. This material is highly scratch resistant and is already being used by some manufacturers to protect smartphone screens. According to Corning, the downside of sapphire is that it breaks easily if the user drops their phone. Corning’s glass shouldn’t have this problem, while offering comparable scratch resistance to sapphire.

Corning plans to start selling Project Phire’s new glass to interested parties later this year. No further details were released, making it unclear which products will use Corning’s new glass. In November, Corning announced Gorilla Glass 4, which should offer protection against drops, but is not particularly scratch-resistant.