The Iphone 12 will have a completely new protective glass created by Apple and Corning engineers
Apple has worked alongside Corning, creators of Gorilla Glass and a major Apple partner since the launch of the original iPhone, on a new glass for iPhone 12. It is called Ceramic Shield and it is the strongest glass ever used in a smartphone. It is obtained by inserting nanoceramic crystals, harder than most metals, into the glass. This inclusion of a crystalline matrix within the glass is a huge engineering advance that gives it greater strength and durability without sacrificing transparency.
In page Corning's Ceramic Science, we read that “The main difference between glass and ceramic is primarily focused on the chemical bonds that hold together the internal structure of the material. Unlike glass, in which atoms are arranged in random order, connections in ceramic materials occur when positive and negative ions bond to form a regular pattern of crystals, which in turn can scatter the light they are exposed to. . This phenomenon usually results in an opaque rather than transparent material, although there are examples of transparent ceramics ».
Halfway between the two materials there is this glass ceramic, which is born like glass and then turns into an almost completely crystalline substance by subjecting it to an intense but controlled heat source, with the addition of a nucleating agent - such as silver or titanium - creating "seeds" around which crystals are born, or what Apple defines precisely as "a new phase of high temperature crystallization".
Apple claims that "drop resistance is now four times higher - a never-before-seen leap between one generation of iPhones and the next."
