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Why Apple Didn't Use Sapphire for iPhone Screens
- HaloZero 12y agoSo I'm curious don't these same arguments apply to the Apple Watch screen? I guess the tradeoff is people are more likely to smash a watch face?
- mudil 12y agoMaybe you should read the whole article, as it discusses why watches are different.
- nilsimsa 12y agoWatches are strapped to the wrist most of the time so less likely to fall.
- ceejayoz 12y agoMore likely to be smacked carelessly into things as you move around, though.
- _pmf_ 12y agoThe cheap 349 USD versions will not have sapphire glass, just the premium watches. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Watch#Collection_comparison http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Watch#Collection_comparis... So be prepared to spend 1000+ USD if you want sapphire glass. Apple's days of pandering to peasants are over, it seems.
- nicholassmith 12y agoApple has always, always had price delineation across the range. They've also probably sat down and looked at expected use-cases for their Watch product range, the Sport doesn't receive a Sapphire display which could be price motivated as well but as the above article says the Sapphire is likely to be more effected by drops or impacts. If you're engaged in a sport there's a higher chance of catching the screen than if you're just wandering around, which makes sense to be have a screen that's more impact resistant.
- rsynnott 12y ago> Apple has always, always had price delineation across the range. They're likely to be considerably starker with this range than anything they've ever made before.
- nicholassmith 12y agoThat still doesn't justify 'Apple's days of pandering to peasants are over' though. There's going to be a low end, a mid-range and an ultra-high end. I personally think the Watch & Support will be reasonably close in price, and the Edition will be incredibly expensive due to materials cost.
- ossreality 12y ago>pandering to peasants are over excuse me, what?
- rsynnott 12y agoThe low-end watch won't have a sapphire screen. To an extent, the reason the expensive ones will may simply be that having sapphire screens is a thing you do in the >$1000 watch industry; it's expected.
- shearnie 12y agoThis "leak" was pretty convincing when i saw it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R0_FJ4r73s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R0_FJ4r73s Is there some trickery, or is gorilla glass as tough as nails like this now?
- ZeroGravitas 12y agoSmartphone glass always has been that flexible and strong, Corning have had various videos demonstrating that online for a while. His follow up video was only a few days later, after people pointed this out to him, and fairly convincingly showed that this was just a newer generation of glass.
- mhandley 12y agoThat follow-up video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ANcWQEUI8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ANcWQEUI8 Pretty interesting (and painful) watching the effects of sandpaper on screens.
- spike021 12y agoFor what it's worth, I've had two iPhones now, both with gorilla glass, over the last 3 years. I've dropped both, accidentally leaned on them a couple times, and accidentally shoved them into the same pocket with keys. No scratches. Just lots of smudges and oiliness after the oleophobic coating wears off.
- peteretep 12y agoReally? My iPhone 5 is covered in tiny scratches, and I feel like I've made a real effort to keep it away from keys and change. No major structural damage, just lots of little scratches.
- arrrg 12y agoIn my experience keys and change don’t matter. The metal is too soft to scratch phone screens. (Besides being soft, keys and change also tends to not have much in the way of really sharp edges. Maybe new keys do, but don’t they get quite smooth over time? The aluminium case is potentially a different story.) What matters is sand. (For what it’s worth my iPhone has three, four scratches after a year. I’m pretty certain they are all from when I slid my phone around on some surface with a grain of sand between surface and phone – which I usually try to avoid, but oh well. That’s it.)
- bobbles 12y agoWill be interesting if the 6s (or whatever) comes out next year goes for the sapphire screen and introduces the apple watch style 'force touch' capability
- miahi 12y agoWith all the downsides to sapphire (cost, thickness, light transmission), you start wondering if the previous iPhones were using this material just as a marketing point and not because there was an actual benefit to the users.
- jacobolus 12y agoThey’ve been using it on the camera lenses and the surface of the fingerprint sensor, not on the display. In both of those applications, scratch resistance is extremely important. Also, those are both small, which makes them cheaper and easier to engineer, as well as less likely to shatter.
- seanp2k2 12y agoAlso consider how thick the crystal on a watch is vs how thick the glass on a phone is. Personally, I'd rather have "the new iPhone 6: exactly as thick as the last one, but now it lasts 2 days on a charge"
- madeofpalk 12y agoFYI, the new iPhone 6 plus is thinner and has longer battery life than the 5S. Apple says the 6 plus gets 12 hours internet usage compared to the 10 hours on iPhone 5S
- jarek 12y ago> FYI, the new iPhone 6 plus is thinner and has longer battery life than the 5S. Could it have something to do with the two of three dimensions expanding considerably?
- madeofpalk 12y agoOh I'm not pretending it's not. Just making the observation. Also, the battery was increased beyond the power needed for the extra display.
- jarek 12y ago> Also, the battery was increased beyond the power needed for the extra display. Yes but that makes sense. Horizontal phone size 5S->6+ increased by ~69%, screen size increased by say 65%. Overall phone volume increased by ~58%. If battery was 50% of the 5S volume and volume of electronics hasn't changed in 6+, the battery volume has increased by 116%. Some of these assumptions are likely off and the volumes slightly inaccurate but the point should stand.
- Shivetya 12y agoI was always under the impression that this is why screen size initially was increased, to cover the space needed for a larger battery. The side benefit of course being, look we have big screens. I haven't found a site that breaks out power usage by hardware features in a phone, I have seen sites on how apps can affect it. Would be interesting to know jut which parts of the phone are the worst consumers of power
- s4sharpie 12y agoVery interesting about the density and energy impacts on sapphire vs glass. In a watch context (where the chance of dropping is less than the chance of scratching the face) the use of sapphire presents some additional challenges for battery life. If the Apple Watch intends to use sapphire, this might play into some of the rumours that release has been delayed because of battery life concerns.
- swalsh 12y agoMy own experience with the iphone 5 has been pretty good as far as durability is concerned. I live dangerously i guess... in that i never really saw the point in buying a super thin phone then throwing a thick case on it, so I have no case. I've dropped my phone numerous times, but I have dropped it twice onto concrete, once with considerable force. So far, no cracks! Just one data point, but also demonstrating that what we have now isn't terrible.
- hrjet 12y agoOnly the cost reason makes sense to me. Surely the other reasons (such as transmitivity of Saphire) would have been investigated before putting down .5 billion dollars on the counter. The cost, on the other hand, can be passed down to the consumer, when in leading position.
- quarterto 12y agoIt's not that they're not making any use of sapphire. The screen on the Watch and the Touch ID sensors on iPhones are still sapphire.
- philjohn 12y agoAnd the camera lens cover.
- aet 12y ago"Manufacturers know that consumers are starting to care a lot more about the impact that the products they buy are having on the environment. Sapphire requires 100 times more energy to produce than glass. The energy requirements alone make sapphire problematic as a viable material to use on a smartphone. None of the folks I talked to had any idea how they could solve this problem given the nature of the material itself."
- bane 12y agoI think the answer to this is that Apple bought half a billion dollars of saphire for the high-end Watch models, and never intended it to go towards the iPhone. That's why it didn't end up in the phones. It might also be a partial explanation for not launching the watch yet, they're simply waiting for enough yield to manufacture launch inventory.
- MereInterest 12y agoAs an off-topic comment, when did time.com switch to such an obnoxious layout? Taking two inches off the side and an inch off the top is absolutely ridiculous.
- cjfont 12y agoObnoxious is putting it kindly when I can't even seem to be able to scroll down to read the entire article. EDIT: Apparently it's happening to me when I zoom at all on the page in Chrome, I'm surprised no one else has complained.
- josefresco 12y agoMargins change based on your viewport width.
- friendzis 12y agoSmartphone category is barely competitive. It is a basic economic law of luxury products: as long as there are people willing to pay - the price will increase. 25% increase in price can cause 20% decrease in sales and still result in the same net income.
- dwightgunning 12y agoAmusing that the author leads with a reference to his own incorrect prediction and then follows up with the sage advice that "all of us need to be more careful before jumping to conclusions in areas like this."
- Htsthbjig 12y agoI don't agree on most of these reasons. Light transmission is really good on sapphire, so not a great difference with glass. I believe the number 1 reason is: 1- They want to test it first. Apple always do tests, but most of the people do not realize it. For example, do people realize that before making the Ipad big screen they tested it in the magic touchpad?. Between the Iphone and the Ipad there is a huge size gap that means lots of problems when you do things in the millions, so they added a glass screen to millions of laptops touchpads. They got lots of useful information from service repairs, and they did hide their testing in front of their competitors eyes without them realizing. Competitors used plastic in their touchpads. When they could connect the dots(it they did at all), it was too late, Apple was years ahead. If they start selling their watches in the millions, and I think they will, mass producing sapphire will make cost plumb. There will be testing early at a scale that nobody had done before. I worked for a company that manufactured sapphire glass for the military. We made very expensive SINGLE units for equipment like cameras, and it was only for the exterior side. If a market is created, innovation will come. What we did was very expensive and we did not care about price. We did work that was so "last century", like creating huge blocks like stones, then cutting and polishing it. I am certain that a better method, more energy efficient like growing crystals in molds, is possible, but it needs to have demand in order to justify the investment.
- analog31 12y agoBulk transmission through the material should be similar. But sapphire has a higher refractive index than gorilla glass (1.77 vs 1.5 or thereabouts) and thus reflects more at each surface. Reducing reflectance with a coating works, but as the article points out, costs money and is less durable.
- Shivetya 12y agoI am going with the line in the article about the fragility of the sapphire, it simply does not take impacts as well as glass especially in the sizes being used. Kind of like how yields are with semiconductors, getting this large requires much better processes than they have now. I am simply glad we got past the use of glass on the backs of phones like the iPhone 4 generation had. All that did for me is have me learn how to swap the piece myself. I think glass breakage is pretty low in the issues people have with these phones, weight and battery life are bigger issues.
- jay-saint 12y agoAm I the only one who thinks that Corning sponsored this piece?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jokoon 12y agojeez, I don't care at all about that. what a tale for such a irrelevant detail. iPhone users are such a category of people of their own, talking about iPhone rumors and truths is like new ways to make conversations. do you know you can have a smartphone that has the same functionalities, for one tenth of the price ? how is that not news ?
- jonifico 12y agoThis video explains the reasons quite well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVQbu_BsZ9o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVQbu_BsZ9o Althought saphire is in fact stronger, it is it's lack of flexibility and absorption properties that don't make it as viable for phone use.
- nodata 12y agoWhy did they buy a plant in Arizona then?
- zackangelo 12y agoThey're using it on the watch. >On most Apple Watch models, the display is laminated to a machined and polished single crystal of sapphire. http://www.apple.com/watch/technology/ http://www.apple.com/watch/technology/
- paul_f 12y agoThe iPhone is a camera that makes phone call. There's a lot of camera lenses to make.
- jader201 12y agoAs much as I would love for Apple to find the "perfect" glass that would require blunt force impact from a sledgehammer before it would crack, I wonder if their efforts would be better spent figuring out a way to make the glass more easily and more affordably replaced. An implementation that would almost render the screen disposable (but still as durable or very close to as durable as it is today).
- joezydeco 12y agoUnfortunately with the way the phones are constructed today, the glass has become an entire assembly. When you etch the touchscreen on the back of the glass and then bond the whole thing to the LCD with optically clear adhesive, you've created one single piece that's nearly half of the phone's guts. If people are okay with the LCD moving backwards and leaving an airgap like the first phones, then perhaps it's possible.
- snowwindwaves 12y agoMy friend replaces iPhone screens and back glass all the time. I think he charges people 20-30$ cad to cover the cost of the parts. Takes him less than 10 minutes. Most screens come with the kit of tools you need for the tiny screws and to pop off the ribbon cable connectors. I think that is pretty quick easy and cheap. I feel bad for people who go to Genius Bar to have this done for $150.
- km3k 12y agoIf he's only charging $20-30, he's only replacing the glass. The Genius Bar is probably replacing the screen and glass since that's an easier procedure for them than just the glass.
- snowwindwaves 12y agoI think the screen is one unit and you can't just replace the glass on the screen. It is a very quick procedure for my friend too. A couple of screws and a ribbon connector and away you go. The parts are cheap on eBay. So far the $3 battery has been a dud though.
- whillow 12y agoI keep hearing that Sapphire is the next hardest gem after diamond by these sapphire screen manufacturers. But isn't moissanite harder than sapphire?
- dak1 12y agoYes, moissanite is a 9.25-9.5 on the Mohs scale, whereas Sapphire is only a 9. Moissanite doesn't really occur naturally on Earth though (although it is believed to form around carbon-rich stars).
- whillow 12y agoBut there are plenty of other materials that do not form naturally that we make use of in devices. It seems misleading to call sapphire "THE" hardest next to diamond when there is another harder material that we can produce using a similar processes.
- cma 12y agoIt isnt misleading since because it doesn't occur, it isn't something you need to worry about scratching your phone. If people start wearing rings made of it or if artificial beaches start using it as sand, your point will rise above pedantism :P
- personZ 12y agoThere is a bit of a negative reinforcement recursion going on in the industry, and this is a great example of it. Make lots of pieces claiming sources and reasons for why Apple is going to do something big and new and innovative. Endless pageviews, speculation, etc. Apple releases a very nice, but completely traditional and incremental upgrade. Make lots of pieces explaining why Apple not doing those things you previously said they would do is actually best, because of contrived justifications and reasons. Tonnes of pageviews and links. Rinse repeat. This has happened with every Apple release this decade.
- josefresco 12y agoThe report they allude to as being "not true" is here: http://wallstreetforensics.com/sapphire-screens-miss-apple-iphone-6-launch-weeks/ http://wallstreetforensics.com/sapphire-screens-miss-apple-i... "By the way, some reports stated that up until a few weeks before the iPhone announcement, Apple was going to use sapphire but dropped it because of yield issues. This is not true."
- mcmancini 12y agoI maintain that the sapphire screen rumors were patently ridiculous to anyone with a basic understanding of materials science. The only people who took these rumors seriously were pundits who started and then perpetuated (and now, continue to discuss) the idea.
- seanflyon 12y agoI had assumed that the sapphire screens would have a thin film of sapphire and be made primarily from glass or plastic.
- judk 12y agoFYI, as reported on Last Week Tonight, Time had merged its editorial and advertising groups, and is going forward as a content marketing company, not a news reporting company.