At MWC2019, we saw the official launch of foldable smartphones such as Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X. However, one of the lingering challenges of foldable smartphones is display durability. In the case of Galaxy Fold and Mate X, they are all covered with plastic, which means that it is highly susceptible to scratch and can easily get broken.
Now, there is a piece of good news. John Bayne, general manager of Corning, confirmed that the company is developing protective glass for foldable smartphones. He emphasized that “the challenge is to make the glass thin enough to fit the curl very well to better protect the screen”. Of course, as an intimate partner and investor of Apple, Corning’s move also led some analysts to speculate that Apple also has a demand for this glass.
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According to the information given by Bayne, Corning’s goal is to create an ultra-thin glass with a thickness of 0.1mm and a bending radius of 3~5mm, so that the folding mobile phone can still be controlled to 6~10mm thick when it is not open. In fact, Corning has released a bendable glass, Willow Glass, but its manufacturing process has not been used in mobile phones because it will corrode the screen.