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LG's new bending 'glass' might make your next folding phone a lot more durable
LG doesn't make folding phones, but it might make folding phones stronger
LG may have made an ignoble exit from the smartphone market earlier this year, but as a gigantic international megacorp, it still has its hand in. LG Chem, the branch of the company that developers new materials and energy systems, has something that might turn the eye of their in-country rivals at Samsung: a new material that can bend like plastic while being hard as glass.
Why are Android phones plastic-metal-glass boringburgers when there's a world of premium materials to play with?
OnePlus's Kinder Liu explains why they aren't made of stainless steel, sapphire, titanium, or other high-end materials
I've been envious of the iPhone over the last few years for one, not-so-obvious reason: Apple makes its recent flagships out of stainless steel. Here in the land of Android, the best we can really hope for is aluminum and glass, but there's a whole wide variety of premium, super-durable, and exotic materials out there phones could use. So, why are almost all Android smartphones boring glass and plastic or aluminum slabs? I was able to speak with Kinder Liu, COO and Head of R&D at OnePlus, to find out.
A handful of reports regarding a fragile camera cover on Samsung's $1,400 Galaxy S20 Ultra have surfaced, claiming that it breaks more easily than expected. Those affected claim a range of issues from hairline fractures to more dramatic shattering, like you can see just above. While reports don't seem especially widespread, and none of us here at AP with devices have had any problem, there are enough of them to make it seem like this is A Thing.
Galaxy Z Flip teardown confirms fragile glass display beneath protective plastic layer
It is glass, but it's not exactly durable
Since JerryRigEverything's Zach took his picks to the Galaxy Z Flip, there's been a lot of debate around the web concerning Samsung's claim that it's using an ultra-thin layer of glass in the folding phone's display. Thanks to a new teardown by PBKreviews on YouTube, we now have confirmation that there is indeed a sheet of flexible glass in the Z Flip, but it's not as durable as you might hope.
The original Google Glass Explorer Edition made a big entrance when it quite literally fell from the heavens during Google I/O 2013. While that model never really stood a chance as a consumer product, it became the starting point for Google Glass Enterprise Edition. It seems to have worked out because a second generation launched last year, and as of today, Google is expanding availability to an even larger audience... of developers.
2019 was the year foldable phones became more than a trade show demo, but only barely. The Galaxy Fold launched after a multi-month delay for $2,000, and it's still troublingly fragile. The Galaxy Fold 2 might be a bit more robust. The latest round of leaks say this could be the first foldable with a glass screen.
Sometime in the last few years, "plastic" became a dirty word in smartphones. The reasons for this — like evoking the kind of cheap and unpleasant designs that defined early Android phones — are probably less important the outcomes. A whole class of materials were re-branded as low-rent, and today even many relatively affordable phones have made the switch to fully aluminum or metal-and-glass sandwiches for the superficially premium look they impart.
The Pixel 3 XL is landing on doorsteps as we speak, but how careful do you need to be with your shiny new smartphone? YouTube channel JerryRigEverything is here to absolutely wreck another phone in order to assess its durability. The Pixel comes out of it alright—it won't bend, but you might pick up some scratches.
Corning announced the newest version of its ubiquitous Gorilla Glass today. Gorilla Glass 6 is, as you'd expect, the strongest iteration of the material to date, less likely to break than previous versions when dropped. The new glass was engineered not only to survive drops from greater heights, but also more drops over time, Corning says.
OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed in a forum post today that the company's upcoming OnePlus 6 will feature a back panel made of glass. Much like the device's display notch, glass backs are another divisive trend in modern smartphone design OnePlus seems to be in favor of.
Display notches are the controversial smartphone design trend du jour: while the Essential Phone beat Apple to the punch, the notch is the defining trait of the iPhone X, and, for better or worse, it's being aped by a whole bunch of Android OEMs. Reactions have been mixed. If you're not a fan, avert your eyes—ZTE has a concept it's calling "Iceberg" that features not one, but two display notches: one at the top, one at the bottom.
What's that strange feeling? Almost like I've seen a ghost. Oh, Google Glass isn't dead after all? That'll be it. There have been recent signs that the seemingly abandoned experimental wearable might be making a return in one form or another, more than 2 years after the Glass Explorer Program officially ended. The first was an update to the MyGlass app last month, after lying dormant for nearly 3 years. This was followed the next day by a mysterious firmware update making its way to any Glass Explorer Edition units still in use. Google has confirmed that was regular maintenance to the consumer device, and not related to this fresh news about the Glass Enterprise Edition that Alphabet's experimental X subsidiary (formerly Google[x]) has been busy working on for the last two years.
Everyone was all hyped up about sapphire crystal displays a few years ago, then manufacturers realized what a complete pain in the butt it was to manufacture synthetic sapphire at an industrial scale. There have been a few phones and watches with this super hard material covering the screen, but Zagg offers a "Sapphire Defense" screen protector, too. That makes it sound like a sapphire glass screen protector, and the high price backs that assumption up. However, JerryRigEverything just posted a video revealing it to be nothing more than treated plastic.
Google sold Motorola to Lenovo at the end of 2014, but now it's getting a small piece of it back—the CEO. Lenovo recently announced a reorganization of its mobile business. This included the departure of Moto's CEO Rick Osterloh, and now we know why. Osterloh has come back to Google where he will lead a new hardware team that's responsible for Nexus, Chromecast, Glass, and more.
Google's attempt to make a wearable face computer didn't go so well, but maybe the masses just weren't ready. Now, Google Glass is reportedly on its way to businesses with a new Enterprise Edition. This assumes even businesses have a use for Glass. Google has yet to acknowledge the existence of this device, but images are now up on the FCC's website. It looks a lot like the original Explorer Edition Glass.
The early reaction to the Nexus 6P from both critics and owners has been mostly positive, but a few new owners seem to be encountering serious problems. Specifically, the glass panel on the rear of the phone, which covers the camera, LED flash, and laser autofocus module, is reportedly cracking and breaking on its own. A user on the Android subreddit reported the rear panel cracking, and at least two others have corroborated with similar stories, with the panel splitting into multiple cracks with no particular rough handling or impact.
The "bend test" has been a thing ever since Apple redesigned the iPhone in 2014. It didn't take long for people to notice the new thinner phones could be bent fairly easily (this was "bendgate"). So, now that everyone is worried about how easily phones bend, YouTubers have taken it upon themselves to test that. One video in particular has made waves as it purports to show the new Nexus 6P folding in half like a piece of wet cardboard. However, this video misrepresents the build-quality of the phone.
Galaxy S6 Edge Owners Reporting Scratched Screens After Using Samsung's First-Party Clear View Cases
Every time Samsung releases a new high-profile phone or tablet, it also makes a bunch of pricey first-party cases to go with it. And why not - they're high-margin accessories that get stocked by the likes of Best Buy and carrier stores, and most of the time they're actually pretty nice. But the first round of official cases for the Galaxy S6 Edge are showing some remarkable problems: they might actually be damaging the gadgets they're designed to protect.
Google framed the recent end of the Glass Explorer program as Glass "graduating" from its experimental X labs. People wondered not so secretly if it was actually the end of the line for Glass. According to a new report from The New York Times, Glass as we've come to know it is dead, but the project lives on.