Vratislav Holub The iPhone 12 series brought a number of interesting changes. For the very first time on Apple phones, we saw a certain form of MagSafe, which in this case is used to attach accessories through magnets or "wireless" charging, a new design with sharp edges, and also something that Apple called Ceramic Shield.
As the translation itself suggests (ceramic shield), this novelty serves to protect the front of iPhone 12 and newer, specifically protecting the display itself from damage in the form of scratches or cracks. For this, the giant specifically uses a layer of nanoceramic crystals that ensure increased resistance. In the end, this is a rather interesting technology. As independent tests have also confirmed, Ceramic Shield really ensures a significantly more resistant display to cracking than was the case, for example, with iPhones 11 and older, which do not have this gadget.
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Flying around the world with Apple On the other hand, the ceramic layer is not omnipotent. Although Apple promises four times the durability, the YouTube channel MobileReviewsEh shed light on the whole matter in much more detail. Specifically, he compared the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 11, putting pressure on both devices until they cracked. While the iPhone 11's screen cracked at 352 N, the iPhone 12 withstood slightly more, i.e. 443 N.
ceramic shield
How competing phones are protected
When Apple introduced the mentioned iPhone 12, it paid a lot of attention to the novelty in the form of Ceramic Shield. He also mentioned more than once that this is the most durable glass in the smartphone world. However, even competing phones with the Android operating system are not without protection, on the contrary. Today, (not only) flagships have solid resistance and are not afraid of anything. But the competition relies on the so-called Gorilla Glass. For example, the Google Pixel 6 uses Corning Gorilla Glass Victus to ensure the maximum possible resistance of its display - currently the best of the entire Gorilla Glass product line. Even the very first iPhone relied on this technology, namely Gorilla Glass 1.
Ceramic Shield and Gorilla Glass are very similar. This is because they ensure a significantly higher resistance of the display, while they have no impact on the functionality of the touch screen, and they are also optically clean, so they do not distort the image. But the fundamental difference is in production. While Apple now relies on a thin layer of nano-ceramic crystals, the competition is betting on a mixture of aluminosilicate. It is formed by the combination of oxygen, aluminum and silicon.
Who is better?
Unfortunately, it is impossible to clearly say which technology is better than the other. It always depends on the specific phone, or rather its manufacturer, how they approach the whole question and how lucky they are. But if we look at relatively fresh data, we can see that the iPhone 13 (Pro) has beaten the new Samsung Galaxy S22 series in durability tests, which currently relies on Gorilla Glass Victus+. At the end, however, there is an interesting pearl. One company stands behind both technologies – Corning – which develops and ensures the production of both Ceramic Shield and Gorilla Glass. In any case, experts from Apple also participated in the development of Ceramic Shield.
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