Many have experienced that sinking feeling you get when you pick up a recently dropped iPhone and realize the screen was cracked or shattered during its fall. In fact, this is a particularly common iPhone repair that we see at iResQ. While the current iPhone models' screens are made from Corning's Gorilla Glass, an especially durable glass product, there have been rumors circulating that the next model will feature sapphire screens that would be three times stronger.
A recent AFP article indicated that the potential sapphire glass screens for upcoming iPhone models would be bullet-proof but cost 10 times as much as Gorilla Glass.
“Still, according to a story published last month in the MIT Technology Review, production techniques are constantly improving and, within 12 months, could be cheap enough for some phonemakers to adopt for their products,” the article stated. “Even at today's prices, Apple uses sapphire glass to cover the camera lens on its iPhone 5 because of its more or less scratch-proof qualities, the same reason many of the world's leading horologists use sapphire glass on their flagship watches.”
Repairing a cracked screen
In a recent article for U.K. news source The Independent, contributor Simon Usborne reported that in light of the many broken phone screens, Apple has been investigating a number of high-tech solutions. For example, the company filed a patent in 2011 regarding a “Protective mechanism for an Electronic Device,” which would incorporate unique sensors into an iPhone's design. In the situation that the device should be dropped, the sensors would allow it to sense when it was in a state of freefall and use a mechanism that allows it to shift its center of gravity so that it lands on its edge instead of the screen face.
“Sounds great, but the feature hasn't left the diagram stage yet, leaving those of us reluctant to invest in ugly rubber sheathing to take the DIY approach,” Usborne wrote. “The internet is awash with repair kits that come with the requisite microscopic tools. But do so at your peril. Stories abound of botched operations.”
Usborne's comment on people trying and failing to perform their own repairs is something that iResQ is familiar with. If there is ever any doubt as to an owner's ability to accurately perform a repair, iResQ's iPhone repair services are always a safe and reliable option for getting your device back to working order in no time.