Mikey Campbell
In a video posted to YouTube late Friday, a part purported to be Apple's "iPhone 6" cover glass was again exposed to a torture test, this time failing to resist scratches from garnet sandpaper, a material softer than sapphire.
As seen in the above screenshot, the part supposedly bound for Apple's iPhone 6 shows surface scratches after being rubbed by garnet sandpaper, suggesting the glass is not made of sapphire. In the video, YouTuber Marques Brownlee also shows the cover glass failing to resist scratches from emery sandpaper, which is much harder than garnet.
Brownlee goes on to explain the Mohs scale of relative hardness, noting a material with a higher rating cannot be scratched by one assigned a lower number. For example, sapphire — rated 9 out of 10 on the Mohs scale — cannot be scratched by garnet, which is a 7. Emery is a mixture of corundum and magnetite and is assigned an 8 on the Mohs scale.
The only mineral harder than sapphire, itself a form of corundum, is diamond with a relative hardness of 10 on the Mohs scale.
Further proving his point, Brownlee takes the same sandpaper to the iPhone 5s, known to sport a screen made from Corning's Gorilla Glass. While the display area is easily scratched, the sapphire-covered Touch ID home button comes out unscathed.
With this latest test, it appears the alleged 4.7-inch iPhone 6 part is not made of sapphire as many have speculated, and Brownlee himself stated as fact in a previous video.
At this time, the material used to make the cover glass is unknown, though Brownlee proposes Apple has employed a sapphire laminate patent to create a "composite involving sapphire." That specific IP, however, describes a method of fabrication specifically designed to overcome the type of surface scratches seen in the video, while at the same time offering superior flexibility and impact resistance.
Another important question to ask is whether the component is even a legitimate Apple part. The answer should come this fall when the company is expected to debut its next-generation iPhone lineup.
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Charles Martin
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71 Comments
[quote name="AppleInsider" url="/t/181434/video-shows-supposed-4-7-inch-iphone-6-display-scratched-by-sandpaper-suggests-not-sapphire#post_2566045"] Another important question to ask is whether the component is even a legitimate Apple part. The answer should come this fall when the company is expected to debut its next-generation iPhone lineup.[/quote] Not really, as I presume they would test many materials before deciding on one. So all leaks we have seen might be from a new iPhone even if the parts shown aren't in the new model. Remember, they are also proud of the products they [I]didn't[/I] release.
iPhone 6 Sapphire vs Arrow (feat. Joe Rogan): http://youtu.be/9TqkgqsZkJs
The part could also be a mock up built after having seen the real thing, so it may look right, but not be right.
Also, I hate to do this, but this kind of mistake appears in articles on news sites far too often (yep, even over on CNN):
This sentence:
"In a video posted to YouTube late Friday, a part purported to be Apple's "iPhone 6" cover glass was again exposed torture test, this time failing to resist scratches from garnet sandpaper, a material softer than sapphire."
should read:
"In a video posted to YouTube late Friday, a part purported to be Apple's "iPhone 6" cover glass was again exposed to a torture test, this time failing to resist scratches from garnet sandpaper, a material softer than sapphire."
Unless British English does not require it? Or has American English evolved to no longer require it?
In a comment in a thread, I don't worry about it. In a news article, yeah, I think it's a big deal. How did it get past a basic grammar checker? BTW, grammar checkers are not perfect and need a human eye for final proofing.
Edit: made my correction easier to comprehend after the article had been fixed.
It's probably because it's one of those Goophone parts: http://www.macrumors.com/2014/07/16/wico-goophone-iphone-6-clones/ [VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z2C8ED4piM[/VIDEO] [VIDEO]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyMQqisrsUI[/VIDEO] You can see the curved edges on the glass in those videos. There's no way the knockoff manufacturers could use sapphire. Also, you can see the differences in the front camera holes from the way Apple designs them. This happened with the iPhone 5 and they got some of the design right before the iPhone 5 launched but it was a little off: [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/45935/width/500/height/1000[/IMG] They didn't make a unibody part for the middle so it had a seam round the outside. When the iPhone 5 actually arrived, they updated the design: [IMG ALT=""]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/45936/width/500/height/1000[/IMG] If the same is to be expected this time round, the size should be accurate as well as some of the general styling but it might not be 100% accurate in style to what the iPhone 6 will be.
But [I][B]will it blend?[/B][/I] (Hint: it always blends.) [URL=http://willitblend.com/videos/iphone-5s]http://willitblend.com/videos/iphone-5s[/URL]