Corning’s new Gorilla Glass protects smartphone camera lenses and lets in more light

Corning has announced a new set of glass composites to protect the ever-growing number of camera lenses on the back of smartphones and capture more ambient light in the process. The new composites, called Gorilla Glass with DX and Gorilla Glass with DX+, offer “advanced optical performance, superior scratch resistance, and durability” according to Corning.

Technically, this DX variety of composite isn’t entirely new, Corning offered a version of Gorilla Glass with DX / DX+ for smartwatches as early as 2018. But Corning says making the switch to smartphone camera lens covers added additional challenges because the glass needed to be more scratch-resistant and somehow let in more light, two qualities that can be at odds. Corning breaks down how it achieved both improvements in the video below:

Corning tells Wired that Gorilla Glass with DX and Gorilla Glass with DX+ let in 98 percent of ambient light while still being just as scratch resistant as typical Gorilla Glass. In comparison, Corning claims lens covers with traditional anti-reflective coatings only let in about 95 percent of light. Maximizing the amount of light smartphones can gather while cutting down on reflections and glare is helpful for squeezing better performance out of smartphone cameras. It might also provide more information for the variety of computational processes that are now the norm in smartphone photography.

The company hasn’t announced what phones will feature the new glass composites, but Corning does say that Samsung is signed on as the first company to use the new Gorilla Glass camera lens covers. Given the Unpacked event Samsung has scheduled for August 11th quickly approaching on the horizon, maybe we’ll see the glass in action sooner than we expect.