Last year was dominated by rumors through which we were informed that Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), will protect the screens iPhone 6 si 6 iPhone Plus with screens from sapphire glass, but of course this did not materialize. Apple's partner, GT Advanced, failed to produce sapphire glass good enough and fast enough for Apple, so new terminals still use Gorilla Glass for protection. Although last year Apple could not protect its smartphones with sapphire glass, this year things could change radically for the American company and not only.
We have just lab tested an important new sapphire technology that significantly lowers the screen reflectance of sapphire to much lower than glass, turning its former major disadvantage into a major new advantage. A technical note, this isn't an Anti-Reflection AR coating, which would scratch off easily and defeat sapphire's tremendous scratch resistance – so the enhanced sapphire is now number one in scratch resistance, low reflectance and performance in high ambient light. In addition, displays using it could run with lower screen brightness and result in increased running time on battery.
More precisely, the evolution of the sapphire glass manufacturing method will bring us protective screens that reflect less light than in the past. Practically, this change gives sapphire a lower degree of light reflection than that of normal glass, eliminating one of its great disadvantages in front of this material. Thanks to this change, the screens protected with sapphire glass could work at a lower brightness, thus radically improving the battery autonomy.
Combining this achievement with improved scratch resistance and reduced production costs, sapphire appears to be finally ready for use in mobile terminals. If we see the sapphire glass in iPhone 6S it is hard to say now, but there is a good chance that Apple will take the risk in 2015.
