HOW IT WORKS
Ceramic Shield
It’s the toughest glass on any smartphone. How does it work?
YOU WILL LEARN
What makes Ceramic Glass so tough, and whether you’ll still need a screen protector
Glass-ceramics give you the transparency of glass with the toughness of ceramics
Key fact
Ceramic Shield is a form of glass that includes ceramic nano-crystals. Ceramics are stronger than glass but they’re also more opaque, which isn’t ideal for displays; nanocrystals are so tiny, they don’t block light and impede transparency. You’ll find Ceramic Shield on the front but not the back of the iPhone 12 range.
The iPhone 12 range includes a new kind of glass: Ceramic Shield. It’s a special type of glass that’s four times tougher than the glass in the iPhone 11 handsets, and it’s both harder and more scratch-resistant too.
Like most of the smartphone glass in the world, Ceramic Shield was developed in association with Corning of Gorilla Glass fame. What makes this glass different is that it contains tiny ceramic nano-crystals embedded in the structure. Those crystals have a more regular structure than glass does, and if you embed them in the right way they can make the glass stronger and more impact-resistant.