Selfie-proof smartmobes will hit stores for Christmas

Corning has revealed version 5.0 of its Gorilla Glass, the ubiquitous covering for smartphones. And this time around it says the substance has been toughened up again and will now remain intact “up to 80 percent of the time when dropped face-down from 1.6 meters onto rough surfaces”.

The 1.6m figure is an improvement on Gorilla Glass 4.0's 80 per cent survival at 1.0 metres. But the figures aren't arbitrary: last time around Corning aimed to protect your smartmobe when you took it out of your pocket in a hurry, or if you knocked it off a desk.

This time around the company has recognised that we all heft our smartmobes higher for things like selfies. Hence the increased flight ceiling.

As ever, take the manufacturer's claims with caution. The “rough surface” pictured in Corning's saccharine promotional video is either what looks like sandpaper or a nice flat asphalt road free of pebbles and other debris. El Reg suspects that 80 per cent figure may not therefore apply in the real world, seeing as it is rather nobblier than a lab.

So don't go cancelling orders for ruggedised devices or danger-grade cases.

Corning says Gorilla Glass 5.0 “is expected to be on product models from leading global brands later this year.” Which sounds like it may well be a bullet point on the feature list of the Galaxy Tab 7, due in a couple of weeks, or the iPhone 7 whenever Apple decides the world deserves its new baby. ®