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In my travels and moves abroad, I’ve witnessed many deaths.
Not many human ones, actually, but scores of electronic ones. In my own family there’s been a cracked laptop screen (bunched-up x-ray machine in the airport), a broken smartphone screen (dropped on a hotel bathroom floor), a failed hard drive (daughter’s laptop fell off a bench), and a fried chip in a motherboard (overheated). The MP3 player was the lucky one: it just died of old age.
Then there are all the failures I’ve seen with people I know and strangers waiting in line to buy tickets or board a plane. So many fatal injuries, so many scratched-screen devices just limping along to the next electronics store.
I didn’t have Corning Gorilla Glass in that smartphone of mine that shattered so easily. I got the screen replaced with regular glass and a few months later I started getting dead spots while texting. Just try sending someone a note or searching for a web page when you can’t use the letter “e.” So when I was in Panama on a writing trip, I picked up a Chinese brand phone for $144 and am hoping it holds out until I get back to the states this summer.
Next time, I’m paying more attention to the components and getting one built to last. If it’s got Gorilla Glass on the screen, that’s not going to make it indestructible, but it sure makes the device more travel-worthy. In laboratory tests, the latest Gorilla Glass 4 survives up to 80% of the time when dropped from 3 feet high, on asphalt and sidewalks even. Plus it’s more scratch-resistant than less engineered versions.
I visit six or eight different countries in an average year as a travel writer. Often there are wild adventures in the mix. It doesn’t make sense to have something along that I have to treat like a dainty porcelain cup. By nature, glass is fragile:
Fortunately that won’t limit my choices very much. The best Android phones from the likes of Samsung, LG, and Motorola all have it, so I’ll be able to make sure my rugged phone is also a phone with a good camera and plenty of memory. (And remember, with Android phones you can pop in a new SIM card wherever you land without having to get a “genius” to open up your device. No inflated data charges from AT&T or Verizon that way.)
You can also get Gorilla Glass in laptops and tablets as well. I don’t know for sure if that would have saved my screen in that airport x-ray machine pile-up, but it would have bettered my odds at least. When I replace my limping-along daughter’s laptop, I’ll make sure hers has it because she’ll have much more protection from drops. Those seem to happen with semi-regular frequency in her bumbling teenage hands. I’ve had good luck with Acer laptops in my travels and they have plenty of models to choose from, including some of the popular Aspire ones and the Switch 10. You can also get the enhanced protection from Asus (we reviewed one of their tablets here), Dell, Lonovo, and HP.
Sure, you might still want to put a protective case on your mobile device and you should put your laptop into a cushioned sleeve and/or good laptop case. And we’ve reviewed a few tablet cases here too. But if you want double protection from drops and other travel calamities, this is extra insurance.
Corning Gorilla Glass has been used on more than 3 billion devices from 40 major brands. Is it on yours? Click here to find out.
Corning Incorporated sponsored this blog post. I believe in the product and as always, the opinions and text are all mine.
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