Leaked 4.7-inch iPhone 6 Sapphire Screen is Super Strong and Flexible, but will it be Impact Resistant? (Video)

With just a couple of months until the iPhone 6′s expected release date in September, a new video strongly suggests that the device will have a 4.7-inch sapphire glass display. The video apparently shows the front panel of an iPhone 6, direct from the production line in China (sourced by Sonny Dickson, who has a pretty good record with iPhone leaks and rumors). If this really is the iPhone 6 sapphire glass front panel, prepare to be excited: This thing is virtually indestructible, withstanding extreme scratch and bend/torque tests.

The video, published by Markus Brownlee, shows a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 front panel. It is virtually identical to the iPhone 5S front, but scaled up by about 50%. The iPhone 6 screen aspect ratio appears to be the same 16:9 as the iPhone 5S, but presumably the resolution of the iPhone 6 will step up to 1920×1080 (or maybe even higher, if Apple wants to reclaim the pixels-per-inch crown). The panel came from famed iPhone leaker Sonny Dickson, who appears to be well connected with Apple’s Chinese production line.

But more importantly, look at the abuse that Brownlee then foists upon the unsuspecting iPhone 6 sapphire glass screen. While it’s possible that he’s pulling his punches, it really does look like he’s trying his hardest to scratch the screen with a knife and keys. Likewise, when he steps on the screen and tries to snap it by bending it back, I think he’s really trying.

Perhaps rather importantly, though, Brownlee doesn’t perform any impact tests — such as smashing the front panel with a large rock. While we know that sapphire is incredibly strong, it is also quite brittle; so it should be great for avoiding scratches, but a drop on a hard floor could shatter the screen into a million pieces. Given how common phone dropping is, though, and the memories of shattered iPhone 4 glass still seared into the memories of millions of owners, I’m sure Apple has a solution in place. Maybe it’s a special breed of sapphire, or more likely the sapphire is laminated with another material to provide higher impact resistance.

If this really is the iPhone 6 front cover, it’s significant for a couple of major reasons. First, with a display diagonal of at 4.7 inches, this would be a massive departure from the iPhones of yore. In the iPhone’s seven-year history, the screen size has only changed once before — and that was more of an aspect ratio adjustment than anything else (woo, another row of icons!) A 4.7-inch screen, presumably with a 1920×1080 or 2560×1440 LCD display, would put the iPhone 6 on a much more even footing with other superphones from Samsung, HTC, and Nokia.
                                                                                   A boule of synthetically created sapphire crystal
Second, it would be the first mass-market smartphone with a sapphire glass front panel. Sapphire glass has been used in smaller applications (wristwatches, the front element on the iPhone 5S’s rear camera), but it has historically been too expensive to fashion an entire fascia out of the stuff. With its exclusive partnership with sapphire glass maker GT Advanced Technologies, and no doubt some beefy capital investment from Apple’s deep pockets, it would appear that production costs have now reached a low enough level to make a sapphire glass iPhone 6 viable.

Expect a lot more iPhone 6 information to leak out over the next two months in the run-up to its official September unveil and release. We wouldn’t be surprised if the sapphire glass, 4.7-inch screen, and a much-increased display resolution are the main extent of the iPhone 6′s new features. It will be interesting to see how other mobile device makers, such as Samsung, react (no one else seems to have the capacity to make large quantities of sapphire glass), and how Corning reacts to this new threat (Gorilla Glass has been mostly unchallenged for a few years now).