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Incredible using Gorilla Glass? HTC says so...

I could find no authoritative source that says the screen is *not* Gorilla Glass, and the OP's response was fairly specific, so I decided to craft my own support request email and ask again. This is what I sent --


Conflicting information is in circulation regarding the type of glass used for the screen on the HTC Droid Incredible.

One HTC support representative has told someone that the material is Gorilla Glass (made by Corning):

http://androidforums.com/htc-incredible/74641-incredible-using-gorilla-glass-htc-says-so.html

"Dear Keegan, I can understand the interest in the knowledge of the HTC Incredible Screen. The screen display is actually an Opaque Aluminum-Silicone Base. It is called Gorilla Glass, which is impervious to the very real threats of key scratching and localized pressure. Gorilla Glass is an unscratchable, unshatterable material used as a protective window for your mobile phone. If you have any other questions or concerns please Reply back to this email or give us a call at our HTC Technical Support Line, 1-866-449-8358..."

Other (unconfirmed) reports suggest that it is debatable, and might be regular glass:

Incredible screen glass or plastic? - HTC Droid Incredible Forum

Additionally, an HTC support representative has indicated the the 'sister phone' to the Incredible, the HTC Desire, does not have Gorilla Glass:

HTC Desire DOES NOT come with a Gorilla Glass screen HTC Desire Fanatics

"Dear Jon Thank you for contacting us. In regards to HTC Desire, I can help you with the confirmation that this device doesn’t use use Gorilla glass type but just standard glass prepared for AMOLED capacitive touch screen. I trust that this resolves your query, please do not hesitate to contact us again if required. Best regards, Pedro S. HTC"

So sou can see how there might be some confusion. What I would like to know is specifically what type of glass screen is used on the HTC incredible, and also, separately, what type of glass screen is used on the HTC Desire. If you would please, research this thoroughly before providing an answer, and help settle this matter once and for all.

Thank you for your time and attention.




I will report back if and when I get a response.



EDIT:
Just received a response this morning, Saturday the 15th of May -- although not the one we wanted. Not only does the response say 'no' to Gorilla Glass, but it adds even more confusion to the debate over the screen materials (typos included, "the screen both device"):

"Hi, I'm Victor, and I will be glad to assist you today. The screen both device is just a standard glass screen. It then has a thin layer of flexible plastic over the screen to protect it and to help with the touch screen activation."

So wait a sec. We have no Gorilla Glass, just standard, *and* a plastic outer layer? Does that even make sense, considering scratch tests that people have done without actually scratching it?
 
If it is indeed using Gorilla Glass I find it odd they haven't mentioned it in the tech specs, nor have any reviewers. With the droid it was a hot topic and selling point.
did the droid sell less screen protectors bc of this? why mention something that will cause less accy dollars. on the other hand, why not mention it to drive sales.
 
If you look on cornings site they mention most any deal theyh have to supply GG to manufacturers, I see mentions of lg and samsung, dell and cowon, even the droid. Nothing about HTC or the Inc specifically.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 
I had my Droid since Dec and its pretty scratched. So I'm using a shield but when they get scratches they look horrible also I get lots of finger prints that show on the screen
 
Well, I got a response to my support inquiry regarding the confusion over the screen composition on the Incredible, and also on the Desire for comparison. Typos included (the screen both device...):

"Hi, I'm Victor, and I will be glad to assist you today. The screen both device is just a standard glass screen. It then has a thin layer of flexible plastic over the screen to protect it and to help with the touch screen activation."

So wait a sec. We have no Gorilla Glass, just standard, *and* a plastic outer layer? Does that even make sense, considering scratch tests that people have done without actually scratching it?

Has HTC really given three essentially different descriptions of the screen as responses to three separate support requests by different individuals: 1) Gorilla Glass 2) Regular Glass 3) Regular Glass w/ Plastic Layer !?!?

User reports suggest that the screen isn't likely Gorilla Glass, and even HTC's muddled responses seem to confirm this. However, user tests also seem to suggest that the top layer is at least glass of some sort, but HTC's muddled responses have, er, clouded that issue even more now.


/sigh


 
I let this thread die because nobody will be convinced one way or the other. I did get another response when I replied to my original inquiry:

New Response
Thank you for your reply. The screen is a standard AMOLED screen. If you would like to learn more about AMOLED technology (Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode), we would recommend using your favorite search engine to find out more about it. It is not made from Gorilla glass, manufactured by Corning. I want to thank you for contacting HTC. In order to help improve our service I
 
did the droid sell less screen protectors bc of this? why mention something that will cause less accy dollars. on the other hand, why not mention it to drive sales.
I have no idea but it wouldn't really matter to the phone manufacturer since they don't produce or sell the screen protectors so they don't see any profit from it.
 
This is interesting. It certainly doesn't seem like the glass used is that great. What I'm most curious about is what type of glass the Nexus One uses. I've seen the YouTube video of someone trying to scratch an N1 with a key and he wasn't able to do it. There is no way I'd want to try that on my Incredible.
 
The stupid videos you see online are from people who dont apply an ounce of pressure. All keys used in these videos and worn and do not have sharp edges which means it does NOT matter what the object is made of.
 
Considering there are already multiple people with scratched screens, I would put a ton of money on it NOT being Gorilla Glass.

If any of you are familiar with Cowon, makers of the best MP3 players ever, they use Gorilla Glass on their players. I never had a screen protector on any of my Cowon's. I had a Cowon S9 for over a year and that thing NEVER had any scratches whatsoever with normal use. Not even a tiny scratch. Nothing, nada.

Now for the past month or so, I have their new MP3 player the J3. Same thing, no scratches at all. In short, I've never had any type of scratch on a Cowon MP3 player with Gorilla Glass.

So I highly, highly doubt the Incredible has Gorilla Glass.


My MOTO Droid was only without screen protection for less than a month and it had two scratches on the screen. I was always very careful with it and never put anything else in my pocket with it. So its obvious that under the right circumstances even gorilla glass can be scratched.
 
Sounds to me like the HTC customer service rep was misinformed. The only reason to add a plastic layer to the outside of the glass to help with touch screen activation would be for the Windows Mobile phones that require this to function correctly. It is not necessary for Android capacitive touch screens...
 
Im not sure either way if it uses gorrilla glass or whatever.. but i wanted to point out that someone noted that samsung uses cornings glass. And samsung makes the screens for the incredible which is why it's backordered everywhere.... so if that's true wouldnt it stand to reason it may infact be GGlass?
 
I had seen that as well but it seemed like people were still debating. Shrug here's to hoping that is legitimate because i love my incredible
 
If it's Gorrilla glass, then Gorrilla Glass sucks. One of our Inc's took a fall from less than two feet onto asphalt and the screen shattered. This would be the outer most layer of the screen. There are sharp shards and the guy to whom it belongs put a plastic screen saver over it so he wouldn't cut himself. Except for readability, everything works.

I ordered three replacement touch panels. Minimum order was 3. I might be reselling one or two if anyone is interested. $70 shipped is my guess. I'll see if they show considering the back orders on the Inc.
 
I don't understand why people expect a piece of glass, of any kind, to withstand things like dragging across asphalt or falling onto hard surfaces.
 
If it's Gorrilla glass, then Gorrilla Glass sucks. One of our Inc's took a fall from less than two feet onto asphalt and the screen shattered. This would be the outer most layer of the screen. There are sharp shards and the guy to whom it belongs put a plastic screen saver over it so he wouldn't cut himself. Except for readability, everything works.

I ordered three replacement touch panels. Minimum order was 3. I might be reselling one or two if anyone is interested. $70 shipped is my guess. I'll see if they show considering the back orders on the Inc.

just curious, where'd you get the replacement screens? i haven't been able to find any...
 
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