31
votes
MKBHD - Glass is glass || Or how the wording "scratch resistant" and "shatter resistant" misleads customers
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- Title
- Glass is glass
- Authors
- Marques Brownlee
- Duration
- 4:46
- Published
- Apr 24 2026
I actually really liked this video because I have for years wondered how can they make these claims (x times more shatter proof/scratch resistant) when you can't fundamentally change the fact that glass "scratches at a level 6 with deeper grooves at a level 7" and it's cool to know that it really is a marketing ploy.
I had no idea that the inherent difficulty with screens is that when you make them scratch resistent it directly corresponds to less shatter resistence. Guessing it has something to do with how the molecular structure is arranged/aligned?
I really wish stuff like sapphire screens could be more common place but obviously the cost for the average consumer would be too unreasonable compared to slapping a screen protector on every phone you get.
This is also why I don't believe foldables will ever get over the crease problem, only attenuate it.
It's mentioned in the video, it mostly just has to do with softness of the material. To make it more scratch resistant, you need to make it harder, but the harder it is, the less it absorbs the impact from falling to the ground, so it shatters more easily
Molecular structure probably has an effect, otherwise things like Gorilla Glass wouldn't exist, but the compromise is still an inherent property of any material
Sounds like this could be best splved by having a highly shatter resistant screen, with a highly scratch resistant replaceable screen protector over it. This would probably be best handled if Apple was just comfortable with selling phones with a screen protector already applied, having free replacement in stores, etc.
They will apply a screen protector to your screen in the store if you ask. They even have a neat gizmo that applies it sort of automatically without any bubbles. It’s no extra charge you just have to buy the screen protectors in store.
Ive always kind of thought glass screens were kind of dumb TBH. I’ve seen so many people with cracked screens, and that practically doesn’t happen with polycarbonate. I’ve never bought a screen protector myself but as I understand the high end ones are that made with thin layers of that highly scratch resistant glass. It’s literally the best of both worlds.
I have to wonder what I'm doing wrong with my life where I've never cracked a phone screen.
Never cracked a screen, and only got a very small scratch once (on an iPod Touch back around 2008-2010, because a pair of shorts had a pointy rivet near the pocket). My charging cords usually outlive several phones too. The only time I've put a screen protector on something is my Switch 2, because I figured sliding it into the dock could be risky.
Most people are just not careful about things on a generalized level.
Eh, you can just be unlucky. I am careful with my stuff, but if the corner of my phone hits concrete or tiles it's fucked no matter what.
I've had my screen crack from a less than 30cm drop. No amount of carefulness can prevent every fall.
You just gotta get unlucky once. I've cracked precisely one phone and it was only a few years ago. It was a pretty bad drop on concrete and cracked both the front and back glass. I was already thinking about upgrading my phone at that point so it just gave me an incentive to upgrade.
The one time I cracked a phone screen was my iPhone 4. A girl gave me her number and I dropped the phone as she handed it back to me. Alas!
Never really scratched my phone screens badly either. My Apple Watch has been scratched badly but never the phone.
I only even put my phone in a case for better grippyness. My wedding ring scrapes against the metal when I use it and it just feels a bit slippery going in and out of my pocket.
I've felt similarly about phone bodies: so much metal and glass that's heavy, slippery, and prone to cracking. I eventually gave it up and switched, but my old Pixel 3a was the best feeling phone in the hand that I've ever used, and I didn't have to worry about it getting cracked or dented.
I think plastic construction gets a bad rap from its association with cheap products and all the cut corners that often comes with, but high quality plastic is a fantastic choice for electronics.
Great plastic designs can be incredible. Cassio’s calculators, for instance, have incredible case designs that I’m frankly not sure how they managed to manufacture them with the combination of overhangs and fine details. And that was on a device that cost maybe $20!
I haven't seen cracked screens in many years now. Big problem in the 2010s, but these days? I'm not sure I've seen a truly cracked screen in the last 3 years to the best of my knowledge. I don't use cases and have never cracked an iPhone screen despite dropping them. The other night, I fell asleep with the phone on blanket and ended up flinging it across the room in my sleep. No damage.
Last and only broken screen was a Samsung Galaxy S3.
Might have as much to do with you and your peers aging and/or entering different parts of life with different risk factors.
I used to work at a program with pre-teens/teens. Even then, the rate of cracked screens was markedly lower than the iPhone 4S and below days.
My own screen cracked recently. Though to be fair, that was after falling from a roller coaster. 😸
5 minute video but if that's still long to watch, all you need to know is at about 1:55 to 2:30.
And that is that the idea that the glass on a phone is not significantly becoming more shatter/scratch resistant over time but instead is becoming alternatingly more shatter or scratch resistant.
In other words, marketing is marketing.
But over time it does improve on both metrics.
Mrwhosetheboss teamed up with MKBHD to release a similar video on other deceptive tech specs:
How Tech Companies Lie to You.