In a recent iPhone news release, apple says “the entire top surface of iPhone, including its stunning 3.5-inch display, has been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass to achieve a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity.”
This sounds like a good move. There’s a good thread on Slashdot about the press release.
from the thread:Â
“Watches. Those with glass lenses on them, I’ve rarely scratched – at least enough for it to be noticable. I think it’s a great move. Thought they were glass out of the starting-gate, glad to hear they switched to it. Plastic is putty in comparrison.”
“Those coatings help prevent the minor surface scratches (often called fogging) that can occur when people clean their plastic lenses with their cotton t-shirts. They don’t do anything to prevent actual gouges of the lens material. If you put your polycarb glasses in your pocket with your keys and coins, they will get scratched–coating or no.
For real scratch and gouge resistance, glass is better. It is much harder, and the property is intrinsic–nothing to wear off or deform.”
4 responses so far ↓
1 levelb // Jun 25, 2007 at 10:24 pm
Glass? Sure that’s ok, but it can still be scratched. Checkout http://www.iQase.com
They’ve got a cool protector
2 iPhone's Tiny Rubber Gasket Snaps - MacNN Forums // Jul 11, 2007 at 4:12 am
[...] really kinda bummed-out with you, iPhone. What’s with your tiny rubber gasket (located between your optical-quality glass and your shiny metal frame) snapping? What’s it been… 10 days since you moved in? To whit: [...]
3 bryan // Jul 4, 2008 at 1:34 pm
while cleaning the wheels on my truck, my iPhone decided to work its way out of my cargo pocket and land on my stone (2B) driveway. I did not realize for a while and probably stepped on it oh well, let me know if you could help.
I have a kit to scratches out of airplane windshields but I dont want to try anything with out some advice.
4 Brian // Jul 27, 2008 at 8:52 pm
First of all it’s not scratch ‘proof’, it’s scratch ‘resistant’.
hell even a diamond can be scratched! Regardless, the iPhone/iPod touch is impressively resistant to scratches. The back of the iPod, on the other hand however, is a different story. I have noticed though that the more often you attempt to clean off smudges or finger prints, the more likely you are to get scratches. Believe it or not, this oil helps to prevent scratches (a little bit). 
and if you’re going to cover it up with a protector so that you can no longer see this shiny metal surface, what difference does it make if you do end up with a few scratches or not. No one really cares about the part you don’t see. When you start adding protective cases you then have to start worrying about dust buildup and more heat. And anyone who understands how fragile electronic devices are will know that dust and heat are far worse than a few scratches! 
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