Marques Brownlee posted a video last week showing the 4.7” iPhone 6 front panel going through various scratch and bending tests. He’s now released a second video, where he explains the Mohs scale of mineral hardness and puts the front panel though more rigorous scratch tests with two different types of sandpaper.
The Gorilla Glass display of the iPhone 5S display is rated at 6.8 on the Mohs scale, whilst the Sapphire crystal used in the Touch ID home button on the iPhone 5S is rated at 9. The two sandpapers used were garnet and emery, rated at 7 and just above 8 respectively on the scale.
When the alleged iPhone 6 front panel he received from Sonny Dickson was subjected to the two types of sandpaper, both of the papers ended up slightly scratching the display. He also tested the sandpaper on the iPhone 5S and found that whilst both types of sandpaper scratched the display, the Touch ID sensor (made of pure Sapphire crystal) remained spotless. Therefore we can deduce that the iPhone 6’s front panel might not be made up exclusively of Sapphire, and might be a hybrid of Sapphire and another material. Apple patented the idea of a hybrid Sapphire coated display last year.
