Having conquered phone displays, Corning is bringing Gorilla Glass to handset cameras. The company's DX and DX+ range of damage-resistant glass will next be available for mobile camera lens covers, starting with Samsung devices. Alongside the added protection, Corning claims its tech can improve the optical performance of smartphone cameras. 

According to the company, DX glass essentially results in less light being reflected by the camera cover lens. Currently, even with the use of an anti-reflective coating, around 92 percent of transmitted light enters a smartphone camera. Corning says that with DX/DX+ on the outside a camera lens can capture 98 percent of light, helping to reduce optical issues like ghosting. These reflections are usually caused by a bright light source during daylight or in low-light conditions. Lens hoods and coatings applied to lens surfaces can help to suppress ghosting, also known as ghost reflections. 

Some smartphone makers are already working with specialist suppliers to address the problem. Both Sony and Vivo use a Zeiss coating to boost light transmission while reducing flares, ghosting and reflections on their high-end phones.

But, Corning also offers the added benefit of durability and has strong ties with the biggest smartphone makers in the field. The company says its DX glass is scratch resistant and that DX+ approaches the resistance of Sapphire, which is used in high-end watches thanks to its Grade 9 on the Mohs scale — a system for rating the hardness of various minerals. It could even allow you to finally ditch that smartphone case.

Gorilla Glass is now featured on 8 billion devices by more than 45 major brands, according to Corning. While Gorilla Glass DX is also available on more than 30 million wearables. Recognizing its integral role as a supplier, Apple poured $450 million into the company as part of two separate investments in 2017 and 2019.

ASUS and Qualcomm have teamed up to make a smartphone that shows off some of the latter's mobile tech. Although the phone is ostensibly for the 1.6 million members of the Snapdragon Insiders program (which is a bit like Microsoft's Windows Insider early-access scheme), it'll be more broadly available by August.

The snappily named Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders harnesses Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 5G chipset with a 2.84 GHz octa-core processor and the Adreno 660 GPU. It has what Qualcomm describes as "the most comprehensive support for all key 5G sub-6 and mmWave bands" of any device, along with WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E support with speeds of up to 3.6 Gbps. You'll get 16GB of LPDDR5 memory and 512GB of storage.

The 6.78-inch AMOLED display from Samsung has a 144 Hz refresh rate, which could help make it a solid gaming phone. The screen has up to 1,200 nits of brightness and it's HDR10 and HDR10+ certified. The phone has three rear cameras: a 64MP main lens, 12MP ultrawide camera and 8MP telephoto. The array can capture video in up to 8K. The device also has a 24MP front camera and AI auto-zoom.

Qualcomm says this is one of the first phones to support Snapdragon Sound, which has features including low Bluetooth latency, listening profiles, active noise cancellation (ANC) and high-resolution audio support up to 24-bit 96kHz. Along with stereo speakers, the phone comes with Master & Dynamic true wireless ANC earbuds and a charging case for them.

Qualcomm

There's also Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 support, which should charge the 4000mAh battery up to 70 percent of capacity in half an hour or fully in 52 minutes, according to the company. In addition, the phone has dual SIM slots and it runs on stock Android 11.

The device is effectively a showcase for Qualcomm's mobile tech. The company is facing some challenges on the mobile processor front, with many phone makers working on their own chips. Showing off its knowhow with its own smartphone seems like a solid idea for Qualcomm. That way, it can perhaps remind people what it can do.

The ASUS-designed Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders will initially be available in a few countries, including the US, UK, Japan and South Korea. It'll arrive in India later. You'll be able to buy the $1,499 device at ASUSTeK’s eShop and other retailers.