What’s a surface treatment?
Anti-glare and anti-reflective treatments can enhance your cover glass. Gorilla Matte Pro has it all.
This video shows the difference in clarity on a laptop screen – one with the Corning® Gorilla™ Matte Pro surface treatment and one without.
You’re working on your laptop outside on a beautiful day. The sun beats down, reflecting off the screen. You turn up your brightness, but the light from the sun is overpowering the display.
Or maybe you’re trying to show someone photos on your tablet under harsh overhead lighting, but you’re distracted by your own reflection staring back at you, or your photos look grainy and washed out.
You’re probably familiar with these kinds of readability challenges – they happen every day. This is where Corning’s surface treatments step in.
In addition to Corning’s already-renowned cover materials, like the Corning® Gorilla® Glass product portfolio, Corning’s surface treatments help set the benchmarks for optical performance. They can also enhance user experience and device aesthetics. And now, with Corning® Gorilla™ Matte Pro, Corning is delivering an innovative combination of optical solutions to overcome these common viewing challenges.
“Most companies in the industry specialize in either making the glass or applying surface treatments, but not both,” says Lori Hamilton, Gorilla Glass’ Business Technology Director. “This dual expertise makes Corning really unique.”
What’s a surface treatment?
Corning scientists began experimenting with surface treatments in the early 1930’s. With these treatments, Corning scientists and engineers modify the surface of glass to enhance its durability, optical performance, and aesthetics. Corning’s surface treatments can be combined in different ways per application. They include:
Anti-reflective treatments that allow more light to pass through the surface of a device’s cover glass, instead of reflecting off of it. This improves screen contrast and visibility in bright ambient lighting conditions.
Anti-glare treatments that scatter light, diffusing surface reflections. This helps ensure that you’re focused on your work – not on your own reflection or other distracting background reflections.
Scratch-resistant hard coatings that give the glass additional durability, helping to reduce both micro-scratches and deeper scratches, which can result from daily use or after drops. Glass durability is tested in Corning’s reliability lab.
What does Gorilla Matte Pro do?
Clarity
Gorilla Matte Pro is redefining what users can expect from their premium device displays by combining anti-glare and anti-reflective properties with the renowned durability of Gorilla Glass to create an exceptional user experience.
Gorilla Matte Pro reduces reflection by 95%, helping to enable superb visibility even in bright sunlight. Similarly, Gorilla Matte Pro achieves an 80% glare reduction and can improve contrast ratios, providing deeper image clarity and allowing for a comfortable viewing experience in a variety of lighting conditions.
“Readability and visual comfort are critical,” says Florence Verrier, Senior Program Manager. “Our surface treatments minimize unwanted distractions like glare and sparkle, helping to ensure that users can focus on their work or entertainment without compromising display fidelity.”
The process used to reduce glare often results in “sparkle,” a visual artifact on the device’s screen that makes a high-resolution display appear grainy or even greasy. In comparison to alternative anti-glare treatments, Gorilla Glass’ low-sparkle, anti-glare surface treatments reduced this sparkle effect by 50%, making it ideal for high-resolution displays.
“Customers and consumers were put in a position where they had to decide whether they hated glare or sparkle more,” Verrier says. “We created a product that didn’t require a tradeoff.”
Durability
Not only do treatments like Gorilla Matte Pro help with the look and feel of a devices’ cover material, but they can also help boost durability by complementing the inherent toughness of Gorilla Glass
“Durability isn’t just about surviving drops – it’s about maintaining the elegance of the device,” says Alex Mayolet, Technology Director, Gorilla Glass Solutions. “Our treatments help ensure that even after daily wear, a device looks just as beautiful as when it was first purchased.”
In lab tests, Gorilla Matte Pro demonstrated superior scratch resistance compared to alternative anti-glare glass surfaces. These treatments also contribute to the mechanical integrity of devices, helping to minimize visible scratches and the effects of daily wear.
“We take durability to another dimension,” Hamilton says. “Our surface treatments not only improve reliability but also elevate optics, delivering powerful solutions that meet our customers’ evolving needs.”
Surface treatments take durability to another dimension.
Battery life
How often have you turned up your brightness to see your screen?
By enhancing light transmission and reducing glare, surface treatments can allow devices to operate at lower brightness levels, reducing energy consumption and extending battery life.
“When you use less brightness for the same readability, you’re conserving energy,” explains Mayolet. “Your device can use that battery life for greater computing power to help enable things like AI functionality. It’s a win for consumers and device manufacturers.”
Elegance
Corning understands that device aesthetics are increasingly top-of-mind for consumers.
“Consumers expect their devices to look as good as they function, and surface treatments play a crucial role in achieving this balance,” Hamilton says.
Whether delivering a glossy, invisible glass finish or a paper-like matte texture, Corning’s surface treatments cater to diverse preferences.
Tailored for OEMs
One of Corning’s unique strengths lies in its ability to offer both substrate technology and surface treatments – a rarity in the industry. While many competitors focus on either glass production or coatings, Corning’s integrated approach allows it to deliver customized solutions that address the specific needs of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
“For every customer, there’s a different roadmap,” says Hamilton. “We work closely with OEMs to understand their unmet needs and technical challenges, then tailor our solutions to meet those requirements.”
This collaborative approach fosters innovation, enabling Corning to offer groundbreaking technologies for high-resolution OLED displays. By combining mechanical durability with advanced optics, Corning helps its customers unlock the full potential of their device designs.
On the right, you’ll see anti-glare and anti-reflective surface treatments added to a laptop screen.
Bringing the world to you
By addressing challenges like glare, sparkle, and durability, Corning is helping to ensure that users can engage with their devices effortlessly, whether they’re reading emails under bright sunlight, watching videos, or navigating presentations.
As the consumer electronics industry transitions to higher resolution displays and other advanced technologies, Corning’s surface treatments are uniquely positioned to lead the way. By combining durability, optical excellence, and aesthetics, Corning continues to deliver solutions that enhance user experience while addressing the challenges of modern device design.
“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach,” Hamilton emphasizes. “Our ability to innovate and adapt ensures that we remain at the forefront of the industry, solving problems and unlocking possibilities for our customers.”