There have been several iterations of Corning Gorilla Glass in recent years, and Gorilla Glass Victus is the latest to hit the market. Not much has changed between iterations of Gorilla Glass in recent years, so we did not expect a whole new one from Victus, but PhoneBuff’s Galaxy Note20 Ultra drop tests have proven that Victus is surprisingly solid.
The Note20 Ultra is currently the only phone on the market with Gorilla Glass Victus, used on the front and back in this application, so this is some of the first real world tests that Victus undergoes. In this video, PhoneBuff pits the Note20 Ultra against the iPhone 11 Pro Max with its typical four tests: a back drop, a corner drop, a front drop, and then ten front drops for the winner. The back cover only crawls the upper left corner of the Note20 Ultra’s glass, around the camera module, while the rear glass of the iPhone completely shatters. The corner drop leaves only small cosmetic marks on both phones, but the drops from the face down are where we were pretty dumb.
While the screen of the iPhone 11 Pro Max completely cracks on the first impact of the face down, the Note20 Ultra’s is almost completely unmanned, saving for a few light scratches. PhoneBuff then drops the Note20 Ultra ten times more, leaving the Victus-covered screen completely intact in some way. This is practically unusual with smartphone glass, which proves that Victus is truly the winner in this test.
It’s a good thing that the screen is so robust, because iFixit could only give the Note20 Ultra a 3 to 10 repairability score, replacing the screen as “embarrassing, poorly prioritized and unnecessarily expensive.” Other noticeable disadvantages include cumbersome battery replacement and dealing with a lot of tough glue.
You can watch both the drop-test and tear-down videos via the embeds above and the links below.
