Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung introduced Gorilla Armor on the Galaxy S24 Ultra earlier this past January.
- For the upcoming Galaxy S25 series, a second-gen Gorilla Armor could be featured on the Ultra model.
- Following widespread reports of issues with screen coatings, though, we’re slightly concerned about how they’ll last.
With January only a few short days away, it feels like all the Android world is talking about anymore is Samsung’s upcoming launch of its Galaxy S25 smartphones. Today alone we’ve looked at everything from news about support for seamless updates to Samsung’s plans for a Galaxy S25 Slim. Now we’re talking about the Galaxy S25 Ultra in particular, and a new rumor about what to expect from its screen protection.
Flash back to last January, and we were learning about Samsung and Corning teaming up to exclusively introduce the new Gorilla Armor glass for the S24 Ultra’s screen. The extra-tough Gorilla Glass was supposed to keep that expensive phone’s screen looking its best, thanks to ion-exchange treatment greatly enhancing the glass’s natural properties. Eventually, other manufacturers started adopting Gorilla Armor themselves, but it was Samsung and the S24 Ultra that really got to show it off.
Today, prominent leaker Ice Universe took to X to share the pronouncement that “the Galaxy S25 Ultra will exclusively use the more powerful second-generation Corning Gorilla Armor Glass with anti-reflective properties.”
This is the first we’ve heard of a new generation of Gorilla Armor, but based on the existing relationship with Samsung, it would make perfect sense to see Corning share it with the world through yet another Galaxy Ultra phone. We just saw evidence that Samsung could be giving this year’s model a slightly brighter display, and upgraded anti-reflective glass could help make that improvement appear even more pronounced.
If there’s one thing giving us pause, though, it concerns durability, and a recent poll we ran suggests that a significant fraction of S24 Ultra owners are experiencing ugly wear to their screens’ coatings. That’s more cosmetic than anything, and shouldn’t affect damage-resistance any, but it’s exactly the sort of thing we’d hope to see a company get right on a follow-up.
