Nokia 8.1 doesn’t have Corning Gorilla protective glass? Why keep it quiet?

Nokia 8.1 looks like a solid phone with some nice hardware components that could easily make it the best buy phone in the first half of 2019. The Snapdragon 710 is a pretty capable processor, and its main camera seems to be giving nice photos. But, there are always some things that are not logical, especially in the upper midrange price class. If we put aside the super wide notch, the lack of Gorilla glass is a bit problematic.

So, all today’s phones with the price of €300 or more are using the well-tested product like Corning Gorilla glass. This doesn’t mean that it is the hardest glass there, but it is a symbol for the durable front facing surface of many smartphones. There are many other materials that can be even tougher than Gorilla glass. Apple is using its own sapphire glass, and other companies are probably using something similar. But, when Apple uses something different than all the rest of vendors, they make a big fuss about it and try to convince people that this particular product is worthy of being on Apple devices and it will provide better protection to it, even if it doesn’t.

It seems that HMD Global didn’t use Gorilla protective glass for its Nokia 8.1. The type of protective glass is not listed anywhere, and Support is also saying that 8.1 doesn’t have Gorilla glass. Folks behind support chat can be misinformed sometimes and not know the facts, but that isn’t the problem here. This wouldn’t be a thing if HMD just tried to say what they used instead of Gorilla glass, and why is that glass better. Our readers shared with us a nice video where a guy did an extensive drop test of Nokia 8.1. It was pure torture to watch. He dropped the phone from various heights on the side, front or back and glass didn’t shatter.

Obviously, Nokia 8.1 is quite a durable phone that will resist rougher falls on hard surfaces. I would not be doing the tests though, but rather invest in a silicone protective cover, but wouldn’t be so afraid of shattered glass if the phone falls on tiles. I accidentally dropped Nokia 7.1 four times on the floor, and its glass didn’t shatter. So, the problem is that HMD is not sharing all the specs with the people interested in the phone, and that is a base for the creation of trust issues between the company and buyers of its products. I don’t expect them to say we didn’t have enough money to put Gorilla 5, but would be nice to have more details about the product they used and reasoning behind it. We all know that Gorilla 4 wasn’t the best product there and that the fifth generation is a bit expensive for midrange phones.

In the end, let me just remind you of a wise old Chinese saying: “Just mention what you used and explain why, everything will be OK”.

Thanks PI and Razor for the screenshot and video 😉