Over the weekend, a bunch of Nexus 6P owners took to Reddit and Twitter to complain about the spontaneous breaking of rear glass panels, flash, and laser autofocus setup on their newly purchased smartphones during normal usage and flight transit. Images of the shattered glass panel have also been posted by the users saying it happened as soon as they kept the smartphone on its back on any surface. One user claims that the glass is simply shattering and without any provocation. Another user wrote on Reddit “It was sat on a table next to me when I heard the glass snap, leaving a little snowfall of shavings on the table under it.” One of the reasons for the cracking of the glass panel is said to be poor heat management. Normally, glass has enormous compressive strength, but the tiniest flaw, scratch, or damage to the glass will become the point of origin for cracking. As such, the Gorrilla Glass 4 is made moot. Any piece of glass (including tempered ones) is only strong as long as it is not compromised. One of the users on Reddit explained, “This could be caused by the method they use to temper the glass. I’m by no means an expert, but the method used to temper Gorilla glass involves giving the glass ion baths to strengthen it. The strength comes at a cost though – due to the strong attraction of the glass particles to one another and compression of the whole, the glass develops lines of internal torque and stress, leading to explosive results if the glass is impacted or pressed from the wrong angle.” All the affected phones should be eligible for free replacement or repair, as the Nexus 6P phones are still covered under hardware warranty. However, it will be a tedious task for the device owners to convince Huawei support staff or Google Store that the issue was not due to accidental damage or mishandling.
