Apple's main competitor these days seems not to be other phones but rather the high expectations created by the rumor mill. I'm among those who've stoked the expectation for a sapphire display on the iPhone 6. But the latest scratch test of an alleged iPhone 6 front panel reveals that it's not pure sapphire but likely has a sapphire composite laminate on the display. As the test shows, it's definitely harder and more scratch-resistant than Gorilla Glass but not as hard as the pure sapphire used in the Home button. Marques Brownlee, whose earlier scratch-test video I covered in this post, explains in his newest video (embedded below) the Mohs scale of mineral hardness. Minerals are rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with diamond being the hardest at 10. Simply, any mineral on the scale can scratch minerals rated below it but not anything rated above it. Gorilla Glass comes in at 6.8 on the scale. Sapphire is 9. The only thing that should be able to scratch sapphire should be diamond. But in his test he shows how both garnet sandpaper (rated 7) and emery sandpaper (rated 8) can scratch the iPhone 6 front panel, suggesting it's not pure sapphire.
But he also uses those materials to scratch the display of an iPhone 5s and shows that the iPhone 6 panel is much more resistant to scratches from garnet and emery than the iPhone 5s. However, neither garnet nor emery is able to scratch the sapphire covering of the Home button on the 5s.
In the video Brownlee notes that Apple has a patent for a laminate that uses a sapphire composite, so it's quite possible that this is what we'll see in the iPhone 6. We know that Apple definitely has something in mind for the material, given their major investment in the production facility in Arizona and their efforts to lock in other suppliers around the world.
Having a front panel more resistant than even Gorilla Glass will be a significant step and will be yet one more feature that will help the iPhone 6 stand out.
