You might have run into the phrase, “Fluorite AG Glass” in the news announcements or specs sheets of a few phones. It is an innovative type of glass used in smartphones. What exactly is it and what does it do?
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What is Fluorite AG Glass?
Fluorite AG Glass is a type of glass used in smartphones. It is different from Gorilla Glass and other tempered glasses used to protect glass parts of a phone, in that it is not tempered glass and its purpose is not protection from scratches or cracks.
Instead, what Fluorite AG Glass does is that it has the ability to change color when it is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, including sunlight.
As such, you likely heard this material mentioned with a smartphone that is able to change color – usually the color of the back cover. Simply put, this special glass adds a unique aesthetic appeal to phones it is used in.
How it works
A material coated with Fluorite AG Glass changes color when exposed to ultraviolet light or UV light. Before you get scared, UV light is a component of sunlight and it is considered safe with moderate exposure. As a matter of fact, exposure to UV light is essential to the production of vitamin D by your body. The sun emits more than just visible light and heat; it also emits a range of electromagnetic waves, and UV light is one of them. Note that UV light is not visible to the human eye.
The summary is that when you expose a smartphone with Fluorite AG Glass to sunlight, you are exposing it to UV light as well, and the part of the phone made with this material changes color. If you remove it from sunlight, its color will change back.
Phones with Fluorite AG Glass
Fluorite AG Glass is a relatively new development in the world of smartphones and it isn’t widely used yet. As at last count, only Vivo made phones that have this material, which should be no surprise considering that it is the result of Vivo’s research and development work. I imagine that if other smartphone brands want to make use of it, they will have to license it from Vivo.
The first smartphone to use this material is the Vivo V23 series, which includes the V23 and the V23 Pro. Some other phones that have it are:
- vivo V25
- vivo V25 Pro
- vivo Y27s
- vivo V29 5G
- vivo V30
- vivo V30 Lite 4G
Other color-changing smartphones
While vivo developed and uses Fluorite AG Glass, other smartphone brands are not left out of the color-changing design game. A brand like OPPO also has color-changing back design phones that include OPPO Reno5 Pro+ Artist Limited Edition and OPPO A96.
TECNO Camon 19 Pro Mondrian, TECNO SPARK 10 Pro-Magic Magenta edition, and TECNO Camon 20 Premier Doodle Edition (see it in action) are three other smartphones that have color-changing backs. They use a different method of manipulating color, though.
Products from vivo, OPPO, and TECNO are not officially on sale in the United States. Some models are available in European Union countries, though, so if you are located in the EU, you might be able to get your hands on these smartphones with color-changing back designs.
Samsung has had a brief stint with color-changing design, in the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Aura Glow, seen above. That is a dated smartphone now and Samsung hasn’t followed up with that experiment. Pretty much, if you want a color-changing smartphone in the United States and Canada, you are out of luck, till further notice.