Yes, it's true, iPad 2 screen covers are obsolete. Apple has done the iPad 2 right and installed Gorilla Glass into their new iPad products. This new glass makes it virtually impossible to put a scratch into your iPad 2 under ordinary use. What is it about this product that makes it so good? Only the engineers at Corning can give you this answer but the results stand on their own.

Gorilla Glass is a special formulation, it smacks of the transparent aluminum that Scotty developed in the movie "Star Trek- The Voyage Home". This is actually named alkali-aluminosilicate which means that it is a silicate glass that has been doped with aluminum and bonded with an alkali (ionic salt). This may be more technical than you need to know. The important thing is that this glass is reinforced with aluminum. This gives the glass special properties that complement your iPad 2 screen and make an iPad 2 screen cover unnecessary.

Gorilla Glass has several properties that make it ideal for use in iPad 2 screens. It has a high degree of chemical strengthening which allows it to have a high compressive stress coefficient and creates a deep compression layer in the glass. This means it is three times more resistant to breakage than its predecessors. So damage to your iPad 2 screen will take a blow of considerable force to cause your screen to break.

The thing about this glass that makes it able to obsolete an iPad 2 screen cover is that it is almost impossible to put a scratch in this glass. Corning actually has published the scratch resistance test for this glass. This test takes a metal stylus and scratches the glass in a line with increasing force. The stylus is designed specifically to scratch glass and the force applied increases from 20 grams to 100 grams. This is equivalent to taking a drywall screw and pushing it into the glass as hard as you can. The only scratches found in this test need to have a microscope to see them. This isn't to say that it can't be scratched but compared to the old screens this is a significant step forward.

Fingerprints will still obscure your screen and the oils from your hands will stick to this glass, but you can feel safe leaving a fingerprint. An iPad 2 cover is still a nice accessory to have but if you need it to protect from scratches you are already covered. Most of the Folio style covers are lined on the inside with a microfiber that polishes out the fingerprints when closed. The Apple Smart cover includes this material as well. So, if you were trying to decide to buy an iPad 2 screen cover just pass on it. It has been designed in.