There might finally be a phone in the budget segment that won’t break the first time you drop it

• ASUS just launched the Zenfone Max Pro M2 that comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection.
• Other phones in the budget segment come, at best, with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
  
• The company’s impetus seems to be on protection with them also reducing the price for Flipkart’s ‘Complete Mobile Protection’ to just ₹99.

Camera and design upgrades are probably the most ‘buzz-wordy’. Durability is what most users desire but do not necessarily communicate it. It's just assumed to be a such a logical and implied feature of any smartphone that you buy off the market.

Come to think of it, there hasn’t always been a lot of variety in terms of protection that isn’t tied to price points.

The ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M2 has the usual upgrades of the phone’s chipset, camera, and design but the most significant improvement is the Zenfone Max Pro M2’s Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection — at prices starting at ₹12,999.

It’s not unbreakable — but it will survive

It’s not that other phones aren’t durable, but the Zenfone Max Pro M2 comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection that takes things to a new level altogether. According to Dinesh Sharma, the India Head for the company’s mobile operations, “Our consumers are asking for it (more durability).”

He stipulated that with the last phone, the ASUS Zenfone Max Pro M1, the users expressed their desire to have a phone that wouldn’t break too easily. So when they went out looking for protection, the Corning Gorilla Glass 6 was the "best in class."

According to Corning and their live-test video, the phone equipped with Gorilla Glass 6 should be able to survive 15 consecutive drops from waist-height. So, you still shouldn’t be flinging the phone off the balcony but at least the screen won’t get chipped in case it drops as you’re getting out of your car.

Corning’s research shows that more than 50% of users drop their phones, on average, at least seven times a year. That’s seven times your phone is vulnerable to its screen breaking.

Where things get a little skeptical is when you’re talking about the phone’s scratch resistance because even Corning’s admitted to there being a trade-off between drop resistance and scratch resistance in the past.

Gorilla Glass 6 isn’t an innovation or even a feature that isn’t already in the market.

Honestly, it’s not new at all. But what makes it stand out is the fact that it’s available at a price point under ₹20,000 while most brands only offer that kind of durability on their flagship devices normally above ₹35,000 .

The full review of the phone should be up soon. Keep tuned.