Attention germaphobes: ZTE Axon is the first smartphone to feature Corning’s antimicrobial Gorilla Glass

It’s probably not a hardware feature that will make anyone run out and buy the phone, but as one of those a little on the germaphobe side, we have to admit it’s pretty damn cool. Turns out the recently announced ZTE Axon will be the first Android device to come equipped with Corning’s special antimicrobial Gorilla Glass.

We actually got a hands-on look at this special Gorilla Glass back during CES 2014 more than a year ago. What we found was an absurd amount of germs covering my phone — which I Windex a few times daily — compared against Rob’s grimy, never-before-cleaned Note 3. The results were surprising, to say the least.

Now, how this glass works is the outer layer of the display actually has ionic silver embedded right into the glass. This helps kill and prevent the build up of germs, algae, mold, mildew, fungi, and bacteria — all that nasty stuff probably covering your entire body as we speak. Again, it’s not the biggest problem facing smartphones today and will likely end up biting us in the ass by furthering the evolution of super bacteria, but hey — our phone’s will be “clean,” right?

The ZTE Axon with a Snapdragon 810 processor, 4GB of RAM, and all-metal body is currently available for pre-order at $450. The phone is currently scheduled to launch on August 1st.