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See sapphire protect an iPhone from a huge concrete block

Video featuring a sapphire-covered iPhone screen shows that the material set to go into production at Apple's Arizona plant can take a beating.

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Contact between concrete and sapphire ensues, concrete loses. Video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET

Sapphire has been the latest loaded buzzword floating around the world of Apple. The company could soon fire up a new facility in Arizona to churn out sapphire screens for...something. Maybe the displays of an upcoming iPhone 6? Maybe a new iWatch, or perhaps just more Touch ID screens?

The notion of using sapphire glass to give the next-generation iPhone a virtually unscratchable screen seems to be generating the most excitement -- imagine, at last, an end to all those shattered glass iPhone faces!

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There's also plenty of quiet pressure to ruggedize new gadgets from other manufacturers like Sony, with its water-resistant Xperia Z, or perhaps even Samsung, with the "Active" variant of its Galaxy S4.

But would a sapphire glass iPhone really live up to the hype? Well, if the below video -- dug up by 9to5 Mac on Wednesday -- of a sapphire-coated iPhone display resisting scratches from a huge concrete block is any indication, the answer appears to be yes.

Check it out and let us know in the comments if a sapphire screen is something that would get you excited about the next iPhone.