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I can see this being the reason there's no black this year. At the same time, they still went ahead with dark blue. So who knows. I'm sure durability won't be much better or worse than the regular iPhone, which never moved away from aluminum.
The non pro iPhone 15 came in black and is made of aluminum. My iPhone 15 has held out fine and I’ve dropped it from waist height a few times , just using an Apple silicone case.
 
I saw a guy sitting on the tube in London the other week. He had a damaged iPhone. The thing had gone down hard on a corner which was pretty mangled. The screen and back were cracked. There was bits of his hair hanging off the corner which had been torn out by the glass.

Use a damn case people!
 
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I have gone caseless with every phone I’ve ever had, including iPhones starting with the iPhone 4. Two of my friends are also caseless iPhone users.

With the iPhone 16 Pro, I started using the Apple silicone case only when I go to concerts, solely because it gives me better grip to use the camera control button easier while holding it one-handed. But any other time, it’s naked.
Yeah I followed up my post acknowledging that I am aware people on this forum go caseless, we've had dozens of threads on the topic. I was speaking from exprience and I don't now anybody that does not use a case.

I regularly drop my phone, so it would be idiotic for me not to use a case.
 
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I saw a guy sitting on the tube in London the other week. He had a damaged iPhone. The thing had gone down hard on a corner which was pretty mangled. The screen and back were cracked. There was bits of his hair hanging off the corner which had been torn out by the glass.

Use a damn case people!

That's his "London commuting phone" - the pristine Pro Max is at home 😁
 
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I know they aren't Pro phones, but I do have an iPhone 6+ and an iPhone 6s+.

Both made of…aluminum.

How quickly Bendgate has been forgottten.
Bendgate hasn't been forgotten at all. Ever since the first Air rumors people have been referencing it, there didn't go a day by without someone complaining or making jokes about it. Of course, depending on where you pay attention to.
But apparently Apple has already squashed any suspicion the Air will bend by literally showing off how strong it is after the hands-on on reveal day. Quite impressive.
 
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Yeah I followed up my post acknowledging that I am aware people on this forum go caseless, we've had dozens of threads on the topic. I was speaking from exprience and I don't now anybody that does not use a case.

I regularly drop my phone, so it would be idiotic for me not to use a case.
Not only do I too sometimes drop my phone, it's also sooo much more convenient to have a case, at least one with a silicone frame. I often find myself putting my phone, 15 Pro btw, against something at an angle, like a wall that's right next to a table or anything on a table. Without a phone it wouldn't keep standing. On multiple surfaces it would just slide away and such, and I have no interest in getting a "ugly" case with a build in stand or whatever. Using a case makes a phone much more versatile, regardless of the case though.
 
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A full aluminum unibody is different than an alloy coating Ti frame. They really aren’t apples to apples.

A full Ti unibody would be extremely expensive. It would be extremely strong, and quite a bit heavier. An aluminum frame/bumper would be much less strong than a unibody.

I would imagine that each have their strength and weakness on falls and other accidental incidents. We’ll have to wait for some tests. My guess is the 17’s hold up just fine.


If they offered an ultra phone that could be used without a case because it was solid Ti, carbon fiber, or some other design that was either indestructible, or had replacement panels would spend $3000 for it. Most people probably wouldn’t. Personally I’d rather have an ultralight, ultra battery phone that has to have a case.

I have a tactical Dbrand Tank case coming, so it’s probably not going to matter for me.
 
This is so fake looking I can't believe people actually think this is the 17pro.. Not even close.
Its pretty obvious that’s a iPhone, its Orange as an Orange thing and aluminium and concrete don’t make good friends, even a carpet and a hard fall can dent an iPad corner! What makes you think its fake?
 
Its pretty obvious that’s a iPhone, its Orange as an Orange thing and aluminium and concrete don’t make good friends, even a carpet and a hard fall can dent an iPad corner! What makes you think its fake?

Yeah. And later on in the video it showed him on the plane inspecting the ding on the iPhone.
 
Its pretty obvious that’s a iPhone, its Orange as an Orange thing and aluminium and concrete don’t make good friends, even a carpet and a hard fall can dent an iPad corner! What makes you think its fake?
The texture of the "phone" doesn't even match. It looks more like an orange silicone case than the cosmic orange phone..see real pics in this thread of a real orange phone:
 
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Tim and the gang can claim the Pro line was changed to aluminum for heat dissipation until they’re blue in the face.
The primary reason they changed to aluminum is cost.
They weren’t about to raise the price, especially in today’s economic climate, and they surely weren’t willing to give up any profit margin…so, design a phone with lower cost material and market it as a device performance decision.
 
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Tim and the gang can claim the Pro line was changed to aluminum for heat dissipation until the cows come home…which is a distant second to the priamry change to aluminum…maintain profit margins…period.
They are very deliberate with their decisions based on cents to the dollar.
 
Tim and the gang can claim the Pro line was changed to aluminum for heat dissipation until they’re blue in the face.
The primary reason they changed to aluminum is cost.
They weren’t about to raise the price, especially in today’s economic climate, and they surely weren’t willing to give up any profit margin…so, design a phone with lower cost material and market it as a device performance decision.

Nah it was about thermal performance because genmoji and glass and all the other useless crap makes the phone really hot 💩
 
Was it deliberate? Trash a phone you just bought so you can make an „outage bait” video about it?

The things people do for clicks. :rolleyes:
Perhaps you could "click" on the video before assuming an entire negative scenario around it, and you would know what actually happened?
It is a very tasteful, cinematic video a photographer did with the new phones. Documenting a trip to Paris for a wedding. During the wedding shoot his tripod accidentally blew over, he briefly documented it. He did not make a big deal about, nor did he mention it in the title or show it in the thumbnail.
 
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Perhaps you could "click" on the video before assuming an entire negative scenario around it, and you would know what actually happened?
It is a very tasteful, cinematic video a photographer did with the new phones. Documenting a trip to Paris for a wedding. During the wedding shoot his tripod accidentally blew over, he briefly documented it. He did not make a big deal about, nor did he mention it in the title or show it in the thumbnail.
There’s no reason to be affronted. Buying an iPhone and promptly destroying it for clicks is a far from unknown phenomenon, and we’re already neck-deep in manufactured outrage about the new releases.

It will die down. And no, I do not rake any YouTube /social media posted video at face value. Everyone is selling something to sell some money.

Wait a few weeks. Anecdotal evidence is meaningless, what’s needed is statistical evidence.

If there is a steady stream of returns to Apple because the unibody is too soft, then there is an issue.

One video is simply rubbernecking.

This reminds me of the story of file page swopping killing your storage NANDs in the M1 MacBook Air. It ended up being a storm in a teacup, but lots of YouTubers made AdSense income from bigging up the scare.

I don’t know if this is a real issue or just an overblown scare. And you don’t know either. You are as equally gullible or distrustful as I am, but from the other direction.

So I’ll completely dismiss this unless there are regularly more and more credible cases where the unibody is too soft.
 
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That’s fair.
It’s not an issue at all though per se, it’s just painted aluminum being painted aluminum. It won’t be as forgiving if it falls on concrete or tile as the steel and titanium that it is replacing. Most people use a cases, some like myself don’t, so for them I thought they could benefit from having a heads up.

Have a great weekend and happy iPhone day to all of those that upgraded!
 
So I purchased both an iPhone 16 pro 128gb and an iPhone 17 pro 256gb and kick the tires today.

iPhone 17’s camera is AMAZING at 8x, but I sort of liked 16 pro macro shots better.

The look, feel and build quality of the 16 pro blows away the cheap aluminum feel of the 17 pro.

indoor screen use was the same as expected. outdoor the 17 would have been better.

For the almost $500 price difference, I had to say no to the 17 pro and keep the 16 pro.

The only thing that sucks, I’ve had to delete a bunch of apps to cram into 128gb, but it was a good time to stop hoarding…
 
So I purchased both an iPhone 16 pro 128gb and an iPhone 17 pro 256gb and kick the tires today.

iPhone 17’s camera is AMAZING at 8x, but I sort of liked 16 pro macro shots better.

The look, feel and build quality of the 16 pro blows away the cheap aluminum feel of the 17 pro.

indoor screen use was the same as expected. outdoor the 17 would have been better.

For the almost $500 price difference, I had to say no to the 17 pro and keep the 16 pro.

The only thing that sucks, I’ve had to delete a bunch of apps to cram into 128gb, but it was a good time to stop hoarding…
So you picked up a 17 pro today and already returned it?
 
This is so fake looking I can't believe people actually think this is the 17pro.. Not even close.

I agree, and I think it is. It looks like the aluminum finish has been exposed to some chemical or something and is flaking off. It's not THAT soft a metal. Photoshop or AI is my bet.
 
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I posted the video link to everyone wondering if it’s fake. The creator Andy To makes nice cinematic vids. It’s not fake

But I think the reason so many are presuming it is is because it’s a very close up macro shot. It looks worse in the screenshot than it will irl. It’s a very small scratch on a small corner.

There is a good drop test on YouTube also where the iPhone 17 pro actually handles the drop test better than the 16 pro I wouldn’t be concerned about the durability. But a case would be would be good regardless
 
I posted the video link to everyone wondering if it’s fake. The creator Andy To makes nice cinematic vids. It’s not fake

But I think the reason so many are presuming it is is because it’s a very close up macro shot. It looks worse in the screenshot than it will irl. It’s a very small scratch on a small corner.

There is a good drop test on YouTube also where the iPhone 17 pro actually handles the drop test better than the 16 pro I wouldn’t be concerned about the durability. But a case would be would be good regardless
To be fair, it’s the new ceramic shields that handle the drop tests much better. The enclosure takes similar dings as shown in this thread, although the glass on the 16, both sides were destroyed, it appeared there was little to no damage to the actual titanium enclosure. Which is the topic of this thread, titanium is tougher than aluminum. But wow on that Ceramic Shield 2, that is some seriously incredible stuff.
 
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To be fair, it’s the new ceramic shields that handle the drop tests much better. The enclosure takes similar dings as shown in this thread, although the glass on the 16, both sides were destroyed, it appeared there was little to no damage to the actual titanium enclosure. Which is the topic of this thread, titanium is tougher than aluminum. But wow on that Ceramic Shield 2, that is some seriously incredible stuff.
Yes agreed. But it seems the stiffness of the titanium probably adds to the brittleness of the glass on either side. The 16 pro on that video shatters on the first drop

Either way it’s much ado about nothing imo, if you drop your phone without a case it’ll scuff and show marks. Just like most other things. Even titanium will show some scratches, if less

If you want your device to look perfect put it in a case 🤷🏾‍♂️
 
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