Alloy instead of Anodized?

[BlueKhufu]

Has anyone confirmed that the 5s is using the same anodized coating as the 5? I was wondering to myself why the change from slate to space gray.. I know it has been suggested that the chipping/scratching wouldn't be as visible, and that is definitely true... But what if the gold/space gray are aluminum alloys blended in a way to achieve the colors we now have? Perhaps the darkest they could reasonanbly achieve is the reason for the lighter space gray? There would be no more issues exposing an underlying metal of a different color if it was scratched or dinged.

Just speculation on my part until/unless they're in enough hands to see how they hold up. Perhaps it's been addressed by apple or someone via an early hands on review.

 

[GadgetGav]

I really doubt it. Aluminum is made into alloys anyway, but they don't have colors like these. Even silver aluminum is anodized even though that's the base color of the alloy. Anodizing is actually harder than the base aluminum alloy - it's just not very thick which is why it can get scratched off.
I think the best we can hope for is that the anodizing has been made thicker or maybe that the space grey color is even what they call hard anodizing (Type III), but that's not generally used just for cosmetic finishes.

 

[R.Stoychev]

I think that on the space grey and white iphone 5s the aluminium is this color, only the champagne is anodized, we'll some some scrach tests for sure

 

[BlueKhufu]

I really doubt it. Aluminum is made into alloys anyway, but they don't have colors like these. Even silver aluminum is anodized even though that's the base color of the alloy. Anodizing is actually harder than the base aluminum alloy - it's just not very thick which is why it can get scratched off.
I think the best we can hope for is that the anodizing has been made thicker or maybe that the space grey color is even what they call hard anodizing (Type III), but that's not generally used just for cosmetic finishes.

You're probably correct. I was really just thinking out loud. I did a brief search for various aluminum alloys and didnt find any that were any different in color. That's certainly not proof it can't or hasn't been done.
Another thing that got me thinking (a dangerous thing) was the lack of scuffing reports similar to what we heard pre-release last year. In the end it's not a big deal to me personally. My black 5 has done fairly well the past year and I don't mind a little character to the stuff I use daily.