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First iPhone 17 Pro Design Leak Claims Surprising Return to Aluminum, Rectangular Camera Bump, and More

ThailandToo said:
Aluminum is garbage and cheap.
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Fun fact: Aluminum is the essential material of the aerospace industry. Those products, e.g. commercial aircraft, are neither “garbage” nor “cheap.”

flyingprecision.com

Why Aluminum Is Essential In Aerospace Industry: A Guide To Applications And Advantages - Flying Precision

Aerospace technology has come a long way over the years, and aluminum plays an essential role in its development. Aluminum is lightweight, strong and easy to
flyingprecision.com flyingprecision.com
 
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Burnt Toast said:
Exactly! this will be done to save costs. Titanium is far superior to aluminum in every way to aluminum, as is stainless steel. Next they'll be offering up paper mache' and claim it's for the planet.
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Cook will engineer aluminum to look super premium on the Pro iPhone’s all while saving crazy costs. Good job Timmy 👍
 
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"Apple introduced a glass back to the ‌iPhone‌ with the ‌iPhone‌ 8 and ‌iPhone‌ X in 2017, but prior to that, every ‌iPhone‌ except the ‌iPhone‌ 3G, ‌iPhone‌ 3GS, and ‌iPhone‌ 5C had an aluminum rear."......Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 4 and 4S both had a glass back didn't they? 🤔
 
I wonder if the aluminum will be easier to color match the glass back so it looks like one piece vs segmented?

That said, I’m not happy about the move back to aluminum from titanium - but it’s only because it’s making it harder and harder to justify the pro models.
 
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Laggy said:
I think everything comes down to recycling at this point, they set goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 so iPhone is next in line to be so, another fact: choosing aluminium is way better since it can provide lightweight design with premium feel to it and most importantly more durable over time. I belive at this point they should stick with brushed stainless steel and aluminium, titanium was the mistake, not really worth it
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Apple set those goals long before they switched to titanium, so this argument doesn't really hold water. And I find it very hard to believe that the tiny amount of titanium in an iPhone makes a significant difference in recyclability/carbon-neutrality. After all, titanium Watches are all carbon-neutral and use just as much material as (if not more than) an iPhone. Apple has spent the last 2 years hawking titanium as a super-premium material, it can't just go back on that now.
 
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Fingers crossed for polished aluminum. I love how it looks on my Samsung Flip. Looks and feels very premium without the weight penalty of stainless steel
 
Eww no bendy aluminum keep the titanium.

17 pro max after being sit on IMG_2130.jpeg
 
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I'm happy to return to aluminum, especially if they go for a more advanced formulation that increases strength while keeping the lighter weight. It would cost more than the aluminum they currently use but that's perfectly justified on the Pro line of phones, and I doubt it would cost much more if at all than titanium.

Anything Apple can do to reduce the weight of the Pro phones without sacrificing performance is a good thing.
 
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Sounds like neither the 17 Air nor the 17 Pro will be anything that I am interested in. Of course, we’ll have to see the actual devices when they are released. It may be a base 17 or SE for me. Or maybe something out of the ecosystem.
 
Populus said:
Yeah, if this is true, it’s really surprising. Especially the fact that they are stopping the use of Titanium on their phones. Once the 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max are retired in favour of the 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max / Ultra, Apple will be done with Titanium aside from the replacement units for repairs that require it.

This makes me think if the Titanium supplier has raised prices, or if this is just a measure to lower cost of the Pro lineup. Intriguing…

As for me, my only hope is that, with all of this changes, they introduce a slightly smaller iPhone 17. Not necessarily mini-sized, as the 5.4” proved to be not very propular, but a screen size of between 5.8” and 6” would be nice, keeping the current aspect ratio.
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Every point that you made was exactly the same as mine. Titanium may be more expensive than aluminum. All in all, it's anybody's guess.
 
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Is Apple aware that 99% of the customer population can't tell the difference between aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium? Nor do they care. This is a "living in the tower" issue, and certainly not a selling point. Use whatever is durable, lightweight, effective, and so forth.

Most people can't even tell the difference between metal and high grade plastic, let alone type of metal..
 
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xalea said:
Is Apple aware that 99% of the customer population can't tell the difference between aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium? Nor do they care. This is a "living in the tower" issue, and certainly not a selling point. Use whatever is durable, lightweight, effective, and so forth.

Most people can't even tell the difference between metal and high grade plastic, let alone type of metal..
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter to the majority even if they can tell as 90+% put their iPhone in a case.
 
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