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iPhone 15 Pro and Grade 5 Titanium: A Detailed Overview
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TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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Titanium doesn’t bend dude. Try bending your Apple Watch Ultra 😂. I don’t think it will. Time will tell. I know nothing. 🤫
And possibly less battery… I hope it’s just the titanium... 🤞🏻
You have to be careful as to what they say about the metal. It may not deform or bend easily with the controlled blunt force object. But it may scrape and gouge in the real world with concrete and asphalt with various stones and maybe glass and silica impregnated in there.
The real world is where my experience with Titanium comes from. I had bright red anodized Titanium absolutely get wrecked sliding along the road while steel would have held up better. Not the light scratches with the steel but gouges even small chunks coming off. Was the titanium part still usable? Sure and it weighed less, but it looked like crap!
I really want Apple to find a material that won’t scratch or gouge but no matter what the titanium used, the surface material will probably get scratched and disfigured. Then there is the actual Titanium. I would go natural and have a chance at repairing some minor damage.
My four year old SS Apple Watch is covered with minor scratches you can’t feel with your nail. It actually looks beautiful to my eye, Titanium we shall see how that holds up, but me thinks the folk here will freak out about what I experienced with Titanium.
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You're right, the bolded part of MR's statement is wrong—a lower density doesn't make a substance more susceptible to denting. Its resistance to denting is based on other properties.
In fact, in practice, the opposite can be the case. Comparing two different substance with the same intrinsic resistance to denting, the less dense one can potentially be made more dent-resistant (at least vs. larger-scale dents), because its lower density can give you the leeway to make the frame thicker while still keeping it light enough.
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Apple is using Titanium alloy because they think real buyers like me will like it. Apple is probably correct, and many real buyers like me will buy one. It is called business.
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I do not know how they add any of the colors to the Titanium alloy. We were talking about what the alloy that Apple is using might look like before any coloration.
Nah. Titanium alloys have been used for more than 50 years in things like jet fighters and medical implants. My expectation is Apple has the material science dialed in just fine. And that is after the TiBooks Apple sold lots of 20 years ago.
Note that all the comments including some verbiage from MR implying pure Titanium are flat wrong. There is no "Titanium is hard/soft/ductile/whatever" because alloys change everything.
Well some owners of those products beg to differ but I have no experience. They (Apple) should try Tungsten which is harder than ceramic and four times harder than titanium; basically you need a diamond to scratch it. That would be popular around here. Maybe more prone to cracking but I value scratch resistance more than breaks.
Remember, those iPhone synthetic sapphire lens covers that scratch easier due to impurities. I like Apple products but we shall have to wait and see just how durable the phones are. And you can’t compare it to the watch as a watch on your wrist does not get dropped and slide down the street as you swing your arm as it’s (the watch) attached to your arm.
But I am secretly OCD like many here and would love a device that didn’t scratch. I say bring on the Tungsten iPhone! 😁
Reduction in weight is good. Looking forward to hearing more about Titanium during the event
I use a Ridge wallet in Carbon Fibre. I looked at the grade 5 Titanium versions but the finish on the brunt metal version scratches easily and the regular version had some nicks after a two week review. I’m coming up on a year and even the Carbon Fibre version has some kind of pin prick sized finish wear all over it. Maybe just the top coat but it does wear and the CF version supposedly wears the least…
This new Titanium iPhone version and anodized colors should prove entertaining at this place. The phone will function, but it’s not about strength, maybe a bit on weight reduction - but it is most of all about esthetics!
BTW: Unless you have money to burn, do not buy the Carbon Fibre Ridge wallet. Hint: If you shop at Nordstrom it’s ok as that is where I got mine. Otherwise get the 16 dollar knockoff which I used first…
I’m all in!
Now Tim will say the metal is too hard to work with, but all he needs is a thin band around a lighter frame - probably aluminum and nobody will care, but it will be truly scratch resistant!
Though MacRumors was mainly talking about the (likely) titanium alloy in the iPhone 15, that is, grade 5 Titanium (Ti-6AL-4V), and that one does have a higher Brinell hardness (~330 HBW) than some common stainless steels like 316L (~210 HBW). Grade 5 titanium alloy is so prevalent among "common" titanium items that it is often imprecisely labeled as just "titanium", whereas descriptions of items made of non-alloyed titanium will stress that it is "pure titanium". (And I would say grade 5 is usually preferable and what people expect when they go for titanium.)Titanium isn't stronger/harder than Steel .
" ... Hardness is among the areas where steel outperforms titanium. The low Brinell number is one of the reasons why titanium is so hard to machine. It is common to see titanium alloys in the industry as trace amounts of other metals offset the low material hardness of titanium.
....
Titanium is ideal for situations where you are concerned about the strength along with the weight. That’s why construction and industries rely on steel while automotive and aerospace designs favor titanium. ..."
Titanium vs Steel: Which Metal Is the Right Choice for Your Project
When it comes to strong and durable material choices, titanium or steel are at the forefront. Here’s a comparison guide of titanium vs steel.www.rapiddirect.com
" ... While stainless steel’s Brinell hardness varies widely depending on alloy composition and heat treatment, it is generally tougher than titanium. Titanium, on the other hand, deforms quickly when indented or scraped. To circumvent this, titanium generates an oxide layer known as the titanium oxide layer, which forms an extremely hard surface that resists the most penetrating pressures. ..."
Stainless Steel Vs. Titanium: Differences Between These Two Metals - LEADRP - Rapid Prototyping And Manufacturing Service
Stainless Steel Vs. Titanium. This article introduces stainless steel and titanium and their pros and cons, as well as the differences between them.leadrp.net
Titanium has a better strength to weight ratio. (but that isn't 'hardness' ) Apple is letting the phone get very incrementally 'thicker' but also cutting the weight by going with Titanium.
Also how Apple 'machined' or 'composed' that rounded edge could lead to contributing to part of the problem.
An issue with titanium is that it is more difficult and costly to polish compared to stainless steel, and to achieve a uniform surface manufacturers often go for brushing or sand/bead blasting instead. The resulting little ridges on the surface are not that strong individually and fairly easy to deform/scratch, and while small scratches tend to blend in in the general roughness of the surface, longer ones can be quite noticeable. I have made my peace with scratches on titanium, wabi-sabi and all that, and I pretty much expect them as part of the titanium look.
The rule of thumb for replacing components on my folding bike with titanium for weight saving, is that it costs about £1 per gramme of weight saved. This is in another league.
It's remarkable that people think that they'll notice 20 grams in everyday use and are willing to shell out $1000 for it as a "feature". Time to hit the gym dude!
I think the times of really mind blowing innovation are unfortunately gone. Technology has reached a point where there are only incremental updates. The fingerprint sensor, the change to full screen phones, Apple Pay, face unlock - those were insane things to happen. Now it’s down to camera updates, dynamic islands and new materials…
Not sure what hitting a gym would accomplish other than a hand injury.
But anyways, it’s the same reason long distance runners go for the lightest shoes possible. It’s not that their legs aren’t capable of handling a shoe that weighs a few grams more, it’s that over dozens of miles it adds up to a lot more effort and fatigue.
A titanium frame means I’ll be curling 209.4 pounds LESS everyday with my left arm. Which means more efficient workouts at a gym, or wherever you may happen to partake in the fight against gravity.
Not so, in fact, the days of real innovation are still to come, you haven’t seen anything yet, the technologies just do not exist yet. None of those things you mentioned were mind blowing, for that you’ll have to wait, unfortunately, I wish we didn’t, but this is the time we live in.
I‘m a long time MacRumors lurker but to this day I still don’t know if the whole comment section is for real or straight up satire - and at this point I’m to afraid to ask.
That might be true but the things I listed - maybe excluding the full screen phone - actually changed how I use my phone and how it integrates in my everyday live which at least for me means it was quite significant. But yeah, I’m also waiting for those holographic communication pods from Star Wars.
Yea that’s true, whatever works for every person is what matters.
And yes, ever since I first saw Star Wars as a kid I’ve wanted some sort of handheld holographic communicator. I’m hoping we see it in our lifetimes and don’t have to wait a couple hundred more years. ⏳🔮
Hmmm, I'm wondering what a MBP made with a Titanium body instead of Aluminium would be like....
I remember my BlackBerry Curve had a left and right “convenience” key… not as Ultra or Maxy in name but twice as useful. And this was what… circa ~2007? What would the new generation know about that though? Smart. 🤷🏽