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who expects the new iPhone to be liquidmetal

N

newnomad

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 2, 2003
38
0
The iPhone rumor roundup assumes the body will be aluminum.
However, coming from the very stiff, hard, and scratch resistant stainless steel of the 4s, this seems like a step back to me.
Wouldn't it be great if one of the most important features of the new iPhone would be that it doesn't need a case anymore? Apple knows most of their clients use cases, and they hate it.
If the body is from liquidmetal, it could slightly absorb impact, protect the glass front, and result in an extremely durable phone:
Liquidmetal is super strong, scratch and corrosion resistant, resilient and can be precision cast into complex shapes
Click to expand...

Many assume that a unibody is not feasibly in liquid metal yet, because currently only small parts can be made. As explained by it's inventor
However since the unibody of the iPhone consists of 5 smaller elements (bottom and top antenna, sides, and backplate) and apple has patents for bonding metal parts together, and machining the edge (resulting in a beveled edge: like seen on the leaks!) this might be exactly what they are doing.

btw:
They also have a patent to bond plastics to metal. Thats what they use to bond the 4s antennas together. But why wouldn't they use that for seamlessly bonding the antenna windows to the body? They could use plastic with anti-scratch surface coating.
 
small operational parts such as hinges and brackets can be produced
Click to expand...

Remember that the 4 and 4s parts are machined from steel, with machines that are normally used to create small batches, not mass products. That was a very bold engineering decision.
 
Could someone explain why we "need" to have a phone made out of liquidmetal? Sure it's pretty cool as a concept, but is it the right material for creating a phone's external body? It just seems like it might make more sense for internal parts because the added benefit of the designs that could be created don't' outweigh the functional benefits or cost to manufacture them. Maybe I'm way off base but it just seems like this is a really cool tech we'd like to see implemented, but it really doesn't make much sense in this application ... yet. Maybe years down the road, but not yet. With that being said, someone please prove me wrong because it is one pretty cool tech I'd love to see more of! :)
 
Their stock is squat. If they ever made an iPhone out of liquidmetal, the stock might go over .30 cents!!!
 
redrob2 said:
Could someone explain why we "need" to have a phone made out of liquidmetal?
Click to expand...

Because we don't want a case, and when you drop a unibody machined aluminum phone, it will have a serious dent (too soft).
So the entire body should be harder, machined in steel like the rims are now: too expensive (unless stamped backplate).
Or ideally resilient, injection molded in liquid metal: material expensive but process as fast as injection molding plastics. Higher volume possible with less machines.
 
Yes liquidmetal frame. I honestly expect the iphone 5 to look somewhat similar this or better.
If not then **** apple. Hello samsung.


liquid-metal-iphone-5-concept-3.jpg
 
Op apple doesn't buy out companies to use there products. Sometimes it's to stop others using the tech
 
gta50419 said:
Yes liquidmetal frame. I honestly expect the iphone 5 to look somewhat similar this or better.
If not then **** apple. Hello samsung.


Image
Click to expand...

That would be amazing :) I am still hoping the leaked pics of the stretched out taller iPhone4 design is a ruse or fake to fool everyone, and Tim Cook will pull out a fresh new original iPhone5 no has seen yet.
 
Some people have been watching too much Terminator :)

I believe that Liquidmetal (tm) alloy looks more like pewter, unless you highly polish it. Even then, a satin finish seems more popular for it.

liquidmetal_club.png

The first Liquidmetal phone chassis (see below) was done by Samsung back in 2008. It was billed as extra resistant to scratches. They'd been using it since around 2002 for hinges and trim.

2008_samsung_ego.png

Apple later purchased permanent exclusive rights to LM for consumer electronics, so no one else could ever use those particular alloys.
 
newnomad said:
Because we don't want a case, and when you drop a unibody machined aluminum phone, it will have a serious dent (too soft).
....
Click to expand...
Apple generally uses something akin to hard anodized aircraft quality aluminum. Same as the Mag lights you see at the hardware stores. Beautiful finish and hard as hell. Doesn't really dent. Very light too. LiquidMetal, aside from sounding very cool, can't really equal the looks, cost and performance (in the case of a cell phone body) that hard anodized aluminum will give (in the case of the iPhone 5).
 
Ditto. No one

Specially since it was reported sometime ago that its still too early for this technology to be released.
 
gta50419 said:
Yes liquidmetal frame. I honestly expect the iphone 5 to look somewhat similar this or better.
If not then **** apple. Hello samsung.

Image
Click to expand...

Ok, then. See ya later. :rolleyes:

BTW, I like that mock-up; I hadn't seen it before.

kdarling said:
Some people have been watching too much Terminator :)

I believe that Liquidmetal (tm) alloy looks more like pewter, unless you highly polish it. Even then, a satin finish seems more popular for it.

View attachment 356243

The first Liquidmetal phone chassis (see below) was done by Samsung back in 2008. It was billed as extra resistant to scratches. They'd been using it since around 2002 for hinges and trim.

View attachment 356242

Apple later purchased permanent exclusive rights to LM for consumer electronics, so no one else could ever use those particular alloys.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the insight. I wasn't aware of those things.
 
Sedrick said:
Apple generally uses something akin to hard anodized aircraft quality aluminum. Same as the Mag lights you see at the hardware stores. Beautiful finish and hard as hell.
Click to expand...

Anodizing does harden the top surface, and some alloys are harder then others (are the maglite tubes as hard as the caps at the back?): dropping the metal pin from a usb cable on a unibody mbp already makes a dent...(I mean tiny imprint).
I wonder why they didn't make the 4/4s rims in aluminum, if that would be suited, and chose stainless steel. Aluminum can be stiffer after all.
 
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