William Gallagher
While it's been speculated that Apple will return to using aluminum for the iPhone 17 Pro, a new but unsubstantiated claim says that it will continue to use titanium, if only over marketing concerns.
It's been claimed that the iPhone 17 Pro models will move away from titanium, and specifically that they will return to an aluminum frame. It's also been said that the back of the Pro models will combine glass and aluminum.
Now leaker "Instant Digital" on Weibo is insisting that this is not correct, and that the iPhone 17 Pro models will use titanium.
"Of course, 17 Pro is still titanium," he or she writes (in translation). "Why do you change it to aluminum?"
"It's impossible to think about it," continues the leaker. "Looking back on the iPhone in recent years, Apple has been focusing on promoting the high-end frame materials of the Pro series as one of the selling points, from 'surgical-grade stainless steel' to 'titanium'."
Instant Digital concludes by saying "how to change it to aluminum?"
While Instant Digital does not have the longest track record in correct Apple leaks, he or she did correctly report on the yellow iPhone 14. The leaker was also one of those who correctly predicted what's now known as the Camera Control button.
In this case, the leaker does not claim any particular sources in the supply chain, nor actually anything to back up the claim. It instead appears to be purely opinion.
If so, that opinion is based entirely on the marketing spin that Apple would use. Instant Digital is correct that Apple has been heavily promoting titanium, but absurdly wrong in the presumption that Apple would have to spin any change.
Instead, if Apple moves away from titanium, it will simply never mention it again. That's what happened after it found that titanium it promoted in the PowerBook G4 was prone to scratching, back in the early 2000s.
The titanium chassis introduced with the iPhone 15 Pro had none of those issues, and allowed for new colors too.
When the iPhone 17 range is announced in September 2025, it's now expected to include an iPhone 17 Slim.
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
3 Comments
Gotta go with Instant Digital on this one. As he points out, it's not merely that Apple just devoted the ENTIRE 15 Pro marketing campaign to one word: Titanium. It's that Apple has now spent numerous generations of Pro models promoting the use of superior chassis materials, while aluminum has been reserved for the regular iPhone lineup. Even if Apple said nothing about a switch to AL for the Pros, it would communicate a cheapening of the phones, plus bring the Pros into even closer alignment with regular iPhones than they already are. And the whole rumored, half aluminum, half glass back sounded like a train wreck of a design choice. Not gonna happen.
Also, as you point out, the switch away from Ti in the Powerbook G4 was motivated by Ti proving to be a negative as a material choice--if I remember correctly (I had one of these laptops), while it appeared to be a natural Ti finish, it was actually a painted finish on top of Ti, and the paint was scratching and delaminating in normal use.
Honestly it makes no difference to me what they make the trim strip out of. My iPhones stay in a case. It’s irrelevant.
Just like that comment was irrelevant so many people think their opinions are the only ones that matter. We get it. The sky is also blue, no need to state that the article doesn’t matter because it obviously matters to Apple for the stated reasons in the article.