iPhone officially enters the titanium alloy era, bidding farewell to stainless steel shells

Apple, which is keen on making a big fuss about materials, has made new arrangements for this year’s iPhone.

# Earlier, the supply chain broke the news that iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will use titanium middle frames for the first time. The latest news reveals that the titanium middle frame equipped on these two new models is grade 5 titanium alloy with a hardness of 330 to 390 HV. This material is commonly used in watchmaking, aerospace and engineering.

(Source: Apple)

Starting with iPhone 12 Pro The "surgical grade stainless steel" frame used was finally officially replaced by titanium three years later. Facing the application of new materials, many voices of doubt have emerged in the industry: Will titanium be more durable than stainless steel? How about resistance to falling? Has the anti-scratch ability been improved?

Don’t worry, we will answer them one by one.

After twenty-two years of playing with "Titanium", it's finally the iPhone's turn

Apple's earliest application Titanium material, on the PowerBook G4.

(Source: mattjfuller)

Posted on The 2001 PowerBook G4 notebook computer, thanks to the use of titanium materials, this computer is exquisite and lightweight, and its durability has been taken to a new level. But perhaps because the manufacturing cost is too high and titanium metal does not play a big role in the notebook field, all iterative models have been replaced with aluminum alloy casings.

Titanium alloy is a metal material that is both lightweight and durable. It is commonly used in engineering and aerospace fields. In the consumer market, many watch products will choose titanium alloy, because this material can significantly reduce the weight of the watch case and improve wearing comfort.

Relatively speaking, titanium alloy is more textured than ordinary aluminum alloy and is not easily damaged.

# Therefore, since Apple Watch Series 5, the option of titanium case has been firmly "nailed" in Apple's smart watch product line. However, the Apple Watch Series 8 released last year no longer offers a titanium case, and Apple reserved this material for the higher-positioned Apple Watch Ultra.

(Source: Apple)

In 2019, Apple released Launched its first financial product - Apple Card. In order to make an ordinary credit card look high-end, Apple chose titanium as the material of Apple Card.

(Photo source: Apple)

First Apple Watch, and then credit cards, in Apple’s philosophy, “titanium” is positioned as an absolutely high-end product. This means that the iPhone 15 Pro with a titanium frame is about to become more “high-end.”

(Photo source: Mac Rumors)

With previous generation products Compared with surgical-grade stainless steel, titanium metal has stronger corrosion resistance, higher hardness and is thinner and lighter. Thanks to the titanium middle frame, the iPhone 15 Pro weighs only 191g, while the iPhone 14 Pro weighs 206g.

#The treatment method of titanium metal is generally fine frosting process, as shown in Apple Watch Ultra. At least the iPhone 15 Pro doesn’t look cheap because the frame is stained with fingerprints and oil.

# Putting aside the so-called product concept, the reason why titanium metal has not become popular so far is because the manufacturing cost is too high. At present, there are not many smartphones that use titanium middle frames, and most of them are high-end luxury products, such as 8848, Gresso Meridian, etc. The starting price of these mobile phones can easily reach tens of thousands of yuan, and some specially customized versions can even reach millions of yuan. Naturally, they have the right to choose higher manufacturing costs.

#It seems that titanium is the key to the price increase of iPhone 15 Pro.

Titanium metal is very good, but the cost is too expensive

In fact, Apple is not the first A group of manufacturers choose titanium to make mobile phones.

#In 2010, Coolpad released a smartphone model "N930". The entire back and middle frame of the machine are made of titanium material, while the buttons under the screen are made of ceramic material with a warm touch. In that era when plastic and glass were "rampant", Coolpad N930 was definitely a rare "high-end product."

The Coolpad N930, which is made of titanium metal, has a starting price of an astonishing 3,650 yuan.

(Source: Essential Phone Official)

Andy Rubin, the father of Android, also set his sights on titanium when creating his first smartphone product. The Essential Phone designed by him was released in 2018 and is priced at US$699, which is approximately RMB 4,760. Andy Rubin also revealed in an interview that the manufacturing cost of titanium metal was too high, which greatly reduced the profit margin of Essential Phone and indirectly led to the "abortion" of plans for subsequent models.

Why is the manufacturing cost of titanium middle frame so high?

#Although titanium is not a precious metal, the heat dissipation effect of titanium alloy raw materials is not good, and "knife sticking" is prone to occur during processing. As a result, the wear rate of CNC blades is accelerated, the life is shortened, and tools must be replaced frequently. More importantly, titanium alloy processing has high risks, poor precision control, and very low yield rate.

Research institute Aibang Polymer mentioned in the report that the current yield rate of using titanium alloy to manufacture smartphone middle frames is 30%-40%, while aluminum alloy is is as high as 80%.

(Source: Mac Rumors)

In comparison, titanium The reason why alloys are not popular is actually that the production costs are too high, but when applied to actual products, consumers will not perceive much change. Manufacturers are naturally reluctant to do "thankless" things.

Driven by the iPhone 15 Pro, titanium frames may regain the attention of the industry, thereby improving production line yield and reducing production costs. Soon, a large number of smartphones may follow suit and use titanium materials, becoming a new popular trend.

Titanium metal can make mobile phones sell better?

Digital blogger @digitalchatstation revealed that Xiaomi is developing new models using titanium materials, including Xiaomi 14 series and some Redmi products.

At the beginning of the year, Korean media also mentioned that Samsung would choose titanium to build the middle frame of the mobile phone in the S24 series. The main purpose is to reduce the overall weight of the mobile phone and improve the quality of the mobile phone. Durability.

It is not difficult to see that titanium will be a popular metal material in the mobile phone market in the next one to two years.

(Photo source: Tech Everyday)

With mainstream aluminum Compared with alloy mid-frames, titanium metal has high strength, high temperature resistance, and even better corrosion resistance. But objectively speaking, the actual effect of titanium metal used in the middle frame of a smartphone or even as the main structure of the fuselage is not very different from that of aluminum alloy.

Although the effects are similar, titanium metal will still become the "hot potato" in the future mobile phone market:

On the one hand, the smartphone industry has fallen into an innovation bottleneck period. For mobile phone manufacturers, highly homogeneous core configurations have prevented them from standing out in the market. Applying new materials and creating differentiation in styling design is the most cost-effective "innovation."

On the other hand, titanium metal can create "scarcity." As we mentioned earlier, titanium metal raw materials are not expensive, but the production cost is high. As Apple brings this metal to consumers again, it will promote industrial progress with discussion and industry attention. As the industry chain matures, the cost of titanium metal has dropped, and Apple has established the image of "titanium metal = high-end". The use of the same material by other manufacturers will also help increase the influence of its products.

# It is true that the biggest role titanium metal currently plays is marketing.

Written at the end

For Apple, “heritage” design is a very important product One of the updating strategies, but such a strategy will also make it gradually lose its freshness. In the previous generations of iPhones, the same right-angled frames, the same square lens set, and the same frosted/glossy glass, consumers could only feel the changes in color.

The best-selling iPhone 14 series is "dark purple", which is enough to show that Apple fans value the changes in appearance of the new model. From this point of view, under the same design, even if new colors are constantly added, it will be difficult to continue to give consumers enough freshness. The best solution is to apply new materials or new processes.

(Source: Apple)

For example, on the iPhone 7 series In order to polish the metal to a mirror-like luster, Apple did not hesitate to use nine precision polishing processes to create the "glossy black" color. The cost is much higher than that of matte metal.

Although the practical value between "aluminum alloy" and "titanium metal" is similar, the latter meets Apple's marketing needs for the iPhone 15 Pro and further stimulates Consumers buy. But this small change does not seem sincere enough

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