July 8, 2025, 1:51 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
In 2017, with the iPhone X, Apple fundamentally reimagined its smartphone design to mark the iPhone’s 10th anniversary. A key aspect of this redesign was the choice of a new, more premium material. Instead of aluminum, stainless steel was used for the first time—a change the company might now reverse.
The Pro models of the iPhone have featured stainless steel cases since the iPhone X and titanium since the iPhone 15 Pro. The premium material is intended to distinguish the higher-priced models from the standard iPhones. However, with the iPhone 17 Pro, Apple might abandon this formula and revert to an older design.
Aluminum Instead of Titanium
On its website, Apple promotes the iPhone 16 Pro with its “Grade 5 titanium design,” which is said to make the device particularly “robust and impressively light.” The downside of titanium, however, is that the metal alloy itself cannot be colored. A special micro-blasted layer is therefore necessary to achieve different colors for the iPhone 16 Pro.
According to the leaker “Instant Digital,” Apple might completely switch back to aluminum for this and other reasons, as indicated in a post on the Chinese blog platform Weibo. The metal can be colored much more easily through anodization—the five vibrant colors of the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are a good example. But an aluminum design would also have additional advantages in the iPhone 17 Pro. As previously reported by TECHBOOK, Apple plans a stronger cooling system for the new iPhone, which is expected to allow for more performance under sustained load. According to “Instant Digital,” the company is working on a new aluminum subframe that is better aligned with the heat dissipation layer.
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New Frame Design in the iPhone 17 Pro
The subframe in the iPhone 16 Pro is also made of aluminum, with the titanium frame being only external. The new structural design in the iPhone 17 Pro apparently requires a modified outer frame. “Instant Digital” writes that this will be so thin on the front that it is barely visible around the display to the naked eye. Aluminum is significantly easier to work with than titanium. It is possible that the new design of the iPhone 17 Pro would simply not be feasible with the previous material.
Read also: All rumors and information about the iPhone 17
The current leak aligns with an earlier report from “The Information,” which suggested that the iPhone 17 Pro will have a “half aluminum, half glass” design. In March 2025, images of alleged components for the smartphone surfaced, apparently showing frames made from milled aluminum.