Video Owners of Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have been reporting that the shell of their pricey handsets is getting scratched up already, and the reason appears to be a shift to aluminum.
The two handsets introduced at Apple’s annual iPhone marketing event in September featured an anodized aluminum shell, rather than the titanium frame Apple has used in some past models. Display phones in iThing stores are already showing signs of wear, particularly around the raised camera mounting on the rear of the phone, and a microscopic investigation by iFixit has shown why.
Anodizing creates an oxide layer around the metal to protect it from unsightly scratches, but it has limitations. Aluminum isn’t quite as good as titanium at building an anodized layer, but the design makes matters worse. The sharp edges of the raised camera mount make the layer of oxidized material more susceptible to being scratched off, and its aluminum base makes the oxide layer more brittle.
“Scratchgate is real, unless you put a case on your phone that camera plateau is probably going to see some damage. The problem does seem to be restricted to the Pro and the Pro Max,” said Shahram Mokhtari, lead teardown technician at the repair biz, as you can see below.
The repairers enlisted Professor David Niebuhr, a teacher of mechanical engineering at Cal Poly, who put the phones under the microscope. The problem seems confined to the camera’s sharp edge, and the rest of the handset has relatively smooth corners that shouldn’t be as prone to scratching.
Aluminum out there on iPhone 17 under the microscope – Click to enlarge
Apple’s shift to aluminum may be somewhat out of Cupertino’s control.
“We have heard from a number of people in the metals industry that there are geopolitical problems with titanium. My understanding is that a lot of the source of titanium has been Russia,” Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit’s director of sustainability, told The Register.
“With sanctions, Apple is not able to source titanium in the same quantities. They basically use as little of it as they could on the iPhone Air and still get the frame strength benefits without using a ton of it.”
On the plus side
Cosmetic problems aside, the two iPhone models have a lot going for them in repairability, particularly in terms of the battery, which is screwed in on the handsets rather than being glued.
Yes, you’ll still have to remove 14 Torx Plus screws to get the battery out and Mokhtari reported that they were more tightly screwed than previous models, but it is possible to go with a bit of effort.
The same is true with the vapor chamber used to cool the phones’ internal systems. The water-filled copper chamber in the handset cools the chips, and then condenses the water back for reuse. This results in faster operations under heavy processing loads.
“The iPhone 17 Pro is a mixed bag,” the iFixit report reads.
“The screwed-in battery system is a cool repairability upgrade, even though we’re not sure whether Apple will sell batteries solo or attached to the tray or both. Electrically debonding adhesive and a protective metal battery shell sweeten the deal, so if anyone does end up prying, they won’t puncture the battery.”
Some areas are not so good, however. Replacing the charging port and/or speaker will take five different screw types and is a heavy job, and takes dozens of screws to be removed and reinstalled to replace the USB-C port that Apple was forced to introduce by legislation.
That said, right-to-repair rules have been adopted surprisingly fast. Chamberlain noted that Apple was renowned for its poor policy of building hardware that can be hard to fix and upgrade. iFixit was started in 2003 as an Apple repair business and originally called PowerBook FixIt after a co-founder tried to fix a broken iBook.
“We have started, really honestly, being impressed by what we’re seeing in Apple products, in terms of an obvious improved attention to design for repair,” Chamberlain said.
In the end, iFixit gave the handsets a seven out of ten rating for repairability, the same as the iPhone Air. Most consumers will simply replace broken handsets or pay an iGenius to do the job, but it’s nice to know some things are easier in the new kit. ®
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