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> Actually Apple are pretty bad at picking phone materials period. Which is funny, because they filed a patent[1] over two years ago for a process to make scra

• spartango 14y ago
  Stainless steel is a pretty interesting material, but probably not a good choice for this design. A new variant of stainless probably makes it an even poorer choice (because full characterization is a prerequisite): - Some variants of stainless steel are ferromagnetic, which would mess with the compass. - Steel has very poor RF transparency, which would impact performance even with glass windows. - Steel is heavy. - Steel is far more difficult to machine: with Al you can easily (quickly, with little resistance) mill the curves and cavities that Apple likes for unibody design. Meanwhile steel chips, heats, and provides much resistance to a mill. It requires more finishing and incurs more tool wear.
  • vonmoltke 14y ago
    I agree there are drawbacks to stainless and that it would be difficult to design a cellphone or other RF device entirely or predominantly from it. However, the patent does show that they have gone so far as to research and patent a process for improving a material for use in their portable devices. This makes the apparent lack of care in choosing the anodized aluminum for the iPhone 5 surprising and disappointing.