3 ms·
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 ch
by 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 agoI 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.