Apple responds to iPhone 5 scuffs, says scratches and chips are ‘normal’

Re:Apple responds to iPhone 5 scuffs, says scratches and chi... by spartango on Wednesday September 26, 2012 @02:02PM (#4577014)

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.

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Re:Apple responds to iPhone 5 scuffs, says scratches and chi... by vonmoltke on Wednesday September 26, 2012 @03:53PM (#4577645)

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.

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