We know, we know. iPhone 13 isn’t even out for another six weeks or so. But already rumors of next year’s flagship devices are bubbling away.
This latest report from JPMorgan Chase (spotted by iPhoneWired) is a particularly interesting one, stating that Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro will be made from a super-tough titanium alloy.
Titanium offers several benefits over other metals. It’s much stronger than stainless steel and a titanium alloy chassis could offer excellent durability in a potentially lighter frame.
Apple already uses a similar titanium alloy for the body of the Apple Watch, so it obviously knows the material properties inside out by now.
Add to that the fact that Apple has filed a patent for a unique way to treat titanium, “combining blasting and etching with a chemical anodization process” to achieve a semi-gloss finish that offers a combination of protection from scratches and the ability to hide imperfections if they do crop up.
That said, Apple has a history of filing all kinds of wild patents that won’t necessarily ever see the light of day. Case in point, this article we wrote five years ago that correctly predicted, well… not too much. So, as ever, take all this with a grain of salt.
The regular (non-Pro) iPhone 14 models are expected to stick with stainless steel or aluminum, although Apple tends to trickle down Pro features in subsequent years, so we could see a full range of titanium devices for iPhone 15 or 16.