Some iPhone 14 models reportedly getting a huge titanium chassis upgrade

Iphone 12 Pro Pacific Blue Hero
Iphone 12 Pro Pacific Blue Hero (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

What you need to know

  • A new report claims Apple's iPhone 14 will benefit from a new titanium alloy chassis.
  • Apple's iPhone 12 uses aluminum, while the iPhone 12 Pro devices use stainless steel.

Apple's iPhone 13 might not be here yet, but attentions are already turning to what we can look forward to when iPhone 14 rolls around next year. One new report claims that Apple's 2022 iPhone will use a new titanium alloy construction.

While iPhone 12 has an aluminum chassis and iPhone 12 Pro benefits from the upgrade to stainless steel, that might change in 2022. According to a JP Morgan Chase investor note seen by MacRumors, iPhone 14 is in for a big upgrade. While the report doesn't explicitly say it, I have to imagine that the use of titanium would be specific to the higher-end models only.

According to the report, the use of titanium alloy will be one of the biggest changes to the case design in the 2022 ‌iPhone‌ series, and Foxconn will be the exclusive manufacturer of the titanium frames for the high-end models.

The use of titanium next year would mark a first for the iPhone lineup. While titanium is available on select Apple Watch Series 6 devices — arguably the best Apple Watch you can buy — it isn't a material used in iPhones so far.

Switching to titanium would allow for strong chassis that are lighter than those that are made from steel. That would potentially mean an iPhone 14 Pro device could remove some of the weight associated with Apple's largest and most costly devices without compromising on rigidity.

The same report goes on to back up previous claims that iPhone 13 mini will be the last 5.4-inch model, with Apple switching to a lineup consisting of two 6.1-inch and two 6.7-inch devices from next year.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.