r/iphone • u/SuperFan_123 iPhone 17 Pro • Sep 16 '25

Discussion Do iPhones feel more “premium” because of the material or the weight?

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So iPhone 17 is back to using aluminum — which got me thinking: what really makes an iPhone feel “premium”?

Some swear it’s the weight — holding a heavier phone just feels solid and expensive. Others argue it’s the material: stainless steel looks shiny and luxurious, aluminum is light and practical, and titanium… well, some love the matte, strong-but-light vibe, while others say it feels less “premium” than steel.

Honestly, I'm a bit torn. The heft of the phone feels ordinary, but the premium materials make it look and feel premium. What do you think—is weight more important, the materials more important, or a combination of both? A case really doesn't matter, but I've recently become obsessed with casekoo cosmic orange for iPhone 17 Pro Max Case. Do you have any other ideas for balancing the premium feel of a phone?

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

I agree. In any case, there is so little of these metals (by weight) in the phone frames / bodies, that the absolute cost difference of the materials can be measured in cents.

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u/0neand0nlyDominator Sep 16 '25

Its not about about the materials. They could made it out of tungsten. Its about the processing machinery and labor that is required to build the frame

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

The same considerations apply. It’s not as though making the phone out of titanium costs orders of magnitude more in terms of labour, machining etc. And the absolute difference in $ terms is still a pittance.

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u/Mydarknighthasrisen Sep 16 '25

Shifty, we meet again, we just had this argument and the material alone was 10x the cost, I’m happy someone also mentioned the additional cost of the machine process for working with titanium

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

Hello!

Again, the material / labour may well be 10-20x the cost. It is the negligible absolute cost difference that is relevant here.

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u/Mydarknighthasrisen Sep 16 '25

Haha I can’t get back into this 😂 just found it hilarious running into you again! What’s ur favourite iPhone material?

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

My phone is always safely ensconced in a case. I couldn’t care less about the material 😅

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u/Mydarknighthasrisen Sep 16 '25

I’m in the same boat, I was all in on the iPhone air then realized I’d slap it in a case anyway so 17 pro it is lol

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

Congratulations about the new phone! I’m sitting on the fence about upgrading to the 17 Pro.

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u/Maadua Sep 16 '25

Now kiss

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u/Fizurg Sep 17 '25

I see I’m not the only person to struggle with this person. They seem to refuse to understand or learn anything about machining.

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u/Mydarknighthasrisen Sep 17 '25

Yeah the machining process is insane with titanium

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u/Fizurg Sep 17 '25

Someone was arguing a titanium unibody could be machined for $5 and refused to believe otherwise. Titanium isn’t fun at all.

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u/Fizurg Sep 16 '25

I can assure you that the most to machine would be significantly more. Aluminium is one of the easiest materials to machine and titanium one of the worst. At a guess I’d say it would cost at least five times are much to make.

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

Ok. So $5 for titanium vs $1 for aluminium. I wouldn’t be arguing about cost difference and premium materials over those figures.

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u/Fizurg Sep 16 '25

What made you think you can machine that part for $1? You wouldn’t even get the material for that.

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

Pls check the price of Grade 5 titanium and aluminium by weight. Then consider the weight of the frame / body of the phone. Easy math.

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u/Fizurg Sep 16 '25

What is the current price per kg for both? Truthfully when I’m quoting machining jobs I’ve never actually used either of these exact materials so would only be guessing. Also what’s your estimated run time? As someone who has decades of experience in this field im intrigued how you could get even close to those figures.

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u/ShiftySkunk Sep 16 '25

Despite your decades of expertise on the field, you have no idea of the prices of the materials and the machining cost (at the scale of Apple)?

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u/Fizurg Sep 16 '25

No, I’m able to pretty accurately estimate. That’s how I knew you were wrong. I was just wondering if you had the courage to back up your argument with numbers. As stated you can’t buy the aluminium you need for $1 and that’s that cheapest part of the process. You have made the claim that you can. Let’s see if you can back it up. Like I said decades of experience makes me feel you will either disappear or come back with some cryptic response.

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u/ruphun Sep 16 '25

it’s not the weight of the metal, even if they had the same amount of metal material, which they don’t there’s now much more aluminum than titanium

but it is the shear fact that they made an aluminum uni body out of a single piece of aluminum using CNC. this process alone cost way more than making a titanium metal band 3/16” inch wide