Apple Might Be Reversing Course on Its Heaviest Design Trend with the iPhone 17

Remember the good old days when iPhones were so light you'd occasionally panic thinking you'd lost yours, only to find it was in your pocket all along, weightless as a feather? Apple doesn't seem to remember those days, having spent the better part of a decade making its high-end phones out of increasingly dense and expensive materials like stainless steel and titanium, as if they were trying to create the world's most expensive paperweight. But according to fresh rumours that are circulating faster than gossip at a family reunion, a change of heart might be on the horizon. The iPhone 17 Pro models, due out next year, may be ditching the "premium" (read: unnecessarily heavy) materials and returning to good old-fashioned aluminium frames.

Since the iPhone X launched in 2017 with all the fanfare of a royal coronation, the Pro models have been getting steadily heavier, chasing a luxury feel that often came at the expense of practicality and the structural integrity of your shirt pocket. The switch to aluminium could make the next generation of iPhones noticeably lighter, potentially saving millions of wrists from repetitive strain injury and countless pairs of trousers from the indignity of stretched pockets. Of course, this being Apple, no one's holding their breath for a price drop. They're more likely to rebrand it as "aerospace-grade aluminium infused with the spirit of innovation and blessed by unicorns" and somehow justify charging an extra hundred quid for the privilege.

If this rumour turns out to be true, it would represent a significant, if quiet, admission from Apple: maybe, just maybe, they went a bit too far down the road of making phones that feel more like luxury jewellery than everyday tools. While the heft of titanium might feel impressively premium when you first pick it up in the store, it's considerably less appealing when you're trying to hold it up to your face for a long FaceTime call with your gran or when it's pulling your pocket inside out every time you stand up. A return to a lighter material would be a nod to ergonomics and common sense, a sign that Apple is finally remembering that iPhones are tools to be used all day, every day, not just expensive objects to be admired from a distance like museum pieces.