Sci/Tech Apple iPhone 5 'to be cased in Liquidmetal'

[The Helper]

The iPhone 5, likely to be released later this year, is expected to be cased in a ‘metallic glass’, otherwise known as Liquidmetal, says a Korean news outlet citing ‘industry sources’.

The case is expected to be 20 times stronger than the current encasement. According to The Register, ‘metallic glass is a metal alloy, but one with the disordered structure of glass’. The material has been around since the 1990s, but since a new breakthrough in ‘superspeed pulse mould technology’, this type of glass, which is as tough as metal, can now be used for phone casings.

Apple iPhone 5 'to be cased in Liquidmetal'

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[tom_mai78101]

Oh man, now "Will It Blend?" series will have to halt because of that metallic glass.

 

[GetTriggerUnit-]

How to make an iProduct: poo in a metal case, make it look cool.

 

[Slapshot136]

this will lower apple's overall sales, as people won't buy replacements as often

 

[Nyph]

Surely having a big plate of conducting metal surrounding the phone is bad for reception and is also a massive magnet for static electricity?

 

[Zakyath]

my guess is that they didn't flip a coin when deciding wether to do this or not, and that they actually have a pretty good idea of what they're doing.

 

[GetTriggerUnit-]

this will lower apple's overall sales, as people won't buy replacements as often

The hardware can still break!

 

[Slapshot136]

The hardware can still break!

what kind of fall would it take to break? the current glass iphones get cracks from a 1 foot fall onto cement

my guess is that they didn't flip a coin when deciding wether to do this or not, and that they actually have a pretty good idea of what they're doing.

was the decision made by a hardware engineer or by someone more worried about it's cosmetic look? - it certainly seems like a coin-flip to me

 

[GetTriggerUnit-]

Any piece of hardware could break, ram, flash memory, cables, processor, etc. All they have to do is use cheap pieces.

 

[sqrage]

Pointless... It's the screen that shouldn't be breaking not the case.

 

[Slapshot136]

Any piece of hardware could break, ram, flash memory, cables, processor, etc. All they have to do is use cheap pieces.

im willing to bet that over half of the failures come form drops, even more if you include water damage that occurred from a drop - ram lasts much longer then a cellphone's life, processor's almost never break unless they are OCed, and flash memory degrades from heavy usage, but it would still take quite a lot to wear out to the point of being unusable, and the only cable that is likely to break is the charger cable, which is replaceable

Pointless... It's the screen that shouldn't be breaking not the case.

well if they combine the screen and the case like on the current versions, then this should make the screen 20x stronger as well

 

[sqrage]

well if they combine the screen and the case like on the current versions, then this should make the screen 20x stronger as well

The screen can't be made out of liquid metal.

"The part of the new iPhone expected to be made out of metallic glass is the back casing – as opposed to the glass display."

 

[Zakyath]

was the decision made by a hardware engineer or by someone more worried about it's cosmetic look? - it certainly seems like a coin-flip to me

what makes you think that those in charge at one of the worlds biggest companies are idiots? it just does not make sense.