After being forced back to aluminium for the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max thanks to DonaldTrump’s tariffs and the high cost of titanium alloy, Job’s Mob has apparently set the stage for Samsung to do the same with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Samsung ditched aluminium after Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro marketing circus baited it into believing titanium was the future. Now, with aluminium proving better for heat transfer and far cheaper to churn out, the Koreans are preparing a hasty retreat.
Smartphone prices are getting extortionate each year because of chips. Qualcomm and MediaTek were stung with wafer hikes of up to 24 per cent for their Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Dimensity 9500 parts, thanks to TSMC charging a fortune. Next year’s 2nm chips will only make things nastier.
Samsung’s comedy reliance on Qualcomm has become laughable, given that its foundry arm has been wheezing along for years. Chipset costs were 11.38 trillion won ($8.5 billion/€7.9 billion) in 2023 and climbed to 11.73 trillion won ($8.8 billion/€8.2 billion) this year, a 3.53 per cent increase. Swapping titanium for aluminium is one way to claw back margin while getting a bit more cooling performance on the cheap.
The company is desperate to revive its Exynos line, with the 2nm GAA-based Exynos 2600 tipped for release later this year. If it delivers, Samsung might finally ship a Galaxy Ultra without paying Qualcomm’s inflated rates in every market. Early benchmarks suggest it is not hopeless, which is about as much optimism as you can reasonably have with Samsung silicon.
Of course, aluminium comes with compromises. The Galaxy S26 Ultra will be heavier, and while it may take corner hits better than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the rear glass remains as fragile as a US presidential ego. Paint chipping is another concern, but that seems more about sloppy finishing than the material itself.
Still. you get better thermal performance. Pairing aluminium with a vapour chamber means Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, already seen clocking cores at 4.74GHz instead of 4.60GHz, could be squeezed for a little extra juice.
Job’s Mob hyped titanium, Samsung copied it, and both discovered it was an expensive dud, and now aluminium is back in fashion. Funny how often Apple’s “design inspiration” ends up being an industry-wide game of follow-the-moron.