iFixit Explains The iPhone 17 Pro's ScratchGate: Blame Apple, Not The Aluminum

By Chris Smith
The iPhone 17 Pro's camera plateau. Wongsakorn 2468/Shutterstock

The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max scratch more easily than expected, which is surprising considering the handsets are more durable than their predecessors. The Pros feature an aluminum unibody chassis that extends to the back and the Ceramic Shield 2 (front) and Ceramic Shield (back) glass covers that add to their structural strength. That's what the "ScratchGate" term means. Coined on Friday, when the iPhone 17 models and iPhone Air started selling in stores, ScratchGate went viral as users in China and then the rest of the world noticed the new iPhones scratched easily, especially the Pros. Images like the ones below started spreading on social media.

YouTuber Zack Nelson (JerryRigEverything) said earlier this week that ScratchGate is real and explained why the iPhone 17 Pro models scratch so easily and where they're most likely to see damage. The camera plateau's sharp edges are the most likely places to be damaged by accidental scratches, and that's because of Apple's design choice for those edges. Apple went for sharp corners around the camera plateau instead of creating a curvature, and that's where the paint will chip away when coming into contact with objects like coins and keys that you may keep in the same pocket.

Well-known repair company iFixit has corroborated Nelson's finding, providing more details about the reasons why the iPhone 17 Pro models are prone to scratching, especially around the camera bump. iFixit delivered the same conclusion. It's Apple to blame for the scratches. Fixing them isn't easy.

Would a titanium iPhone 17 Pro scratch?

iFixit talked to David Niebuhr, an expert in materials who teaches mechanical engineering at California Polytechnic State University, about ScratchGate. He advised iFixit to use a level 4 pick (from a Mohs surface hardness kit) to simulate the effect of coins and keys on the surface of the iPhone 17 Pro models. iFixit scratched the flat sides and the edges of the camera plateau. The video above and iFixit's iPhone 17 Pro teardown blog post contain several images taken with a microscope that show how the metal reacted.

The scratches on flat surfaces are only skin-deep, and they won't show the aluminum layer under the anodization. It's the corners of the camera plateau that will take heavy damage, or "spalling." iFixit explains that the anodization process combined with the geometry of the camera plateau is why the iPhone 17 Pros scratch easily. Both aluminum and titanium can be anodized, and the latter forms a harder titanium oxide layer on the exterior. But Niebuhr told iFixit the difference between the two would not account for the spalling that appears.

It's the shape of the camera plateau's corners that's causing scratches at the edges. Niebuhr told iFixit that a thicker oxide layer wouldn't have prevented the scratches. It would have made them worse. "Apple could have prevented this by making a more gradual curve and avoiding a relatively sharp corner," Niebuhr told iFixit. While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max can be relatively easily repaired, there's no fixing the scratches. The camera plateau can't be replaced as it's part of the unibody chassis. For that, getting a case or a skin that protects the aluminum, especially those sharp edges, should be one of the first things to do with your iPhone 17.

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