As we enter the vacations and turn our hearts to peace and love, tipsters around the world are engaged in a bit of violence between leakers.

Last week, it was reported by the generally reliable The Information that Apple is considering changing the frame of the iPhone 17 Pro model from titanium to aluminum, similar to that used in the cheaper models.

The thinking seems to be that Apple is trying to save some money, as aluminum is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than titanium. Also, aluminum is lighter than titanium.

However, Chinese leaker Instant Digital, a usually reliable source of information, posted on Weibo that next year's Apple Pro models will not move away from titanium; Instant Digital did not mention where they got their information. The post mostly refutes Wayne Ma's report last week.

“Of course the 17 Pro is still titanium. Why would you believe they changed to aluminum? Think about it, it's impossible,” they wrote on Weibo (machine translation). “Looking back at recent iPhones, Apple has always focused on touting the high-end frame materials of the Pro series, from 'surgical grade stainless steel' to 'titanium,' as one of its selling points. How can you say it has been replaced by aluminum?"

To be fair to Instant Digital, Apple has heavily promoted titanium in the iPhone 15 and 16 Pro models, noting its durability and claiming it is ”aerospace grade. Previous Pro models were made of stainless steel.

Rieker did not comment on other changes reported in The Information, including a half-glass back panel and a small dynamic island.

However, the Weibo post before the rebuttal did mention next year's iPhone SE 4. They claimed it would not be cheap: “Apple isn't going to make a cheap enough entry-level iPhone”. They said the new SE will feature an OLED display, Face ID, a 48-megapixel primary camera, 8GB of RAM, the latest A-series processor, and match previous spec rumors, including a slight price increase.

As always, we have to take these leaks with a few grains of salt; The Information is a respected and generally reliable source on the production of new devices, and Instant Digital has in the past been reasonably accurate in its predictions The iPhone 17 will probably not be released until September 2025, so there is time to see who is right.