What Is The Material Of Your Phone Body?

Smartphones have become indispensable in daily life and are among the most widely used electronic digital products. Performance is important when selecting a telephone, but appearance, tactile feel and structural strength—primarily determined by the quality of the casing—also influence the choice. The primary materials for mobile phone casings are currently metals, glass and plastics, and some advanced models employ ceramic materials.

Metal Casing

The metal casing consists primarily of an aluminium alloy. A small quantity of Magnesium or other metallic elements is added to increase strength. Magnesium-aluminium alloys and titanium-aluminium alloys are frequently employed for mobile phone casings. Aluminium currently represents a widely used and cost-effective material for smartphone casings and is more readily recycled than Titan and Magnesium.

Glass Casing

The glass used in mobile phone casings is a type of chemically strengthened glass. Its raw material is a specific sodium silicate glass that increases its own strength through the exchange of sodium- and potassium ions. Given that the ion-exchange layer develops uniformly, the method of chemically pre-stressed glass is applied to reinforce thin glass, particularly for glass below 5 mm.

Plastic Casing

The most commonly used plastic material in mobile phones is polycarbonate (PC). PC is resistant to mild acids, bases and neutral oil. PC materials exhibit fire resistance, abrasion resistance and oxidation resistance. The plastic casing offers high strength, elasticity, impact resistance, transparency and the ability to be freely dyed. PC materials are tasteless, odourless and inert to the human body.

However, the primary performance drawback of PC is that its hydrolytic stability is insufficient and it discolours when exposed to ultraviolet radiation for extended periods. Like other resins, PC is susceptible to certain organic solvents.

Ceramic Body

Ceramic materials such as yttrium oxide-stabilised zirconium dioxide are essentially composite materials. Yttrium oxide (Yttria) is used as a stabiliser. The material is mainly tetrahedral and exhibits the highest bending strength among zirconium dioxide materials, particularly in its sintered state.

Ceramic materials have a metallic appearance and acceptable ductility. Consequently, this reduces the likelihood of glass cracking during post-processing. Although ductility has been improved, ceramic materials remain prone to fracture due to their high hardness. Additionally, ceramic materials, even though they are not as hard as metal, still attenuate signals. This imposes higher requirements on the manufacturer's antenna design.