They are just lighter, and more expensive. The alloy itself is more expensive, plus it's a tiny bit harder on the tooling, or slower to machine, thus making it more expensive to machine. Titanium, which is used in some of the barrels & cylinders on the high end models, needs to be hot machined, so it is markedly more expensive to manufacture anything machined in titanium. The titanium machining quality is very good but not great. A titanium gun would cost $3000+ if it was polished up like a mirror, inside and out. These are lightweight & reliable, but shooting .357 S&W Mag is a rather miserable experience. This is part of the beauty of .357, being you don't need to shoot .357. You can shoot .38 Special for fun, and upload to .357 for carry. They are still too jumpy for my tastes, even with low recoil .38 Special.