iPhone 18 Pro Color Leaks Surface — Months Ahead of Schedule
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In a report that seems far too early to take at face value, a well-known leaker has shared what they believe to be the color slate for next year’s iPhone 18 Pro lineup — suggesting Apple may continue the creative streak it started with the iPhone 17 Pro.
According to a Weibo post by the leaker “Instant Digital” (also known as “Setsuna Digital”), the iPhone 18 Pro will be available in coffee, purple, and burgundy, with black once again being absent from the lineup — a notable omission for Apple’s pro models.
The post provides no information beyond three color names, so it’s difficult to determine how vibrant they’ll be. There’s a lot of room for variation here, as shown by 9to5Mac and MacRumors, which created two starkly different versions of what these could look like.
To make things more complicated, Weibo is a Chinese site, and the color names differ slightly depending on which translation service you use. They’re all in roughly the same part of the spectrum: “burgundy” can also translate as “wine red,” while “coffee” often translates as “coffee brown.”
It’s also important to take this rumor with a larger-than-usual dose of salt. While Instant Digital has a reasonably good track record, it’s also extremely early in the cycle to be hearing anything definitive about colors. Apple may still be testing multiple finishes, and even if the leak is legitimate, there’s plenty of time for plans to change. For context, color leaks for previous models didn’t appear until February of their launch year — and even those often proved inaccurate.
The Not-So-Colorful History of the iPhone Pro
Still, it’s not hard to believe that Apple may have something different in store for next year’s Pro models — especially after the significant changes in this year’s iPhone 17 Pro.
The first decade of the iPhone’s life was characterized by mostly neutral shades of black, grey, silver, white, and gold. The company dabbled in more colorful hues only once with its short-lived Fisher-Price-like iPhone 5c. To be fair, those were plastic, and plastic makes bold colors much easier to pull off.
It wasn’t until early 2017 that we saw the first truly colorful iPhone, when Apple introduced the first special (PRODUCT)RED edition to the iPhone 7 lineup. It followed that up with the iPhone 8 in 2018, which switched the front bezels from white to black. Then, in 2019, it blew the color spectrum wide open with the iPhone XR, which arrived in black, white, yellow, coral, blue, and (PRODUCT)RED. That model turned out to be such a massive success that Apple continued the trend into the iPhone 11 and beyond.
Still, those were only the standard iPhone models. The success of the iPhone XR encouraged Apple to split the lineup into the standard and pro models we know today. While it was happy to experiment with vibrant colors — and some occasional pastels — for its entry-level iPhones, it took a much more stoic approach for the flagship pro models.
It was the iPhone 11 Pro that ushered in the first non-neutral finish in 2019, sporting a classy midnight green. Apple then followed this up with one new “special” color for each year’s lineup: the Pacific Blue iPhone 12 Pro?, the Sierra Blue iPhone 13 Pro, the Deep Purple iPhone 14 Pro, the Blue Titanium iPhone 15 Pro, and the Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro. The iPhone 13 Pro was the one outlier during this time period, with an additional Alpine Green finish added mid-cycle.
The one thing all those colors had in common was that they were mostly muted, “professional” tones — arguably fitting for a “pro” iPhone. They were also joined by all the usual neutrals that had been around for years, with white/silver, grey/graphite/black, and gold models rounding out the selection, for a total of at least four color options each year.
The Year Everything Changed
Then the iPhone 17 Pro arrived, changing the color game. In one fell swoop, Apple pushed the envelope with a vibrant new color and eliminated the dark neutral, reducing the lineup to only three color options.
We can probably thank Apple’s new aluminum unibody design for that, as it finally ushered in the orange iPhone we’ve seen rumors about for years. Cosmic Orange is by far the boldest choice Apple has ever made for a high-end iPhone finish — and surprisingly, it works. I took a chance on it after years of traditional pro colors — it’s delightful and I’m amazed how much I like it.
Orange has always been one of the toughest colors for Apple to get right, as evidenced by the fact that it hasn’t used that color on a mainstream product in 15 years. From 2008 to 2010, Apple produced a series of iPod nano and iPod shuffle models in various shades of orange, but even the iPod shuffle lost that shade during Apple’s 2012 color refresh, and the final seventh-generation iPod nano eschewed it entirely.
Four years ago, many leakers predicted an orange iPhone 13 Pro, but what we got was the Sierra Blue that nobody saw coming. Perhaps the leakers’ sources were based on truth — Apple may have been trying to get a decent orange shade, and just couldn’t pull it off.
Whatever the reason, Cosmic Orange is here, and it shows that Apple isn’t afraid to experiment with new colors, especially now that it has aluminum anodization techniques to play around with. Since Apple tends to stick with its designs for years, there’s little doubt the iPhone 18 Pro will retain the aluminum unibody, and Apple will likely use a similar family of shades to fit with this new design era.
Perhaps the most surprising part is that Apple could be set to eliminate the light neutral in next year’s lineup. Instant Digital says there will be no black, which aligns with the current iPhone 17 Pro lineup, but silver isn’t mentioned among the three colors.
If anything, those three colors — coffee, purple, and burgundy — seem a bit underwhelming compared to Cosmic Orange, but it’s not hard to imagine versions that stand out more. Coffee and burgundy seem to lean toward darker shades, but purple can cover a broader spectrum, and it would be unusual for Apple not to offer at least one lighter color.
However, it’s most important to remember that this is all very preliminary. It’s unlikely Apple has made a final decision on colors, so even if Instant Digital’s information is completely accurate, it may only be a snapshot of where things stand in the supply chain today — not where the puck will be in ten months.
Whether these hues make it to production or not, it’s clear the rumor mill’s already shifting into high gear. For now, take the palette with a grain of salt — and maybe a shot of coffee.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
