iPhone 18 Pro Dummies Tease a Rich New ‘Dark Cherry’ Finish

Recent rumors on the color palettes for this year’s iPhone 18 Pro models have consistently centered on dark red as the premium choice, with some suggesting Apple plans to once again skip the black finish for the second year in a row. However, now we’re getting our first semi-real peek at what these colors may look like.

That’s thanks to Sonny Dickson, who often manages to get his hands on early dummy iPhone molds and other related parts — or at least pictures of them from his supply chain sources. This year, those units show two entirely new colors — what Dickson is calling “dark cherry” and “light blue” — along with the potential return of black.

The deep red has been the most-predicted color for this year’s iPhone Pro models, going back to an October 2025 leak when it was dubbed “burgundy” alongside other potential coffee and purple shades. However, a later report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested that these were merely three variations of the deep red that Apple was aiming for in the first place.

At the time, however, Gurman suggested Apple might release that new shade alongside the cosmic orange due to its overwhelming popularity in places like China. Nevertheless, there’s every reason to believe that a vibrant red will go over even better in the Chinese market, where it’s considered the luckier of all colors, and very often associated with joy, happiness, and prosperity. That could easily outweigh the “Hermès Orange” appeal of the iPhone 17 Pro.

The colors being shown by Dickson also roughly line up with a Macworld report from April that listed the four colors with their actual Pantone numbers:

• Dark cherry (Pantone 6076 C)
• Light blue (Pantone 2121 C)
• Dark gray (Pantone 426 C)
• Silver (Pantone 427 C)
  

In this context, “dark gray” would be closest to the “black” model shown in Dickson’s photos. However, it’s also worth keeping in mind that not only can lighting throw things off, but the dummy models shown in these photos were not produced or likely even authorized by Apple. So, the colors are someone’s best guesses.

Dummy iPhones like these are typically created to be used as molds for case makers, and they’re most commonly crafted from CAD specs that leak out of Apple’s supply chain. Even if the colors shown in these photos are accurate, they’re not being produced with Apple’s level of materials engineering, so the final versions can look quite different.

Last year, Dickson shared images of iPhone 17 Pro dummies that were surprisingly prescient in terms of the colors, showing the deep blue and a slightly less vibrant version of what ultimately became cosmic orange. However, like this week’s set, the photos also included a black model that never appeared.

Further, as you can see from the image above, those dummy models completely missed the transition to the aluminum unibody with the two-tone glass back and camera plateau, showing a design that looked far more like an iPhone 16 Pro with the acrylic camera bump simply extended to the full width.

Still, with all the rumors going around, these photos give us a good hint of what the colors may be in broad terms. However, as with last year’s orange rumors, it’s probably fair to expect that Apple’s real “dark cherry” iPhone 18 Pro (which could just as easily be called something entirely different) will have colors that pop even more than what’s shown here.

[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.]