Sorry, Mick: Apple Won’t Paint the iPhone 18 Pro Black
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One of the biggest surprises in last year’s iPhone 17 Pro lineup wasn’t just the vibrant new cosmic orange. While that was by far the most ostentatious color Apple has ever used on an iPhone Pro, it also marked the retirement of a classic finish: the iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t come in basic black.
Perhaps fitting, the iPhone 17 Pro broke a 17-year tradition. Every iPhone since the original 2007 model — which came in only a single metallic silver finish with a black accent where the plastic antenna cover lived — has included a black or other neutral dark option.
The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS — the only two mainstream plastic-backed iPhones Apple ever released — came in glossy black and white. The more elegant “museum-piece” iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S design changed that up for the “glass sandwich,” but still retained the black finish. As Apple moved into more metallic designs, the iPhone 5 and beyond shifted to variations like space gray and graphite, but those were always dark colors that effectively served as “black-adjacent.”
With the exception of Apple’s other plastic entry, the ill-fated iPhone 5c, the iPhone also remained limited to neutral shades of black/gray, white/silver, and variations of gold. It wasn’t until early 2017, when Apple finally brought the iPhone into the PRODUCT(RED) family, that it finally added a special edition iPhone 7 with a splash of color.
The popularity of that shade on the iPhone 7 and a subsequent iPhone 8 model likely led Apple to decide to introduce a full color palette for the iPhone XR in 2018, its “experimental” new iPhone tier. That turned out to be an overwhelming success, and by 2019 Apple had officially split the lineup into the iPhone and iPhone Pro tiers. The standard iPhone 11 retained the fun colors of its predecessor, but Apple also decided to introduce an elegant midnight green finish to the new iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
That kicked off an annual cycle of “classier” professional shades for each subsequent Pro model, with each new release getting a unique new finish. In early 2022, Apple even doubled up with the iPhone 13 Pro, which initially debuted in sierra blue but gained a darker alpine green as a mid-cycle refresh — the only time an iPhone Pro model had ever been released in more than one non-neutral finish, at least until last year’s iPhone 17 Pro showed up.
While the iPhone 17 Pro models still came in only three shades, Apple threw us a curveball when one of those wasn’t black. Instead, it gave us deep blue as the closest replacement, with cosmic orange introducing a new fun and whimsical shade, and a basic silver as the only neutral.
Now, it looks like Apple plans to continue this trend for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. That may not be entirely surprising, since this year’s models are expected to retain the same aluminum unibody design introduced last year, and some folks have suggested that the materials engineering and anodization processes Apple is using don’t lend themselves as well to a darker black finish.
According to well-known Weibo leaker Instant Digital, the black version of the iPhone 18 Pro has been “canceled again” (if the machine translation here is accurate), suggesting that Apple hadn’t ruled out the idea of creating one, but abandoned its plans for whatever reason. Speculative comments on the Weibo post point to the aluminum alloy that Apple is using for the iPhone being different, and therefore perhaps introducing new complications in perfecting it in black.
Even if that’s true, it’s hard to say whether this is merely question of Apple being picky about the type of black finish it wants to achieve. A deep black might be challenging, especially considering how susceptible the deep blue iPhone 17 Pro was to being marred by scratches and scuffs. However, it’s hard to imagine that Apple couldn’t still achieve a more metallic space gray.
Of course, this is all just a rumor, so we’d recommend adding a dash or two of salt. Instant Digital (aka Setsuna Digital) has a pretty good track record, especially when it comes to iPhone colors and designs. They were the first to reveal the yellow iPhone 14 mid-cycle color refresh about a week before it launched, and also correctly identified Apple’s frosted back glass of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. Last fall, they also predicted that Apple might eliminate the two-tone look for the iPhone 18 Pro, using a new formulation that allows its Ceramic Shield glass to more closely match the aluminum frame.
Apple is also rumored to be testing up to three new shades for the iPhone 18 Pro — purple, burgundy, and coffee — although it’s unlikely to release all three. Earlier this year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman weighed in with a rare color prediction saying that Apple is pursuing a “deep red” color, and that the three prototypes reported last fall are all merely attempts to perfect that shade — “variants of the same red idea.”
[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.]
