is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
Last year, Apple went bold with its colors for the iPhone 17 Pro, offering a flashy orange, a shiny silver, and a dark blue. Don’t get me wrong, . But there was no black (or dark gray) for the first time since the start of the iPhone Pro lineup, which Apple first introduced in September 2019 with the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.
I care about this because I always buy the black phone. I learned my lesson with the iPhone 6: I got it in gold to mix things up and came to regret it. I don’t need something flashy — I need a phone that blends into the background and looks decent in whatever case I throw it into. After the iPhone 6, my next phone was the iPhone 7 in the excellent matte black (I wasn’t brave enough to endure the ), and I’ve only ever gotten the black or gray phones since.
My black titanium iPhone 16 Pro in a black Torras case () still works very well, thank you very much, and I’m not in the market for a new phone. But when I make my annual mid-September visit to the local Apple Store to look at all the new iPhones, I won’t be rushing to see the iPhone 18 Pro in burgundy, blue, or silver. I’ll be beelining for the model in black.
Just look at this thing! It’s great!
- Jay Peters