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This is the worst iPhone color I’ve ever seen

The Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max's camera and logo.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Hot off the heels of the Google Pixel 9 event, the rumor mill for Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup continues to churn steadily. We’re just about a month away from the next generation of iPhones, so it’s just on the horizon.

The latest report involves a new color for the iPhone 16 Pro models, as dummy units have surfaced. We’ve already seen dummy units for the regular iPhone 16, and usually, what we see for dummy units is a very close representation of the final product.

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But from what we have in this latest batch, I think I may be looking at one of the ugliest iPhone colors I’ve ever seen.

Introducing the ugliest smartphone color

iPhone 16 Pro dummy units.
Sonny Dickson

A leaker named Sonny Dickson recently showed off a photo of the iPhone 16 Pro dummy units, which feature four colors: white, black, gray, and a new brown or “bronze” color. There have been some rumors that Apple may be bringing back a “rose” or “gold” shade, though it seems like that may not be happening. Instead, we have whatever this is.

Typically, Apple releases a brand new color for the Pro lineup each year. The iPhone 11 Pro gave us Midnight Green, the iPhone 12 Pro had Pacific Blue, the iPhone 13 Pro had Sierra Blue with a new Alpine Green color midway through the cycle, the iPhone 14 Pro had Deep Purple, and the iPhone 15 Pro had Natural Titanium and Blue Titanium.

There have been rumors for a while that Apple would one day add bronze to the lineup, but wow, I was not expecting it to look so … bad. From that photo, it seems more like a brown color, maybe something similar to leather. Perhaps it wouldn’t look so bad if the phone were actually made of leather, but on a glass back? This is not good at all.

I really hope this is fake

The back of a blue iPhone 15 Pro.
Prakhar Khanna / Digital Trends

I’ve mentioned it before, but I’ve upgraded my iPhone every year to get the latest model. I also tend to pick up the new color because, otherwise, how will people know you have the latest one? I jest, of course, but I always like to have the newest color because they’re usually pretty good.

But if this is the new flagship color for the iPhone 16 Pro, that’s not happening this year. Nope. Absolutely not.

I really hope that what we see in the dummy photo isn’t what we’re actually getting because, to put things nicely, it looks hideous. It reminds me of, well, you know what. It rhymes with hit.

The Google Pixel 9 in green, pink, white, and black colors, all laying on a white table.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

After seeing Google’s incredibly fun color lineup this year with the Pixel 9 series, it’s hard to believe that this is what Apple might follow up with. In a year when Google nailed its color lineup, getting an unpleasing brown color for this year’s new iPhone would be a tough pill to swallow.

If this is the new iPhone 16 Pro color, I’ll skip picking it up and go with white this year. Black is boring, and gray isn’t my color either. I’m hoping and praying the leaks got it wrong here, because this is the last thing the iPhone 16 Pro needs.

Christine Romero-Chan
Christine Romero-Chan has been writing about technology, specifically Apple, for over a decade. She graduated from California…
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