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Other Apple, why are the colors of iPhones so ugly?
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Everything is headed south, yeah?
What is this everything that you’re talking about.
Maybe iPhone isn’t moving forward as fast as you’d like it to but it definitely gets better every year not worse.
Had there been a shift in philosophy like there was with the 2016 MBP I’d understand, but it’s literally just the same formula refined. It looked like this for years so how does it get uglier? The colors are sure not great for everyone, but apart from that, take every iPhone since the 11 Pro in black or white and compare them to one another and point out what bothers you so much about how it looks now compared to then.
A major reason why I bought in to iPhone in 2012 was because they were offering metal and glass and black colored phones while the competition of the time period was offering plastic and fruit colors. Or at least some shade of black (gray), but not actual black.
My first full purchase iPhone was the 5. And my mistake was assuming that Apple would continue in the vein of black or white as they had with the earlier iPhones. But, no. The next phone was whacked out gray.
I held off getting a new iPhone partly because of 'Space Gray' for three years. I had arguments over color on these forums. Looking forward to getting real black soon.
You may consider your personality boring, I just choose black because it goes with my aesthetic. Black clothes, black EDC, but no thanks to Apple a gray phone. Sigh. Looking forward to fixing that this year.
A long time ago there was a discussion about this sort of thing here on MR in regard to Scuffgate and the iPhone 5. The paint on the iPhone 5 is surface level. Apple didn't anodize the metal very deep. Someone who WAS knowledgable about that explained that the process, while not cheap is also not prohibitively expensive either.
So now, just like then, Apple is balancing a choice between their profits and expense whenever it comes to this subject. It's not that they can't or that it's difficult, it's that putting money into it reduces the profit they make off the device.
I’ve had Black/Space Grey on every iPhone since the 4 and I went with the natural titanium on my 16 pro and I love it 🤷🏻♂️
yeah I used to fuss about the color.. and then I looked at my case and that covers everything that has color on the iphone nowadays.. so.. I don't care that much any more
It's a running joke (the comment) around here and @Splitrail was responding to my joke. You are taking it seriously.
Which is fine, because you're right, the case covers it up. It's just that the line is usually meant as a mic drop argument ender by those who use cases (around here).
Honestly, I always buy deep black iPhones. And if there isn’t a deep black, I love a light blue. I loved the Jet Black on the iPhone 7 Plus I had, but that black/dark blue combo on my iPhone 12 is also something, so if something similar is out then I’m going for it.
I'll never understand why Pro has to equal "boring/ugly colors".
The idea that only some stuffed suits are using Pro phones is laughable.
The idea that only some stuffed suits are using Pro phones is laughable.
If this cynical thinking really does form the basis of colour choice then it probably affects everything else and we’re all idiots in falling for it!
Yes, the last decent looking products were all previous gen.
With phones, everything after XS and 11 fit that. They are too chunky and looked like they were designed by committee rather than by someone that understands how to make design work. Everything from the edges to the camera bump don't fit together. There is no feeling of flow. You hold it in your hand, it doesn't make you want to buy one.
Same with the MacBooks. The proportions are totally off.
We have seen so many years of bad design now, that people have forgotten what good design from Apple was, and bad design is now normalized.
The best looking thing that Apple has is their stock price. Thanks largely to money printing by the fed and some amazing financial engineering. Once Tim Cook leaves, the company will unravel at the fastest pace ever.
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Oh, the color of the new things in Apple fade much much quickly than the old models. For example my boyfriend recently bought an 14 base model and the color literally faded in 2 months, but in change, I have my old 5c or 4s and the colour in this phones is much more vivid than the newer models
The colors (or, sorry, "colorways"; I almost forgot that's the new term that we have to say now) of the Pro phones are muted and underwhelming for sure, and have gotten worse since the introduction of titanium, which seems to be difficult to alter the color of, leaving shades of gray as the only real options. While it's possible that we may see some more pronounced colors when the Pro phones revert to aluminum, I'm not confident of that. Apple certainly believes that muted, subtle color is best for Pro devices, and they seem to have given up on Product Red as well as new spring colors. Color is just not a priority for them.
Because those rainbow bright colors are bright playful colors. They aren’t “pro” clean modern looking colors. That’s why
When I went to iPhone I was planning on upgrading every year for several reasons but my 14PM is way better for me than a 15 or 16 Pro because my phone is purple 🤷♀️
Just like I won’t consider a MacBook Pro because they look boring as hell, even though the individual parts are pretty much all I look for in a laptop.
Apparently I’m not the target audience and Apple does extremely well regardless so that’s okay.
Just like I won’t consider a MacBook Pro because they look boring as hell, even though the individual parts are pretty much all I look for in a laptop.
Apparently I’m not the target audience and Apple does extremely well regardless so that’s okay.
It is true. Another example in another area is the iPhone 16E. I thought it was so good, remarkable for the price. Until I found out that the camera was absolute dog crap. It’s comparable to the iPhone 11.
But they gave it pretty good colors, black/white never fails, so they obviously have great margins on it.
I bet the next round of e models will have a slightly improved camera but with less nice colors. And the regular non-e model will have good colors. So that:
1) people will want to get the regular, more expensive model instead
Or
2) people who get the ’bad’ color anyway will get tired of it sooner rather than later and will be more likely to purchase something new sooner.
Marketing can often be identified by studying your own behaviour / response to something. As humans we respond quite commonly, meaning, if you like something, others do too. And it’s not a coincidence, the company selling you this knows you do. That’s why there are careers in this. To learn and exploit such knowledge.
I don’t think it’s bad practice, they just want to sell a lot, but you should be aware of it.
Yeah I am pretty sure it's just not to eat into the highly profitable accessory case market. Apple likes to dibble and dabble from time to time, but coming out with 20 different colors would probably just create anxiety for a lot of buyers who might have trouble choosing which color they want at the time of the purchase. It is a general rule of thumb in sales that too many choices can confuse consumers and actually turn them off your product. Plus even if Apple did go bold on the color options it would almost certainly lead to the inevitable "why didn't they have my favorite color" crowd.
I might also be ever so slightly colour blind. When my mom was looking to upgrade I helped her buy an iPhone 15 as soon as it was available for preorder. I recommended the “white” one as it was the closest to her silver 1st gen SE. T’was only after it arrived that I found out it was actually pale blue. 😆 She still likes it though.A major reason why I bought in to iPhone in 2012 was because they were offering metal and glass and black colored phones while the competition of the time period was offering plastic and fruit colors. Or at least some shade of black (gray), but not actual black.
My first full purchase iPhone was the 5. And my mistake was assuming that Apple would continue in the vein of black or white as they had with the earlier iPhones. But, no. The next phone was whacked out gray.
I held off getting a new iPhone partly because of 'Space Gray' for three years. I had arguments over color on these forums. Looking forward to getting real black soon.
You may consider your personality boring, I just choose black because it goes with my aesthetic. Black clothes, black EDC, but no thanks to Apple a gray phone. Sigh. Looking forward to fixing that this year.
Yeah, that might be a factor. On the other hand, sometimes color is subtle, especially when not in strong light. My wife got what Google advertised as the 'Purple-ish' Pixel 3a XL (this was back in 2020 when we upgraded to Pixels). It's white. With a very slight purple color to it if you observe outside in sunlight. My wife thought she was getting some purple phone and was disappointed.
Ah well, it went in to a case anyway so that's that.
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It's not just the insipid colors. It's the unsightly camera bump. It's the overall bulk. It's the notch.
It's the uninspired iterations year after year.
It's the uninspired iterations year after year.
