Earlier this year Japanese blog Macotakara suggested that we’d see a new iPhone colour in 2016: deep blue. Now, the same publication is backtracking somewhat, and is now reporting that the shade will be a darker ‘space black’ instead. Here’s what we know so far.
Renders of the proposed shade of iPhone have already produced, like this one by @appleidesigner on Twitter. 9to5Mac rate the new colour as quite likely, and Apple fans seem to be receptive to a jet black iPhone. In a poll on their site, 49% of readers stated that a new black iPhone would cause them to upgrade, while 29% would wait for the iPhone 8 if this year’s iPhone isn’t a major upgrade. Only 21% said that the addition of a new colour wouldn’t sway their opinion.
Amusingly, black isn’t really a new colour for an iPhone. We got a black iPhone 4 back in 2010, and that option returned in 2011 with the iPhone 4S. It was only in 2012, with the release of the new-design iPhone 5, that a properly dark black was removed from the menu. Since then, the Apple Watch and the iPad Air have been offered in much darker shades than the current crop of iPhones. This graphic from 9to5Mac is quite illuminating, showing how the single moniker of ‘Space Grey’ is applied to a wide range of colours.
The new black iPhone would certainly suit the ‘dark mode’ recently discovered in iOS, too. This mode, uncovered by an enterprising developed named Andy Wiik, shows a completely redesigned Settings screen in the recent iOS 10 beta release. It would also suit the OLED screens that Apple is reportedly switching to for the 2017 iPhone. We’ll likely have to wait until the new iPhones are revealed, either this year or next, to see the mode in full.
Thanks for checking out the article, and let us know your thoughts on a black iPhone 7 in the comments below!