Is It Weird That Apple Doesn’t Sell the iPhone 17 Pro in Black?

Silver, Cosmic Orange, and Deep Blue. Bold choice, Apple. To sell the most premium versions of the iPhone 17, the Pro and Pro Max, and not offer the stalwart black. Does it really matter that the iPhone 17 Pro comes in only three colors, none of them the standard black that’s been available for just about every phone ever?

Well, it sort of does. True, you can slap on a black phone case over your iPhone and boom, you’ve got your black phone. Mostly. You’re still going to see the underlying phone color in certain places, so you’ll end up with a two-tone phone.

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Granted, you’re most likely to ooh and ahh over the iPhone’s Corning Ceramic Shield glass and sleek aluminum before you cram it into a case that obscures almost the entire thing until the day, years later, when you pull it out to sell it or trade it in.

That’s the funny thing about the materials we gush about when we talk about premium smartphones that occupy the high end of the market. They’re gorgeous, they’re sleek, and most of us never actually touch or see them. Instead, all we do is interact with the screen and the case.

If you have a black case over a black phone, it all just blends together. But the bottom edge of the iPhone 17 Pro that houses the USB-C port and speakers shows through most cases, which either have cut-outs for these features or leave the entire bottom open.

Don’t forget about the iPhone 17 Pro’s very prominent camera bulge around the rear-facing lenses, which occupies the top third of the phone. That’s visible when cased, too, since cases have a cut-out for that.

Options to achieve the all-black look aren’t all that great. You could go with Deep Blue, but it’s blue enough that it’d contrast noticeably. Silver would look sharp, although more attention-grabbing. Don’t even get me started on Cosmic Orange.

Why Apple chose to ditch the ever-professional black for a phone that it’s pushing as a tool for professionals, I don’t know. Apple doesn’t often introduce new colors for iPhones already in production, so I’m not holding out hope that a black iPhone 17 Pro will ever come along.

Here’s to hoping that it returns next year for the iPhone 18 Pro.

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