I’m not a complex man, despite the claims of my therapist (the one that lives in my head); I like things to be simple and sleek. I’m a plain dark tee kinda guy. I don’t like beers that pretend to be liquid chocolate or mango. And I think Space Gray is the best iPhone color.
So the rumor of a so-called ‘Desert Titanium’ color for the not yet official but much-anticipated iPhone 16 Pro turns my stomach a little.
Maybe I’m just 187cm of lack-of-imagination. Or I have such a vision for aesthetics that I find a white room ambrosia for my eyes. But something about this tipped colorway is rubbing me up the wrong way.
I’ve seen it touted as a bronze color – which I’m not against, as I’m currently taking the rather lovely Christopher Ward C63 Dune bronze watch for a spin. But that’s made of actual bronze and is developing a patina, mellowing from a slightly too yellow hue to a warm brown.
However, in my time so far with the iPhone 15 Pro Max I’ve found that its titanium chassis seems near immune to staining or marking (heck, it’s shrugged off some rather serious drops) let alone discoloration, and that’s something I miss when compared to the rather lovely iPhone 13 Pro.
So there’s no scope for an bronze-ish Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro to develop a patina, meaning one could be saddled with a phone that doggedly holds onto a color tone that’s not the buttery yellow of caramel or the warm glow of gold (for what it’s worth I think gold iPhones have should have no place on this planet), but rather something sickly in between.
There are four colors in total in the iPhone 16 Pro Lineup: white, black, gold and gray.The desert titanium color is kind of dark gold, similar to the old purple color, relatively discreet and deep pic.twitter.com/uDiNiBI4IzAugust 18, 2024
Bothersome bronze
Also bronze is the color of losers; don’t @ me.
It’s basically the runner-up medal, which to me feels like a bigger sting than just getting a ribbon or certificate saying you took part. Bronze says you tried hard but still missed the loftier podium positions. And as a one-time British bronze medalist in a 200 meters freestyle swimming race, I know the feeling of having such metal on my person.
The only exception is the bronze on the aforementioned watch. And even then that feels a little try-hard with its desire to age at speed.
So yeah, I’m really not convinced by the idea of a Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro. I will reserve the right to change my mind if I see the phone in person, because I’m flighty like that. And there’s more than enough scope for this rumored shade to not actually see the light of day.
Outside of Desert Titanium, the rest of the tipped iPhone 16 Pro colors seem more pleasing to my eye, with gray, white and Space Black shades to be expected; still no Space Gray though, much to my chagrin.
Of course, with the next Apple event set for September 9 – check out our guide on how to watch the iPhone 16 launch event live – we’ll soon see what iPhone 16 which rumors turn out to have been accurate and which were complete tosh. And TechRadar will be over in Cupertino to cover the ‘It’s Glowtime’ event live, so I’ll be keen to see what my colleagues Lance Ulanoff and Jacob Krol make of the new iPhone 16 colors in general.