Here's the gold iPhone X that Apple never launched

Gold iPhone X

You can't buy a iPhone X in gold today, but you can now "ooh" and "aah" at newly leaked photos of Apple's best smartphone in that prestigious color.

Six pictures of the gold iPhone X were taken and submitted to the FCC seven months ago, reports MacRumors. Apple used the unreleased color in its required FCC filing, which is why we're seeing them publicly today.

Of course, we never got a shot at buying this gold iPhone X six months ago when the phone first launched. Apple's seven-layer color process for its flagship has been limited to a white back with a silver frame or space gray with a space gray frame.

This new color appears to have a matching gold glass back and aluminum frame, sort of like the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. There are no hints in today's filing as to why the gold iPhone X was scrapped, or if it will ever see the light of day.

Gold iPhone 11 expectations

The leaked photos are a mid-cycle preview of what we can expect from the iPhone 11, or iPhone XI (whatever Apple ends up calling its next phone). Apple is reportedly planning on three iPhone models in September.

We reported on rumors that the new iPhone for 2018 will launch in more than just two colors. Everyone's high expectations are on a shimmer gold or blush gold option like this one.

Apple's been touting the new Product Red iPhone 8 and 8 Plus color this week, so the timing is interesting. In this case, it probably didn't mean for the gold option to leak, but it's hard to keep things a secret when you have to tell the government.

Matt Swider