Apple opened pre-orders for its iPhone 17 series today, with the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air all up for grabs. But if you’ve got your eye on an upgrade, there are a few things you need to bear in mind. Aside from deciding how much storage you need, there’s another important point to settle: which is the best iPhone color?
On our trusty TechRadar WhatsApp channel (which you can follow for all the latest news and updates), we asked which shade of iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max you were going to buy once pre-orders went live (which they now are). The results are in, and if you’re unsure which color you should go for, this could settle your mind once and for all.
Interestingly, the iPhone 17 poll showed two colors running neck and neck, far ahead of the chasing pack. As for the iPhone 17 Pro, that wasn’t so close, but the winning margin wasn’t as convincing as you might have expected.
How much does the iPhone 17 series cost?
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | US starting price | UK starting price |
iPhone 17 | $799 | £799 |
iPhone 17 Pro | $1,099 | £1,099 |
iPhone 17 Pro Max | $1,199 | £1,199 |
iPhone Air | $999 | £999 |
iPhone 17 winner: Black
When it comes to the iPhone 17, the most popular color was the tried-and-true Black with 35% of the vote. The iPhone has been available in this shade almost since it launched, and it’s easy to see why it took the lead: it’s simple, refined and appeals to a wide range of tastes.
But it didn’t have a commanding lead: in a very close second-place finish with 29% was the new Mist Blue tone.
Blue colors are often popular with iPhone users – the iPhone 16’s Ultramarine was the comfortable victor in the poll we ran last year – so it’s not surprising to see that fondness for azure carry over into the newest iPhones.
Not far behind was Sage, which finished third with 21% of the vote. Lavender and White battled it out for the final spots, with the former finishing fourth with 9% and the latter pulling up the rear with 6%.
iPhone 17 Pro
With only three colors on offer, there’s far less choice when it comes to the iPhone 17 Pro. And that limited variation perhaps contributed to the results, with the winner enjoying a clearer lead than we saw with the iPhone 17.
When it comes to Apple’s pro-level phones, Deep Blue was the most well-liked option. Another phone, another popular blue tone – it looks like there’s a pattern here. And with 55% of the vote, it wasn’t a particularly competitive contest.
Second place went to the new Cosmic Orange, which gathered up 33% of the vote share. This is by far the boldest and most eye-catching color in the iPhone 17 Pro lineup – Apple told us exactly why it created it created the shade in our special podcast with Greg "Joz" Joswiak and John Ternus. But it's seemingly divided opinion. Still, enough people deemed it attractive enough to help it to a respectable finish.
Less impressive was the score achieved by the final color option, Silver. A mere 12% of people picked this one, and that makes a degree of sense. White or silver options didn’t do well in last year’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro poll either, finishing close to the bottom of the pack for both phones. It looks like this is something of a running theme when it comes to iPhone colors.
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