The new iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are officially on sale and start at $1,099 and $1,199, respectively. The phones feature a new unibody redesign, a new telephoto camera, an updated screen and a larger battery.
The iPhone 17 Pro is also available in some fresh and eye-catching colors, including silver, dark blue and cosmic orange. Black, space gray and white are now passé. The new innovative colors have some people scratching their heads, and others falling in love.
Say goodbye to titanium metal finishes, and hello to a new orange color that's as divisive as it is bold. Its hue makes it double as a road hazard warning sign, and that's one reason not everyone is a fan.
"Apple may be calling it 'cosmic orange,' but there's absolutely nothing heavenly about it," according to CNET's Macy Meyer.
Rival phone makers like Motorola are also experimenting with divisive colors and alternatives to a glass back (you can get the Motorola Razr with a wood back). It seems here that in response to criticism about its mostly colorless titanium finishes on recent Pro iPhone models, Apple is now offering a color you can't ignore.
The Motorola Razr Ultra comes in a variety of material backs and colors including Pantone cabaret (hot pink). James Martin/CNET
As I was testing the iPhone 17 Pro Max for my review, the bold, bright orange drew multiple "Is that the new iPhone?" inquiries from passersby.
But is an orange iPhone not what we need right now, as my colleague argues? Will it look less appealing when we hit next year?
"Bold colors can work. Ferrari red? Iconic. Deep midnight blue? Elegant. I even really like the iPhone 15 that's Barbie pink," Meyer writes. "But fluorescent traffic-sign orange? That's a statement that'll look like a seasonal prop left over from Halloween exactly three months from now."
To show you just how orange the iPhone 17 Pro Max is, we snapped pictures of it next to as many orange things as I could find.
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