Could a New iPhone 13 Colour Be Coming Tomorrow?

YouTuber Luke Miani notes over at AppleTrack that his sources have told him that Apple plans to continue last year’s trend of unveiling a new mid-year colour to its standard iPhone lineup. While this year’s event is a little earlier than usual, tomorrow will herald the debut of a new dark green option for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini.

The sources say that the new green is “somewhere between the Mint iPhone 12 and Midnight Green iPhone 11 Pro,” so it’s not necessarily going to be the same sort of classy finish that graces the higher-end Pro models. It’s more likely going to be a shade that will complement the rest of the iPhone 13 pallet, which currently consists of Pink, Blue, Midnight, Starlight, and (PRODUCT)RED.

From the renders shared by AppleTrack, it does look like the shade and hue of green would be in the same class as the current Blue iPhone 13. Last year, Apple took the unusual move of going with a brighter Sierra Blue for the iPhone 13 Pro, with the iPhone 13 getting a shade of blue that was a bit closer to the Pacific Blue of the iPhone 12 Pro.

If this rumours is true, the green iPhone 13 would likely follow a similar pattern, edging toward the Midnight Green that introduced the era of more colourful iPhone Pro lineups.

Miani also adds that the refreshed fifth-generation iPad Air that’s expected to launch tomorrow will gain a new purple colour, similar to what’s found on the iPad mini 6. He didn’t say whether it will otherwise come in the same colours as the iPad Air 4, however.

Apple’s Colourful iPhones

Recent years have seen a big departure from the days when Apple only made the iPhone in basic black/grey, white/silver, and gold colours.

Other than a brief flirtation with plasticky colours for the ill-fated iPhone 5c, Apple didn’t introduce any new iPhone colours until the first (PRODUCT)RED edition came along with the iPhone 7 in early 2017.

Since the iPhone still had a visible front bezel at the time, the (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 featured a white face. A year later, when Apple released a (PRODUCT)RED edition of the iPhone 8, it went with the more traditional black bezels instead.

These two releases arguably set the stage for introducing new colours mid-cycle, but it’s fair to say that the (PRODUCT)RED editions were also a special case. It wasn’t until the iPhone XR came along in the fall of 2018 that Apple blew the doors open on making colourful iPhones, with Yellow, Coral, and Blue joining the basic Black and White options, plus a (PRODUCT)RED edition available right out of the gate.

Meanwhile, the more “pro” iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max retained the tried-and-true black, white, and gold, presumably based on Apple’s belief that the “Pro” iPhone models should retain a more serious and classy look.

However, by the time the iPhone 11 lineup showed up in 2019, Apple had clearly decided it needed to do something extra with the higher-end devices, and the Midnight Green iPhone 11 Pro made its debut.

To keep things fresh, Apple also changed up the colour palette for the iPhone 11, which was now available in Black, White, Yellow, Green, Purple, and (PRODUCT)RED. Even the yellow had changed slightly, however, moving to a bright shade that leaned more toward pastel than the slightly darker orange-gold hue found on the iPhone XR.

The same thing happened with the iPhone 12, which moved to Black, White, Green, Blue, and (PRODUCT)RED. In this case, the green lightened up into more of a mint green, much like Apple had done with the transition between yellows on the iPhone XR and iPhone 11.

This was followed up last spring with a new Purple iPhone 12, marking the first time in four years that Apple had released a new colour mid-cycle — and arguably the first time that Apple had ever done it solely to release a new colour. After all, the (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 were special editions in their own rights.

As with the yellows and greens, the purple of the iPhone 12 differed from that of the iPhone 11, but this time Apple went in the opposite direction. The iPhone 11 purple had already been brighter and more pastel; the iPhone 12 purple got darker and richer instead.

So, it wouldn’t be a surprise for Apple to do the same thing with a green iPhone 13. In fact, other than Black, White, and (PRODUCT)RED, Apple has never released two different generations of iPhone in quite the same colours. This means that the green definitely has to change, and it’s probably fair to say Apple has no direction to go in but to move to a darker hue.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]