A gorgeous new color can't hide what the iPhone 18 Pro is missing

The Dark Cherry iPhone 18 Pro looks gorgeous, and the leaked dummy units only make that case stronger. It is a deep, wine-red finish, easily the prettiest thing Apple will put on a Pro phone this fall.

Here is the problem: a paint job is being asked to carry an entire release. While the foldable iPhone Ultra and the Galaxy S26 Ultra fight over the spotlight, the iPhone 18 Pro's biggest reason to exist is reportedly a color.

The upgrades that were supposed to matter slipped

We made the case earlier that the iPhone 18 Pro was shaping up as a placeholder year, and the newest leaks sharpen that read. The two changes that would have justified a redesign are not landing.

Full under-display Face ID has reportedly slipped to 2027, timed to the iPhone's 20th anniversary. Even the smaller Dynamic Island is in doubt, with at least one well-known leaker claiming the slimmer cutout will not arrive until the iPhone 19.

We called the new Dark Cherry finish stunning, and that praise is fair. The trouble is that a color is now doing the job a spec sheet should be doing.

What the Pro gets this year

Apple does have real hardware here. The 18 Pro is rumored to gain a variable aperture main camera, the first iPhone to move past the fixed f/1.78 lens it has used since the iPhone 14 Pro, plus a 2nm A20 Pro chip and a battery rumored to push toward 5,200 mAh.

The catch is who gets what. Supply-chain reports suggest the variable aperture could be a Pro Max exclusive, the same move Apple pulled when the iPhone 12 Pro Max got sensor-shift stabilization a year early.

If that holds, the cheaper Pro keeps last year's fixed-aperture camera and a chip most people will never feel. For a phone starting north of $1,000, that is a thin list once you set the color aside.

Why this matters to you

There is a reason Apple is finally bolting a mechanical aperture onto its camera. Independent camera testing has found some rival flagships now pull in nearly twice the light Apple's newest phones manage across zoom ranges, a hardware gap rather than a software one. In everyday terms, variable aperture helps most with bright outdoor stills and video, not the quick pictures you fire off for social media.

Our own comment section keeps circling one point: most buyers will bury this phone in a case within minutes. If the finish lives under plastic from day one, who is a premium color really for?

Over on Reddit, the mood is warmer. One commenter typing on a Deep Purple iPhone 14 Pro said they are buying this one regardless, though they were annoyed by talk that the new aperture might be locked to the Max, which lines up with those same exclusivity reports.

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