Roger Fingas
Apple is or was planning to ship a gold-colored version of the iPhone X as predicted by some early rumors, according to U.S. Federal Communications Commission documents.
Images of a gold model were published just this month, though they actually date back to September and October. Coloring includes both the back and the metal rim.
While the phone is unmistakably an iPhone X, the FCC refers to it having an "LCD display" instead of OLED. While the device pictured has European regulatory markings below the word "iPhone," Apple has done this before, most notably with the 2012 Retina MacBook Pro.
The filing's authenticity has been confirmed by AppleInsider with the FCC, so there's no real reason to doubt their provenance.
Rumors of a gold iPhone X were commonplace before the phone's launch. These have unexpectedly revived in recent weeks.
One possibility is that Apple will put out a gold X in the near future to mildly invigorate sales, much like the (PRODUCT)RED versions of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Alternately it may have decided to scrap the idea a long time ago, faced with reported difficulties in manufacturing the X's 3D-sensing TrueDepth camera.
Shipment times have improved rapidly though, and it's now possible to get an X on demand.
The phone is still available only in silver and space gray months after its November launch. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus had an additional gold option when they shipped in September.
Charles Martin
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9 Comments
I don’t usually go for the gold colored phones but this looks really nice. Similar to the Product (Red) iPhone 8, not having the white face makes all the difference in the world.
Apple via email asked me to take 15 min survey today as an X buyer. Many detailed questions on cameras. Also operations. Some on finish. Inquired if I used Cortana or Google asst and how I rated Siri. I was disappointed not more questions on Siri, but I guess focus was the iPhone X. The survey asked about speed of Face ID. But did not seem to know you can make recognition faster in Settings/accessibility. Slight trade off in security but noticeably faster for me. In all, very happy w phone. But now I wonder if bulk of buyers, ie non readers of AI, don’t fully understand how to use some of its best features.
It's unfortunate that, for those of us that wanted a phone to match the new gold Watch, only the iPhone 8 series was given the new gold treatment. At this point, I'm unable to justify getting/paying for a gold X, although I would have preferred it, even with the delay in obtaining a X later in the year if we definitely knew it was coming. Saddens me that mid-cycles are done for, seemingly, sales re-invigoration only.
The “gold” color looks off (ugly).
I have a gold IPad Pro, and it’s 2x as attractive. Apple may be having issues with the color and the glass back...