richard hallas

StrangeDays said:

For all the hand waiving from the critics

I waive my hands. Look, no hands!

I wrote the following in a reply to another story yesterday, but I'm going to repeat it here (slightly edited) because it's about exactly this matter of black vs white with the red body.

Personally, in this instance I happen to think that Apple has made the right choice. Some colours work better with black than with white; others work better with white than with black. Generally, the brighter the colour, the better it works with black, and the more subdued the colour, the better it works with white. Some strong colours that fall in the centre of the 'vibrancy range' work pretty well with either black or white. It's all about contrast, really; maximising contrast works better than minimising it.

The red shade used for (PRODUCT)RED products, bright though it is, is just within the 'subdued' half of the scale, but is close enough to the middle to be workable with either black or white. As proof that it works with black too, see the one-off (Mac Pro)RED; see the (iPhone Battery Case)RED with a black-faced iPhone inside it. Nevertheless, overall, it's *just slightly* to the 'works better with white' side of the colour-vibrancy scale.

Look at all the other products Apple has previously released in RED versions; the various RED iPod models. Are their click-wheels black or white? They're white. Is the Apple logo on the back black or white? It's white. What about and text printed on them; is it black or white? It's white. White stands out better on this shade of red.

So a white face on the (iPhone)RED should NOT be even remotely a surprise at this stage. And for my taste, I think it's absolutely the right choice. I think it looks pretty overpowering to have a black face with that strong red body, as shown by the mix-and-match phone in this story. But then, I wasn't a fan of the iPhone 5c series either (even though those phones did use very vibrant colours with black, which was the right thing to do).

As for the ring around the TouchID button… I tend to agree with some comments that it could have looked OK if that had been red too on a white face (though it might have made the button distractingly obvious). But I suspect that making a red ring was probably a step too far; creating the right colour-match would probably have required far more effort and trouble than the limited-edition nature of the product would have warranted. And of all the existing colours (black, silver, gold, rose gold), the only choice on a white face that would complement the red back is silver. So I reckon that's why Apple went with the silver ring – and again, I think it was the right choice.

So personally, I feel that Apple's choice of colour combination makes for as classy a phone as a screaming-red phone is likely to get. If I were in the market for a bright-red iPhone, I'd be very happy to buy this. I think it looks really good. The bottom line is: there's no right or wrong; it's all just a matter of taste. The hybrid phone shown here "proves" everyone right, whichever side of the debate they sit on, because some people prefer it and others prefer what Apple has chosen to do. It's good to see it in real life, but for my money, I'd prefer the version with the while face in combination with the red body. Just my opinion.

Indeed, if I were Donald Trump and needed a bright-red phone for my hotline to Russia, I'd want one of these lovely red iPhones exclusively for that purpose. It'd make it harder to start WWIII by accident, on account of having simply picked up the wrong phone. Once again, Apple is setting the highest security standards to protect us all.

Why US only? I'd like to see this available in the UK too.