iPhone 18 Pro Burgundy paint fading issues reported by some early adopters
Within a couple of weeks of launching, iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max users last year started complaining online of a weird discoloration issue that affected mainly the hero Cosmic Orange color, but it was also observed on the Deep Blue paint job. Now, the iPhone 18 Pro series users are going through the same phase.
iPhone 18 Pro Max in Burgundy and Black
A number of Reddit users have posted pictures of Burgundy red units slowly getting pale. Some discolored Black iPhones can also be spotted among the subreddits. Just like last year, the discoloration seems to start from the area around the camera lenses before spreading to the whole aluminum chassis.
Again, people are speculating why this is happening and are discussing workarounds, like using the phone with a case at all times. Our best bet is UV light, because just like before, the discoloration begins after the phone has spent some time outside.
Our suggestion is to just sit and wait for Apple to acknowledge the issue and start replacing the faulty units. It did so last time, so no reason to expect it will be different this year.
We also have the Burgundy variant of the iPhone 18 Pro Max here in the office, but we haven’t observed any abnormalities with it. Then again, we’ve been very careful when handling it and it hasn’t been outside as much as a phone in the real world would be.
Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3
