After the launch of the iPhone 17 Pro last year, A Reddit A thread has emerged suggesting that the phone’s vibrant cosmic orange color could somehow turn into a bright pink. like PCMag’s Eric Zeman notedIt is possible that the color of the phone in question has changed due to cleaning materials that affected the finish, as oxidation is responsible for the color turning from orange to hot pink. Sure, this might be technically wrong, but in all honesty I love pink phones (remember… Pink Moto Razr V3?) And the thought of a hot pink iPhone 17 Pro filled me with joy. So I wanted to see if I could test the theory and see what discolouration effects different household cleaners could have on my phone.
It’s important to note here that the iPhone 17 Pro I used was purchased by CNET for testing purposes. If I had paid more than $1,000 of my own money, I would never be so reckless as to stain it with chemicals that could damage it beyond repair. And neither should you. If you need to clean your phone, do it safely. Disclaimers aside, let’s dig deeper.
Don’t do what I do. Keep this away from your phone.
Chemicals
I purchased two chemicals to test this. Ziman explains that it may be oxidation that caused the color change and that hydrogen peroxide can do this. I couldn’t find this product over the counter in the UK, so instead bought an ‘Oxy Active’ stain remover spray which contains, among other things, ‘oxygen based whitening agents’ which seemed perfect. Apple also clearly states “Do not use products that contain bleach or hydrogen peroxide.” Its support page So, naturally, I bought some thicker bleach as well.
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Oxy application
I started by spraying the oxy cleaner onto a microfiber cloth until it was noticeably damp from the liquid, then applied this liberally to the back of my iPhone. The Reddit user who owned the affected phone showed that it only affected the metal parts, not the glass back panel, so I made sure to focus my attention on the sides and the camera bar.
Smear the chemicals with a cloth.
With the phone thoroughly soaked in chemicals that had nothing to do with being near the phone, I left it to sit and think about what it had done for 30 minutes – after which time I wiped it dry and did a thorough inspection. Disappointingly my phone was still orange from the factory, instead of the ‘what the hell did you do with your phone’ pink colour. It’s time to move on.
Bleach explosion
I opened the bleach and tried hard not to think about my days as a middle school cleaner, put a large dot of the stuff on a cloth and smeared it over the defenseless phone, focusing again on the metal areas. I definitely had to wear protective gloves for all of this, so please make sure you take better care of yourself than I do if you do anything with bleach.
Again, I gave it a 30-minute settling period before cleaning it and checking the results. The phone remained as orange as ever, looking just as new as it had back in the day when it was actually new.
The orange iPhone 17 Pro remains unscathed, and perhaps a bit cleaner.
Is the pink iPhone 17 real?
I first tried this back in October, and since then I’ve reapplied both chemicals several times, leaving them for up to an hour on the phone until they start working. After several months I don’t think there is any noticeable difference. In a certain light, if I squint a little and angle the phone the right way, I’m thinking maybe I can see a slight shift in color. But I also think I might be imagining it. It certainly doesn’t look like the dramatic images seen in the original Reddit post.
I can’t say for sure whether Reddit user’s photos of the pink iPhone 17 Pro are real or not. The lovable, human side of me wants to take them at their word, while the journalist in me is a bit more skeptical. What I can say for sure is that accidentally spraying your orange iPhone with household cleaning products once or twice briefly is not going to give you a funky, super-rare pink color that you can sell on eBay for a small fortune.
Using pure peroxide could be the thing that does it, but let’s be honest, if you’re going out of your way to throw synthetic chemicals on your phone, you might as well try dyeing it directly. My goal here was to see how the orange model was affected by everyday household cleaners like kitchen cleaner or bathroom bleach — the kind of things it might naturally come into contact with in routine use. And what I found is that no, it won’t ruin the beautiful orange color. But maybe this is still not suitable for your phone.