Apple May Revive Transparent Design for iPhone 18 Pro
A new rumor suggests that Apple could give the Pro version of the iPhone 18 a partially transparent back. The company had already successfully used transparent designs like its legendary iMac G3 in the past.
Transparent design for iPhone 18 Pro
After there were recent reports about the new colors of the upcoming Apple smartphones and their new front camera, another rumor now suggests that Apple is planning a transparent back for the iPhone 18 Pro. If this information turns out to be true, Apple would be making an unusual design change that is significantly different from the previous iPhone aesthetics.
However, Apple would not be the first manufacturer to equip its devices with transparent backs. The currently best-known example of a transparent cell phone is probably the Nothing Phone. Internal components such as the wireless charging station and the smartphone’s NFC coil are visible through the special design.
Source and possible translation error
The information comes from Digital Chat Station Weibo (via 9to5Mac), a well-known Chinese leaker who regularly reports on upcoming smartphone developments. However, the transparent back rumor could possibly be based on a mistranslation of the original text. The social media post, written in abbreviated Chinese characters, is particularly vague, leaving a lot of room for interpretation.
In the current iPhone 17 series, there is a clear difference in the color of the glass of the MagSafe cutout compared to the rest of the smartphone case. A “transparent design” in this case could therefore mean that the area in question blends in better with the rest of the phone, rather than being literally transparent. Such translation errors are not uncommon in Chinese leaks, as technical terms can often be interpreted ambiguously.
Apple’s transparent past
However, the counter-argument is that Apple has already experimented with transparent designs before. The iMac G3 from 1998, for example, was a radical design change with its translucent blue plastic casing and is now seen as the savior of an Apple company that was struggling financially at the time. The device, which later received several other color variants, shaped an entire era of industrial design. But earlier models such as the Power Macintosh 8600 and 9600 and the LaserWriter 8500 used translucent colored plastics. However, the success of the iMac led to other computer manufacturers adopting the translucent plastic design.
Apple is expected to introduce the first models of the iPhone 18 series in September 2026. Until the official presentation, expect more rumors to emerge, perhaps shedding more light on the actual design plans.
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