Following the launch of the iPhone 17 Pro last year, a Reddit thread emerged suggesting that the phone’s vibrant cosmic orange color could somehow turn bright pink. As PCMag’s Eric Zeman noted, it’s possible that the phone in question had been discolored by cleaning substances that affected the finish, with oxidation being to blame for the color shift from orange to hot pink. Sure, this might technically be a fault, but in all honesty I love pink phones (remember the pink Moto Razr V3?) and the idea of a hot pink iPhone 17 Pro filled me with joy. So I wanted to see if I could test the theory and see just what color-changing effects various household cleaners might have on my phone.
It’s important to note here that the iPhone 17 Pro I used was bought by CNET for the purposes of testing. Had I paid over $1,000 of my own money I would never be so reckless in smearing it with chemicals that could potentially irreparably harm it. And you shouldn’t either. If you need to clean your phone, do it safely. Disclaimer aside, let’s dive in.
Do not do what I do. Keep this away from your phone.
The chemicals
I bought two chemicals to test this out. Zeman explains that it may be oxidation that caused the color to change and that hydrogen peroxide could do this. I couldn’t find this over the counter in the UK, so I instead bought an “oxy-active” stain remover spray that, among other things, contains “oxygen-based bleaching agents” which sounded ideal. Apple also clearly states “don’t use products containing bleach or hydrogen peroxide” on its support page so, naturally, I bought some thick bleach too.
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Oxy application
I started by spraying the oxy cleaner on a microfiber cloth until it was noticeably wet from the liquid and then liberally applied this all over the rear of the iPhone. The Reddit user with 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 camera bar.
Smearing on the chemicals with a cloth.
With the phone well and truly doused in chemicals that have no business being anywhere near a phone, I left it to sit and think about what it had done for 30 minutes — after which time I wiped it dry and took a close inspection. Disappointingly, my phone was still factory orange, rather than “what the hell have you done to your phone” pink. Time to move on.
Bleach blast
I opened the bleach and trying hard not to think about my days as a middle school cleaner, applied a liberal blob of the stuff to a cloth and smeared it over the defenceless phone, concentrating again on the metal areas. I definitely should have worn 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 in period before cleaning it off and inspecting the results. The phone remained as orange as ever, looking as box fresh as it was the day before when it was, indeed, box fresh.
The orange iPhone 17 Pro survives, unscathed, and probably a bit cleaner.
Is the pink iPhone 17 real?
I tried this first back in October and have since reapplied both chemicals multiple times, leaving them for up to an hour on the phone to really get to work. Several months later I don’t think there’s any notable difference. In certain light, if I sort of squint a bit and angle the phone in just the right way then I think maybe I can see a slight shift in the color. But I also think I might be imagining it. Certainly it’s nothing like the dramatic images seen in the original Reddit post.
I can’t say with any certainty whether the Reddit user’s images of a pink iPhone 17 Pro are real or not. The cuddly human side of me wants to take them at their word, while the journalist in me is a bit more sceptical. What I can say with certainty is that accidentally splashing your orange iPhone with household cleaning products once or twice briefly isn’t going to win you a funky, ultra-rare pink hue that you could sell on eBay for a small fortune.
It’s possible that using pure peroxide could be the thing that does it, but to be honest, if you’re going out of your way to throw industrial-grade chemicals at your phone then you may as well just directly try and dye it. My goal here was to see how susceptible the orange model is to everyday household cleaners such as kitchen cleaner or bathroom bleach — the sort of things it might naturally come into contact with in routine use. And what I’ve found is that, no, it won’t ruin the nice orange color. But it’s probably still not good for your phone.
