The base iPhone 18 has turned up in leaked images in three colors, White, Pink and Dark Blue, Android Headlines reports. Those may not be the names Apple uses. It likes to give its colors something fancier on launch day.
From the front and sides, it's an iPhone 17. The change is on the back. A raised camera plateau, the kind Apple put on its Pro models, now runs along the top of the phone. The two rear cameras are still stacked in the top-left corner, but they sit on that raised section now. The flash moves to its top-right corner, and the whole thing sticks out from the back.
A fourth image shows a dummy built to match the final design, and it has the same plateau. An earlier leaked dummy showed a camera bar across the top of the back as well, so the two line up.
The images show two rear cameras, the same count as now, and say nothing about the chip, the memory or the price. Earlier reports put Apple's A20 chip inside and the starting price at $799, the same as the iPhone 17 today.
Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and the iPhone Duo last month and left the standard model out. For years the base iPhone launched next to the Pros in September. This time it didn't. The iPhone 18 is now tipped for March 2027, about five months from now, and Apple hasn't said a word about it.
Normally the base iPhone and the Pros arrive together, and you pick one of them in the same week. This year the Pros are already out, the standard model is half a year behind, and the iPhone 17 stays the newest standard iPhone you can buy until spring.
If you were hoping the base model would get a new look, it mostly doesn't. The shape and the dual cameras carry over, and the camera bump is the part you'd notice. Pink and Dark Blue would give it some color, and White keeps a plain option in the lineup.
If you need a phone now, the iPhone 17 is a safe buy. These images suggest its successor will look a lot like it, apart from that camera bar. If you can wait until March and want the newer chip or the Pro-style back, holding off makes sense, but watch for Apple's own announcement before you plan around a date.