The clip runs 14 seconds. Someone holds a dark cherry iPhone 18 Pro Max, sets a dark blue iPhone 17 Pro Max next to it for comparison, and a light blue model sits on a stand behind them, in what looks like a shop. It came from yeux1122, a leaker with a real record who has lately been reposting Chinese social media rather than sourcing anything. 9to5Mac went through the frame and found the display table far too small for a store, the product tags unattached and sitting at a random angle, and almost nothing behind them that looks like a real shop floor. Dummy units are easy to come by too. A colleague who had just been round the IFA show floor in Berlin found that every single case company there had ones that looked and felt real.
AppleInsider stopped at the price sticker, which is well made, says 256GB, and lists what looks like a monthly hire purchase figure in Russian rubles, around $123 a month. William Gallagher allowed that Apple does not sell iPhones in Russia at all, so a high number there proves less than it first looks. He also asked why anyone filming an unreleased iPhone would stop after a few seconds. "If you have a camera and Bigfoot in front of you, you don't just take one shot or record a few seconds." Dark Cherry and Sky Blue have been the expected finishes for weeks, which is what makes them the cheap thing to fake. Apple shows the lineup on Wednesday.