Apple announced a new red iPhone 7 with a matte metallic texture on Tuesday, and it looks gorgeous.
YouTube/Marques Brownlee
My colleague Rob Price thinks it's $4 from the monotonous "metal body, available in silver/gold/black" and glass designs we've recently seen on many smartphones.
Yet, there's a caveat to breaking away from that monotony, and it takes the form of a higher price tag.
The Special Edition (Product) RED iPhone 7 starts at $750, and the red iPhone 7 Plus at $870, both of which are at least $100 more than the base price of the other iPhone 7 models (with the exception of the jet black color).
That's because the red iPhone 7 is only available in the pricier 128GB and 256GB options. It's not available in the cheaper 32GB option, which costs $650 for the iPhone 7 and $770 for the iPhone 7 Plus.
Apple
This isn't the first time Apple limited a certain color option to more expensive iPhone models. When it released the jet black iPhone 7 last year, arguably the most desirable new color option at the time, it also announced that it was $4s. That made the Jet Black iPhone 7 inherently more expensive than the other color options, which is still the case today.
For many, 128GB of storage is overkill, especially when cloud storage and cloud services are becoming more and more prominent. Think Google Photos for free unlimited photo storage, or Spotify for music streaming. The need to store photos and music locally on your phone, two of the biggest storage hogs you could have on your phone, is diminishing.
At the same time, limiting the most desirable colors, including the red model, to the more expensive 128GB and 256GB options adds to its "Special Edition" vibe.
The $4 models will be available to buy on Friday, March 24.