Poll of the Week: Do you really care about your smartphone color?

I myself admitted in the question that I expected an easy win of votes from those who care about color - reader Bjorn was even clearer than me on this point. And even though the answer got the most votes across all NextPit domains, especially in France with 55% of the vote, the two "No" answers had about 20% of the vote each.

Even with the clear victory of #TimeCores, the #TimeCap (#teamHülle) made itself noticed, especially on the German and English language sites. Trixi's comment highlighted a point I hadn't thought of when preparing the question:

I don't , I can't see the back [of the phone] after buying it anyway.

A counterargument was brought up by Flip and Lapidarius. You can take advantage of a bigger discount on less popular colors. Color advocates pointed that there's not only the issue of personal taste, but also that some colors may have a higher resale value.

Laazaruslong, on the other hand, has declared unconditional support for color options, especially if it's the blue of his current Poco X3 Pro. #ColorYourLife. Which brings us to the real intention behind the poll of the week:

Do you care about the color names on mobile phones?

The idea for the poll was discussed a week before the Pixel 6 lineup launched, when we already had a nudge of the names Google would give to the models color options - but without knowing that not all the colours would be available in all storage options in the countries where the phones would be sold, something well remembered by Tim in the comments.

Less than 10% of total participants expressed that they cared about the names given to the phones colors, with only English-language readers of the site registering more than double-digit percentages for the option - I suspect due to the fact that the names, usually in English, are more relevant to English-speaking markets.

While in the French, Brazilian, and English-speaking domains, the "I don't care" option received the most votes, NextPit's German community community was split between the option and the answer "I think it's a waste of time," with a slight advantage for the latter.

A point well remembered by reader Tim was Samsung's, that in some launches basically includes the same adjective for all the colors of a line - case of the "Phantom Violet" options like the "Phantom Violet/Pink/White/Silver/Black" line Galaxy S21, or the "Awesome White/Black/Violet/Blue/Mint" Galaxy A52.

He also recalled that, in the specific case of Apple's (Product) Red, the name serves to highlight the concept behind the option, to return part of the profits to a cause (fight against AIDS, COVID, etc.).

In the end, Luna's comment on the French site seems to represent well a large part of the votes and comments in the poll:

If I choose a color, it is not for its name, but for the pleasure it gives me when contemplating [the cell phone].

And with that we close the poll of the week. Thanks to all participants, votes and comments, next Friday we'll see you in a new poll.

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Original text

Kinda Coral, Sorta Sunny, Cloudy White, Sorta Seafoam; just to keep up with tradition, Google has christened the Pixel 6 lineup's color options in its own creative manner. But the company isn't alone, with the market being increasingly obsessed over more and more miraculous names for its major releases. Hence, it leads us to ask in this week's poll: Do you enjoy this creative exercise by brands and companies, or has it crossed the line somewhat?

First of all, the answer to the question in this page's title is probably already evident: the public LOVES to have options when it comes to colors. In fact, the more, the merrier. Smartphone launches like the iPhone 13, Galaxy S21,Mi 11 Lite and of course, the Pixel 6, show that manufacturers are meeting market demand, something that has always been there since the time of the colorful 2G Nokia handsets.

Still, I need to ask:

Now that we gotten that out of the way, let's get to the poll of the week.

Do you care about the color names used for smartphones?

Those of you who follow the numerous launches every month may have noticed how some manufacturers go to great lengths to highlight the color names of their devices. But have you ever seen someone talk about using an "iPhone® (PRODUCT)Red®" instead of simply saying "my red iPhone", and did anyone see where I left my "Snowflake White Mi 11"?

The strategy in some cases makes life difficult not only for the (poor) journalists who need to translate some miraculous names that have no relation to a known color (breathing crystal, anyone?) but also for the regional branches of the companies themselves.

Xiaomi and Motorola in Brazil, for instance, simply threw in the towel and instead of using pompous terms like "Midnight Gray/Cloud White/Horizon Blue" and "Electric Graphite/Lagoon Green" by adopting the traditional "gray/white/blue" and "gray/green" for the Mi 11 and Edge 20 models, respectively.

Google even tried a little harder perhaps as a result of the limited number of countries where the Pixel 6 is sold and translated the model names into French. But in this case, with different names for France where it took some liberties in adapting the smartphone and for the French-speaking part of Canada, by using almost literal translations:

Pixel 6 colors

United States/Germany	France	Canada	Portuguese*
Stormy Black	Black Carbone	Black tempête	Black
Kinda Coral	n/a	Plus ou moins corail	Orange
Sorta Seafoam	Gris Océan	Quasi écume de mer	Green

Now that I'm done with this grumpy vent - *perhaps caused by the fact that Google does not sell Pixel phones in selected localities, maybe I'll stop using the official names in the next news, depending on the poll results...

What about you? Do you have a favorite color or color name? Do you prefer to customize the colors of your smartphone with a collection of different covers? Leave your criticisms and opinions in the comments below. As always, we'll meet again on Monday (25) October when we'll analyze responses from the NextPit community.