Apple no longer sells a space gray Mac as color drops to just two new products

The outgoing M3 MacBook Air is the last new Mac to come in a space gray aluminum finish. The M4 model replaces space gray with sky blue.

Apple first introduced space gray as a product color in 2013 with the iPhone 5s, replacing the slate iPhone 5.

Space gray later came to the Mac in 2015 with the 12-inch MacBook — the first aluminum Macs to come in any color but silver.

Apple added space gray to the MacBook Pro line a year later before redesigning the MacBook Air in 2018 and including a space gray option.

Apple later sold the iMac Pro exclusively in space gray. For the last Intel Mac mini desktops, Apple sold higher-end models in space gray.

Starting the with M4 MacBook Pro, Apple dropped space gray from the MacBook Pro line in favor of space black.

Apple also used space gray to describe the original HomePod, HomePod mini, and AirPods Max. More recently, space gray versions have been replaced with midnight.

Last year, Apple replaced the space gray M3 iPad Pro with the space black M4 iPad Pro. Years earlier, the iPad 10 dropped space gray from the base model iPad in favor of silver, blue, yellow, and pink.

For now, Apple is down to just two space gray products: the M3 iPad Air introduced yesterday, and the A17 Pro iPad mini introduced last fall.

Space black, jet black, midnight, and just plain black have replaced space gray versions of the Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods Max, HomePod, and HomePod mini.

If there’s one thing true about Apple’s space gray color, it’s that there has never really been one true space gray. Michael Steeber mapped the vast universe of space gray in 2018.

Space gray has at times appeared more silver than gray. Even now, space black can easily be mistaken for space gray depending on lighting conditions. At any rate, the era of peak space gray appears to be behind us in favor of a darker future — or blue skies at least for the M4 MacBook Air!