Dear Apple, I want 'Space Black' on everything, including a 'dark mode' iPhone 16
"Space Black" looks badass — period. When Apple debuted the Space Black MacBook Pro at the "Scary Fast" Apple livestream event in October, I was salivating.
There's something mysterious, smoldering, and seductive about it.
If the Space Black MacBook Pro were personified, I'd imagine it'd be Morpheus from The Matrix or a mature Wednesday Addams. Or better yet, a film noir detective with a confident swagger, dressed in an onyx suit, sitting in a billow of smoke as he puffs his cigar in a seedy bar.
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Space Black isn't just a color to me. It's a mood, a vibe — one that matches my silent mystique and enigmatic introvert personality. And I want it on everything, including the upcoming iPhone 16.
Space Black debuted last year, but with limitations
Apple unveiled the new Space Black MacBook Pro last year — and it had Apple enthusiasts in a tizzy.
It's not just the color that had people chatting. The device featured a fingerprint-resistant, dark-aluminum finish, which had folks, including myself, in a chokehold.
I adore the color on my 15-inch M2 MacBook Air, which comes in Midnight Blue. (It's the closest I could get to black with Starlight, Space Gray, and Silver on the menu.) However, I do need to keep a microfiber cloth handy; it attracts fingerprints like bees to honey.
Space Black on the MacBook Pro, on the other hand, features a "breakthrough chemistry" finish, as Apple calls it, that forms an anodization seal to keep pesky fingerprints at bay. Insert the heart-eyes emoji here!
However, if you wanted a Space Black MacBook Pro, you'd be nuts to think you could grab the cheapest model, starting at $1,599 (MacBook Pro with M3 chip). You'd have to snag, at the very least, the M3 Pro MacBook Pro, which sets you back $1,999. Oof! Guess my dreams of typing on a laptop that looks ripped out of a black Optimus Prime will have to wait.
Space Black certainly isn't Apple's first pure black MacBook color. As Inverse pointed out, Apple released the first black MacBook in 2006 (though the first black Apple laptop was the G3 Powerbook.)
And well, since then, you'd be hard-pressed to find a black MacBook. As such, I can't help but wonder if this is a brilliant marketing ploy where the Cupertino-based tech giant was playing the long game.
Black is prevalent among other laptop brands (e.g., Lenovo), but the scarcity of true black among MacBooks had "people losing their minds," as Inverse said, when Apple unveiled the Space Black MacBook Pro last year.
If Apple could make an even darker, richer color than Space Black — the blackest black to ever black in the history of black — I'd lose my mind, too.
There's now a "Space Black" iPad — is this a sign?
Fortunately, it looks like Space Black won't be limited to the M3 Pro MacBook Pro. Apple unveiled the new iPad Pro. I gasped when I heard that it comes in Space Black, starting with $999 for the 11-inch model and $1,299 for the 13-inch model.
It's a more accessible entry into Space Black. And naturally, the iPad Air, priced at $599, got locked out of the Space Black fun. You can only choose from Space Gray, Blue, Purple, and Starlight. Blue and Purple look OK, but they're too muted for my tastes. I prefer rich, vivid hues.
Sadly, though, the Space Black iPad does not come with the same fingerprint-resistant seal featured on the Space Black M3 Pro MacBook Pro.
I want my iPhone 16 in dark mode, please
The last iPhone I truly loved was the Pacific Blue, which was featured on my iPhone 12 Pro. It was so stunning, I risked a cracked screen to go caseless.
Granted, the iPhone 15 Pro models, featuring a new titanium chassis, do come in "Titanium Black," but it's not the same. Titanium Black lacks the richness and vividness I'm looking for in a pure onyx chassis.
So here's my plea to Apple: I want the iPhone 16 to look like it was dipped in jet-black ink, as if you'd find it on Batman's desk in his Batcave or his bedroom dresser in Wayne Manor. I want a dark mode iPhone 16 — a Space Black iPhone 16, to be specific.
I want to walk around with a badass iPhone 16 Pro Max with an inky-black hue — and bonus points if it has some sort of anti-smudge tech. (Though it's worth noting that iPhone 15 Pro Max, which I've had the pleasure of testing, didn't have any issues with fingerprints, thanks to the brushed metal.)
Apple, of course, is going to do what Apple wants, but I'm crossing my fingers that my prayers are answered — and Space Black iPhone 16 Pro models are revealed in September later this year. (If not on the iPhone 16, I'll wait for the iPhone 17.)
Finally, I'd die and go to heaven if a blackest-black finish came to the AirPods Pro and Apple Pencil Pro. Hell, let's get an inky-black colorway for every Apple product that matches my cold, black heart.
Kimberly Gedeon, at Mashable since 2023, is a tech explorer who enjoys doing deep dives into the most popular gadgets, from the latest iPhones to the most immersive VR headsets. She's drawn to strange, avant-garde, bizarre tech, whether it's a 3D laptop, a gaming rig that can transform into a briefcase, or smart glasses that can capture video. Her journalism career kicked off about a decade ago at MadameNoire where she covered tech and business before landing as a tech editor at Laptop Mag in 2020.
