Apple's new MacBook Air colours mark the end of an era

There's something in the Air at Apple this week, with the company unveiling both a new iPad Air and MacBook Air. Featuring the M4 chip, the latter has now been brought up to speed with the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, no doubt making it a shoo-in for our best laptops for drawing roundup.

Not only is the new MacBook Air more powerful, but it's also more affordable. The 13-inch model starts at $999, a whole $100 cheaper than the M3 model. And Apple's also given us a brand new colour, the delectable Sky Blue. But as fans of Space Grey, previously thought to be a mainstay, have discovered that Apple both giveth and taketh away.

Somewhat surprisingly, Apple has ditched the Space Grey option without giving us a black alternative. The only colours available are Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight and Midnight. The latter comes the closest to black, but it's still a dark navy blue. So if you want a truly monochrome MacBook, your only option now is the much pricier M4 MacBook Pro.

"Adding a new choice to the lineup of MacBook Air colours is the all-new sky blue. A beautiful, metallic light blue that creates a dynamic gradient when light reflects off of its surface, sky blue joins midnight, starlight, and silver to complete the brilliant array of colour choices for MacBook Air," Apple announces on its website.

The writing's been on the wall for Space Grey for a while – Apple has been phasing it out in favour of the deeper Space Black on various products. But the lack of black here has taken many fans by surprise.

"Well now I'm getting the space Grey M3. Why the hell did they have to remove it. Man," one Redditor comments, while another adds, "I was waiting for m4 and hoped to buy space gray. I’m furious rn."

As for why Apple ditched the grey, some users have theories. Over the last few years, there have been complaints of discolouration over time, particularly where the palms rest beside the trackpad. This might explain why Apple ended up introducing Space Black for the MacBook Pro, but it's still strange to see it omitted entirely.

When we get our hands on the new MacBook Air (hopefully without discolouring it), we'll give you the full lowdown on both its performance and design. In the meantime, we're still big fans of the previous version – take a look at our M3 MacBook Air review.