- This is the second patent Apple has registered for a matte black MacBook, hinting that development is still in process.
- Currently, the MacBook Air is offered in Midnight and the MacBook Pro is offered in Space Gray colour option.
- Apple had earlier introduced a Matte Black colour option on an aluminium back with the iPhone 7 series in 2016.
Apple is known to submit hundreds of patents every year which get caught by the public eye. They can range from the company’s own pizza boxes to Face ID that we use in our iPhones every day. While a lot of the technology does end up in their products, quite a bit of it does not or just takes a lot of time. This time, Apple seems to have been working on perfecting a colour option for their upcoming MacBooks based on a new listing.
Apple matte black MacBook
A report from 9to5Mac details how Apple has submitted a second patent explaining the way they’ll perfect a matte black finish on upcoming MacBooks. The first patent was listed way back in 2020 and the new patent (dated September 5th, 2023) describes almost the same process.
Apple is seemingly looking into producing a true black finish with no light reflections. The new finish could absorb light to ensure it seems consistent at any angle or lighting conditions. The anodized layer on top of the laptop body could feature “nano-scale tubes having colour particles infused” and “an external surface having peaks of varying heights that are separated by pits of varying depths.”
Currently, Apple only has a Space Gray finish for its MacBook Pro while the MacBook Air models feature a dark bluish-black Midnight colour option, a name borrowed from the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 series black variant. iPhone 7 devices from 2016 had a Matte Black colour option with a silky, fingerprint-resistant finish on their aluminium bodies.
A matte black option could certainly seem appealing to enthusiasts who’ve gotten bored of the various shades of Space Gray that Apple provides in its Pro devices. It remains to be seen how much time the Californian company takes to bring this finish to a production device. For now, all eyes are on the iPhone 15 series launch event scheduled for September 15th.
