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Space Gray - wears off, or not?

pakupakuman

pakupakuman

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 30, 2013
75
42
Hello -

I went to see the iPhone X, and since already at the store, took a look at the Macbook Pro. I must confess, it looks very tempting in Space Gray!

That said, is the Space Gray "for life", or does/can it wear off? Sorry if it has been asked before. Thanks, regards.
 
If you mean the paint, no it doesn't.

I have had the 12" SG MacBook since 2015, and the SG 15" MacBook with TB since last December (although this has a dbrand skin on).

The SG colour definitely does not come off with normal use and if you take care of them.
 
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Fireball Dragon said:
paint, colour, coating.. whatever you want to call it. Just used the word paint for simplicity here.

Bottom line is, the 'colour'(?) doesn't come off...
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Yes it does. I've seen some banged up machines and they look terrible. Anodization scratched off in several places. But the carefully handled ones looked good.

So, as you say if you're careful or use a case cover, then get an colour-anodized one if you want. But if you have a habit of banging up your uncovered laptops, stick with silver.
 
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EugW said:
Yes it does. I've seen some banged up machines and they look terrible. Anodization scratched off in several places. But the carefully handled ones looked good.

So, as you say if you're careful or use a case cover, then get an colour-anodized one if you want. But if you have a habit of banging up your uncovered laptops, stick with silver.
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Read my first post "The SG colour definitely does not come off with normal use and if you take care of them."
 
Thanks to all for the replies. I was mostly curious about areas where your palm may rest, where your fingers open the top, ports.
 
Yes, it categorically does wear off. I've just sold my space grey 15" rMBP and replaced it with silver for this reason.

The palm rests are very prone to this. People will tell you that it can't do this, but I can categorically tell you the opposite. Under very careful use with extremely close attention paid to keeping the machine clean and perfect cosmetically, there were clear faded spots where my palms would rest.

I've owned just about every generation of Apple portable over the past 15 years and this has never happened. The apple store were great, and replaced the top case as my keyboard also had an issue, but it absolutely is vulnerable to this even with meticulous care.

I can't recommend space grey anymore.
 
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I use mine all day every day, other than cleaning in about once a fortnight I couldn't gives a rats anus about babying a computer. Still looks exactly the same colour it did 12 months ago, no fading or discolouration. If this did happen, knowing the chemical process that etches the colour into the aluminium, I'd probably go see a doctor before I saw Apple.
 
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New_Mac_Smell said:
I use mine all day every day, other than cleaning in about once a fortnight I couldn't gives a rats anus about babying a computer. Still looks exactly the same colour it did 12 months ago, no fading or discolouration. If this did happen, knowing the chemical process that etches the colour into the aluminium, I'd probably go see a doctor before I saw Apple.
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Charming. I hope your misguided sense of confidence in the coating doesn’t come back to haunt you one day.

OP, for what it’s worth, as I said before, my hands are meticulously clean (I studied medicine for 9 years and have an ocd-like approach to hand hygiene, particularly when using my MacBook). I never ate or drank around the MacBook and it was treated with the upmost care. When I took it to Apple, they stated it was normal behaviour and to be expected. Had it not been for the keyboard problem, they wouldn’t have swapped the top case under AppleCare. I was not the first they had seen with this problem.

Straight from the horses mouth.
 
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davidjearly said:
Charming. I hope your misguided sense of confidence in the coating doesn’t come back to haunt you one day.

OP, for what it’s worth, as I said before, my hands are meticulously clean (I studied medicine for 9 years and have an ocd-like approach to hand hygiene, particularly when using my MacBook). I never ate or drank around the MacBook and it was treated with the upmost care. When I took it to Apple, they stated it was normal behaviour and to be expected. Had it not been for the keyboard problem, they wouldn’t have swapped the top case under AppleCare. I was not the first they had seen with this problem.

Straight from the horses mouth.
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Maybe it was the remnants of Hibiclens / Bactoshield / whatever your preferred choice of hand sanitizer happens to be? :)

My laptop is too new to comment on longevity, but man am I loving space grey. :) Just like red cars go the fastest and black basses are the most metal, space grey MacBook Pros are the sleekest (tongue planted firmly in cheek here).

One thing I finally figured out was the USB-C ports farthest from the spacebar line up exactly with the touchBar on the 15" model so that has greatly reduced fumbling to find the port in less than optimal lighting conditions. I mention this, because if I do bring the USB-C port under the light and look at it very closely I can see where the edges of the port have gotten shinier. It's one of those you'll never notice it unless you break out a magnifying glass and look for it thing so it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
 
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It's possible that some folks' body chemistry just reacts with the Space Grey finish more than does others'...
 
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