Macbook Pro 13 Space Gray discoloration

Space gray coloring is a Paint process. The paint has discolored.

Almost anything you apply is likely to change the color even more in an even weirder direction. But I suggest car-paint products over household cleaners, and avoid anything with any abrasive in it, such as polishing compound.

As of this moment I am encountering this problem too with my MacBook Pro 15 inch Touch bar. I'm having discolouration on both sides of the palm rests. I've tried searching about this and so far a couple of posts emerged about the space grey MacBooks having discolouration on the palm rests. But it seems to me that this has been an issue since 2006 with the MacBooks even before the space grey came out. I've tried everything to clean the stains out, including buying cleaning kits, water on microfibre cloths, soap and even alcohol to some extent. None of these worked out. The only thing I didn't try is using Mr. clean Magic Eraser or melamine foams to scrub off the stains. This seemed to be the only solution when looking back at the posts in 2006, but again I'm kind of scared to use it since no one tried it on a space grey MacBook before. The MacBooks they used it on were all white. Plus I can't find any melamine foam where I live so yeah.

I think that this is caused by hand creme I've seen this happen a few times

You are safe on all fronts, certainly you want to spray or apply to a cloth not directly onto the machine. That is to say no running liquid on the machine.

I have heard it said Apple does not recommend any chemicals be used on the oleophobic coated iDevice screens as they can damage the coating. Just use a microfiber cloth to clean the screen.

Apple uses a product called iKlear as a cleaner/polish for displays. acrylic, glass & aluminum.

Cleaning your Apple products - Apple Support

There have been known issues in the past with some screen types

MBP Retina Scratched Coating

YES! I am having literally the exact same problem. For as much as this cost I am not happy.

I got the same problem. I'm only speculating, but its common for me to have discolouring on laptops and keyboards and I'm thinking that it may have to do with skin pH. I don't sweat much but I do have a more oily skin than average.

It still really annoying and this stain will sure hurt the resale value. If I knew before I would definitely add some protective layer, even apple recommending not to do so.

This happened to my MacBook Pro 2016 model. I also had an issue with the keyboard not functioning properly. I brought it in and Apple gave me a new keyboard entirely. So I get to start over. I will see if this new keyboard fades like the old one.

I've just realized another possible reason for a discoloration of the (space gray) aluminium surface of my MacBook Pro. This is actually a little embarrassing...

It looks like there is a discolored spot where I rest my hand, exactly like on the photo by €ervantes93. This might be the result of the natural oil produced by my hand reacting with the aluminium surface. Or maybe it is a hand cream/oil that I use reacting with the surface of the computer.

However I also realized that the area around the spot that seems discolored is slightly dirty, and when cleaning this area (by rubbing my finger on it vigorously or using a non-alcohol based cleaning product), it appears it gets lighter. Therefore, it would appear that the spot that looks discolored is actually close to the original color, and the entire space gray aluminium body attracts so much dirt that it changes color over time.

I'm curious what others think of these 2 theories?

I have a similar discoloration on the top case of my 2017 MBP (had it since Dec 2017).

I think it's more likely that it's fading where our palms rest, though I'm interested to see if there's a possibility of the rest of the device darkening moderately over time.

Something tells me we'll never know for sure, and realistically I'll likely just get my topcase replaced with the keyboard over the next year, but as with a few other things relating to build quality, I'm rather unimpressed with this gen MBP and hope that by the next time I'm shopping for a machine, they work out all these kinks.

You are talking to other users here. Apple does not even scan these forums, and never answers here.

I stand corrected.

It does appear to be an anodizing process, but a more robust one than the one that makes red keys and such stuff.

i have the same problem on mbpro 15 - 2017

Yes, exact same issue with that model. Quite upsetting that it looks awful and will affect the resale value.