Apple’s big fall announcements have come and gone with new entries in both the Apple Watch and iPhone lineups. The focus, of course, was on improvements to the devices’ hardware and the capabilities enabled by those improvements. New case materials, processors, and data connectors are exciting, but I’m here to talk about the real change customers care about: color. People are passionate about the colors of their devices, and Apple always delivers an interesting mix of options. This year is no different.

First off, congratulations are in order for fans of Pink. Between Barbie and Apple’s fall hardware offering, this is your year. Pink is the featured new color for both the Apple Watch Series 9 and the iPhone 15, and I have to say it looks great. The anodized aluminum shade is clearly pink without being overstated, and the pink frosted glass back of the iPhone 15 is truly eye-catching. Apple made the right call choosing this hue to lead the lineup.

As far as the other color options for the iPhone 15, the device is available in pale shades of Blue, Green, and Yellow in addition to Black. These desaturated finishes aren’t going to please everyone, but they are sophisticated in a certain way. They’re varied enough that every customer looking to buy an iPhone 15 will find one that suits them well. The lack of a Silver finish is an odd choice, leaving Black as the only non-colorful option.

Let’s talk about Black for a second. Most products announced at the event come in some shade of black, but no two finishes are the same. Here are the different options introduced this year:

iPhone 15 and 15 Plus: Black
iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max: Black Titanium
Apple Watch Series 9: Midnight (aluminum), Graphite (stainless steel), and Space Black (Hermés edition)

That’s five unique black finishes across three different product lines and three different materials. I find it interesting that the aluminum Apple Watch Series 9 continues to come in Midnight while the iPhone 15, which is also made of aluminum, is offered in a finish that is distinctly black without any hint of Midnight’s blueish undertones.

This situation makes me the miss the days when everything just came in Space Grey. Sure, it was more of a spectrum than a specific shade, but at least I knew what to call the color of my phone.

I continue to be sad that my favorite Apple Watch color, Space Black, is limited to the Hermés collection and thus starts at $1,249. That’s a high markup to get something slightly darker than Graphite. But I guess looking good comes with a price.

The Apple Watch Ultra continues to only be offered in a single Natural Titanium finish. Alas, there’s still no dark color option for the most extreme Apple Watch users. For those who like the Natural Titanium look, though, you can now buy a pro iPhone in the same finish, and it really works.

The iPhone 15 Pro also comes in Black Titanium, White Titanium, and Blue Titanium. (Have you heard the iPhone 15 Pro is made of titanium now?) The blue version is this year’s “fun” option, and it’s quite nice. It follows in the footsteps of last year’s Deep Purple by keeping things dark and muted while still clearly incorporating color.

Fans of the gold iPhone will be sorely disappointed with Apple’s new offering. It looks like gold and titanium just don’t fit well together, or at least not yet. You can still buy an Apple Watch Series 9 in a stainless steel Gold finish, but there isn’t a current-gen iPhone to match it with.

The Apple Watch Series 9 also comes in Silver, Starlight, and PRODUCT(RED) for the aluminum models, in addition to the previously-mentioned Midnight and Pink. For the stainless steel version, your options are Gold, Silver, and Graphite unless you want to pay extra for the Hermés version in Space Black.

And that’s Apple’s color story for this year. If you’re looking to color match your phone and watch, I’d recommend going with Pink for the non-pro models or Natural Titanium on the higher end. The black finishes this year are all over the place, and gold is completely missing from the iPhone lineup.

That said, most people probably don’t care as much as I do if the color of their iPhone matches perfectly with their Apple Watch. The majority of customers just want some good options to choose from so they can pick something that fits their unique style. In that regard, I think this year’s color lineup is a success.

I won’t to try make any guesses about what this set of options means for the future. Trying to predict Apple’s color offerings is a fool’s errand. Instead, we can just appreciate the chaos for what it is and spend our time arguing over which color is the best.