That’s right, in the shade it was almost black, in the sunlight - metallic blue.
Do you have any photos of those improvements in your archive so I know exactly what to look for? All wepages and image hosting sites that reference them are 404’d. 
EDIT: found the two main differences:
Even if it turns out to be an older model that’s still a good deal considering it’s (almost) brand new and costs about 35% less, am I right? 