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Autocomplete's listbox Paper defaults to elevation 1, while Select/Menu's Popover defaults to elevation 8 — inconsistent shadow between components with the same UI role #48933

Description

@trabati

Steps to reproduce

  1. Open this link to live example: https://stackblitz.com/edit/gn7fmuvs?file=src%2FDemo.tsx
  2. Compare the box-shadow of the open Select's Menu Paper vs. the open Autocomplete's listbox Paper
Image

Current behavior

The Select's Menu Paper defaults to `elevation={8}

The Autocomplete's listbox Paper renders with no explicit elevation passed in paperProps, so it falls back to Paper's own default of elevation={1}:

Two components that serve the same UI purpose — a floating list of selectable options anchored to a field — render with visibly different shadow depth by default.

Expected behavior

Either:

  • Autocomplete's listbox Paper should default to the same elevation as Select/Menu's Popover (8), since both are "floating option list" surfaces anchored to a field
    and are commonly used interchangeably in the same UI (e.g. a filter bar mixing plain Selects and Autocompletes), or
  • If the difference is intentional (e.g. Autocomplete is meant to read as a lighter-weight surface), this should be documented, so it's clear the mismatch has to be
    fixed manually via slotProps={{ paper: { elevation: 8 } }} when visual parity with Select is wanted.

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Search keywords: autocomplete elevation, autocomplete shadow, autocomplete paper elevation, select menu popover elevation, autocomplete vs select shadow

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    breaking changeIntroduces changes that are not backward compatible.has workaroundThere’s a bug, but users have a complete workaround, so no urgent fix or release is needed.scope: autocompleteChanges related to the autocomplete. This includes ComboBox.

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