Apple Quietly Eliminates Rose Gold 12-Inch MacBook

Tuesday October 30, 2018 9:39 AM PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today announced a new MacBook Air with 8th-generation Intel chips, a Retina display, USB-C ports, and up to 16GB of RAM, a machine that, all in all, sounds a lot like the 12-inch MacBook.

Apple did not announce updates to its smaller notebook machine, but it did quietly remove the Rose Gold color as a purchase option. The 12-inch MacBook can now be purchased in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold, but not Rose Gold.


It's not clear why Apple has removed Rose Gold as a color option, but no other Macs are available in the pinker shade, suggesting the Rose Gold color is out at Apple. The MacBook Air, like the MacBook, can be purchased in Silver, Space Gray, and Gold.

Apple does not appear to have made any other changes to the 12-inch MacBook and its future is somewhat unclear with the addition of a powerful $1,199 MacBook Air with a Retina display.

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51 comments


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MacFather
20 weeks ago
The most confusing MacBook lineup ever.
Rating: 26 Votes
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Andres Cantu
20 weeks ago
Why keep the 12” which is clearly worse than the new Air? Either make it $999 or take it out of the line-up. Same goes for the 2017 Pro with no touchbar and the 2017 Air.

Hate to be that guy, but Steve would hate this confusing lineup.
Rating: 10 Votes
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sharleyP
20 weeks ago
What a lovely day. They killed rose gold MacBook, MagSafe and Jony Ive apparently.
Rating: 7 Votes
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roland.g
20 weeks ago
The right move would have been to merge the 12” MacBook and Air into a single updated machine and added a 14” MacBook to Air depending on the naming.

That would give users 4 size options across 2 product lines. There are a lot of users out there who don’t need a 15” Pro with 6 cores but would like a larger screen than the 13” Pro or Air offers. Staggering the sizes in the product line would make sense. A 14” Air could still have been 3 lbs or less.
Rating: 7 Votes
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mdorais
20 weeks ago
I think it's pretty clear that they removed both the regular gold and rose gold to replace them with that new gold color that's in between the two colors to match the new MacBook Air gold.
Rating: 6 Votes
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AceFernalld
20 weeks ago
Isn’t this thing pretty much useless to their lineup now?
Rating: 5 Votes
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Kobayagi
20 weeks ago
Such a strange lineup it has become.

I was expecting them to kill the 'Air' name since they did so with the iPad. which now has a 'regular' iPad and a iPad Pro. Then we got the (underpowered but expensive) MacBook and always had a MacBook Pro, which suits the lineup logic. But the Air is now still here. Instead I think they should have killed the name and gave this spec bump to the MacBook since they're so similar now.
Rating: 5 Votes
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mdorais
20 weeks ago

Looks like they've changed the gold to the new hybrid gold.

This is less killing the rose gold option, more making it consistent with the Air and Watch.


Yeah the question is, why are us commenters having to clarify articles on this site so often??
Rating: 4 Votes
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subjonas
20 weeks ago

The new MBA still weighs noticeably more than the MB (1.25 kg vs 0.92 kg or 36% more), plus it's thicker (17%).
[doublepost=1540924781][/doublepost]
When the 12" MB was introduced, it's main attraction (compared to then MBA) next to the Retina screen was it's smaller size and weight (920 g vs 1350 g). It lost some of its size advantage (thickness originally 13.1 mm vs then 17 mm, now vs 15.5 mm) but the weight advantage is still significant (now 920 g vs 1250 g).


Don’t forget the 12” MacBook is fanless which is a big feature for some.
Rating: 4 Votes
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manu chao
20 weeks ago

Isn’t this thing pretty much useless to their lineup now?

The new MBA still weighs noticeably more than the MB (1.25 kg vs 0.92 kg or 36% more), plus it's thicker (17%).
[doublepost=1540924781][/doublepost]

The MacBook shouldn’t even exist anymore. Who would buy one, and why?
If it is going to remain in the lineup, the price should have dropped dramatically. It makes no sense.

When the 12" MB was introduced, it's main attraction (compared to then MBA) next to the Retina screen was it's smaller size and weight (920 g vs 1350 g). It lost some of its size advantage (thickness originally 13.1 mm vs then 17 mm, now vs 15.5 mm) but the weight advantage is still significant (now 920 g vs 1250 g).
Rating: 3 Votes
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