What happened to gold S4?

[jayenes]

Ive been on pins and needles all day to open my new S4. I have a S2 gold aluminum and love it so I ordered a gold S4.

I open it up and was disappointed that it’s in fact a Rose Gold. I’ve opened the box but do you know if I can exchange it at the Apple store?

 

[ltrahhh123]

Ive been on pins and needles all day to open my new S4. I have a S2 gold aluminum and love it so I ordered a gold S4.

I open it up and was disappointed that it’s in fact a Rose Gold. I’ve opened the box but do you know if I can exchange it at the Apple store?

I believe there is a 14 day window.

I'm in the same boat. I looked super pink with the sport loop it came with. I've tried it with a few bands and it kind of grew on me with a black sport band, but in certain light it still looks too pink for my liking.

Thinking I may have to go with the stainless steel. Ideally I'd return to Apple then get SS from AT&T and pay my apple refund upfront and just add the balance to my monthly bill.

 

[Sword86]

Ive been on pins and needles all day to open my new S4. I have a S2 gold aluminum and love it so I ordered a gold S4.

I open it up and was disappointed that it’s in fact a Rose Gold. I’ve opened the box but do you know if I can exchange it at the Apple store?

Yeah, it looked that way to me too but I recall the one I saw had a pinkish sport loop so maybe that played into it. I actually thought the gold was the nicest of the aluminum ones, which I typically do not like at all. I don’t like the matt finish, but it’s just my opinion. I thought today that if I were to buy aluminum, gold might just be the one. Up until now it would have been silver.
S

 

[jayenes]

I don’t know if I just missed where the color was listed as rose gold or if it’s just me assuming it would be the same gold.

 

[PeterJH3]

I don’t know if I just missed where the color was listed as rose gold or if it’s just me assuming it would be the same gold.

Nothing is Rose Gold this year except the current 10.5" iPad Pro. This year's Series 4 Watch is the same gold as last year's Series 3 Watch. I compared them in my local store when I returned my gold XS Max phone bc the stainless steel gold is what is too brassy/bronze-y in my opinion.

 

[ltrahhh123]

I don’t know if I just missed where the color was listed as rose gold or if it’s just me assuming it would be the same gold.

It's definitely listed as gold. The promo photos even look a lot different. Granted most of the pictures I've seen posted here today don't look anything like it does in person.

 

[jayenes]

Compared to my S2 I’ve been staring at for the past two years this is Rose Gold S4. Way too pink for my liking.

 

[jhfenton]

Compared to my S2 I’ve been staring at for the past two years this is Rose Gold S4. Way too pink for my liking.

If you check out the discussion on the S3 gold aluminum last year, the consensus was that the S3 gold was midway between the yellow gold and rose gold from S2. And, as I expected, the S4 gold is the same as the same as the S3.

I would probably choose the S2 gold if I had a choice, but I like both. It looks a lot less pink when not attached to a pink band. (I bought it with the Pink Sand Sport Loop.)

 

[0970373]

The aluminum gold and stainless gold are 2 different shades. The aluminum gold definitely has more of a rose gold tone. The stainless gold is the one everyone is talking about. Which one do you have?

 

[jayenes]

I bought the aluminum gold S4. I’m just irritated I opened the box and it was not at all what I was thinking I was getting. I even tried to take a picture and it looks way less pink on my screen.

 

[jhfenton]

I bought the aluminum gold S4. I’m just irritated I opened the box and it was not at all what I was thinking I was getting. I even tried to take a picture and it looks way less pink on my screen.

I sympathize. I wonder how many other people who skipped S3 will be surprised like we did. There was a fair amount of discussion about the change last year. Since I saw no discussion this year, my guess was that it was going to be the same as S3.

 

[jayenes]

And of course now that I need to return and order a new one it’ll be a month plus before I can get a space gray one. Good thing the ios5 works great on my S2. First world gripes for sure.

 

[musicpenguy]

The S4 gold aluminum is the same as the series 3 which was a change from past years, but this is nothing new.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

I don’t know if I just missed where the color was listed as rose gold or if it’s just me assuming it would be the same gold.

The S4 gold aluminum is the same as the series 3 which was a change from past years, but this is nothing new.

Yeah, starting last year Apple got rid of the gold/rose gold distinction and settled on one particular gold somewhere in between the two. I remember seeing some discussion on the color last year.

 

[jayenes]

The S4 gold aluminum is the same as the series 3 which was a change from past years, but this is nothing new.

I was so underwhelmed with the S3 I paid no attention to color changes. My error in assuming gold meant gold.

 

[fweber]

I was so underwhelmed with the S3 I paid no attention to color changes. My error in assuming gold meant gold.

Same here. AWS4 gold way too pink, will return to Apple. To me Apple’s photos of S4 gold look exactly the same as S2 gold.
Does the new SS gold look somewhat similar to S2 aluminium gold?

 

[jayenes]

Same here. AWS4 gold way too pink, will return to Apple. To me Apple’s photos of S4 gold look exactly the same as S2 gold.
Does the new SS gold look somewhat similar to S2 aluminium gold?

I’m not sure, honestly it’s hard to judge photos for real life color. I even tried to take a photo of my S2 next to the S4 and the color looked like the stock photos so I didn’t take the photo. When I go to the apple store to return I’m going to see it in person. I’ll come back here and let you know.

 

[jayenes]

I got so lucky!! Showed up at my local Apple store to return the gold watch. Wasn’t showing any available stock on the app last night or this morning so I was just going for a straight refund. Turns out when I got there early the app had updated their stock to show the space gray in stock. I’m super happy, was in and out in less than 10 minutes.

 

[squirrrl]

I got so lucky!! Showed up at my local Apple store to return the gold watch. Wasn’t showing any available stock on the app last night or this morning so I was just going for a straight refund. Turns out when I got there early the app had updated their stock to show the space gray in stock. I’m super happy, was in and out in less than 10 minutes.

I"m with you.. I would have totally gotten the S2 gold if they returned to that color but don't like the S3/S4 gold. So Nike SG it is for me as well.

 

[Sword86]

I"m with you.. I would have totally gotten the S2 gold if they returned to that color but don't like the S3/S4 gold. So Nike SG it is for me as well.

I picked an aluminum S4 gold for my kid today. As soon as she saw it she mentioned no guy would want that gold. Too pink. S

 

[BradLA]

I had the S2 gold aluminum as well and I loved it. It was very subtle (I personally called it champagne gold).

I wasn't planning on buying the S4 watch yet (I just bought the XS Max yesterday), but I was at the Apple Store at the Grove earlier today and they had several models in stock. I checked out the gold and it looked very rose gold to me. It was too pink for me, I couldn't get it. The stainless steel gold was very different, liked that gold a lot, but I didn't want to get that one.

I ended up with the S4 silver aluminum, and I brought the blue horizon band, and I think it looks great! IMO the S2 gold and silver were very similar so this feels closer to what I had before than the new S4 gold.

 

[diamornte]

Everyone keeps parroting the same “oh it’s too pink for me...”

Pink is fabulous. And this gold S4 Apple Watch doesn’t look pink to me.

(Though I am color blind, so that may help)

 

[determined09]

I found this website that sells straps and they talk about the different gold aluminum and gold ss for series 4. And they said they gold would match the gold SS but it doesnt. There is very little difference.

 

[Sir Ruben]

I did a write up on this very thing and tried to take some comparison shots:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/s4-aluminium-gold-pictures-comparisons-with-s2.2141271/

I preferred the S2 gold but with darker straps it tones down the S4 gold to an acceptable level. In fact with my brown band it looks a kind of copper gold.

 

[jayenes]

I did a write up on this very thing and tried to take some comparison shots:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/s4-aluminium-gold-pictures-comparisons-with-s2.2141271/

I preferred the S2 gold but with darker straps it tones down the S4 gold to an acceptable level. In fact with my brown band it looks a kind of copper gold.

Just replied to that post. Wonderful comparison! The picture make the gold look like an awesome rich copper. Looks great with the dark bands. I’m glad there is enough variety with bands and metal colors to reach everyone’s tastes.