Rose Gold: The rise of 'Bros Gold' and how Apple made it cool to own a pink phone

In late 2011, I excitedly opened the box of a brand new iPhone 4S, my first experience of Apple's new, pixel-packed Retina screen. But, before I'd even switched it on, the phone's white colour didn't go down well with a colleague who suggested it was the feminine option. I should have gone for the black one, he said.

Fast-forward almost five years and, with white iPhones and iPads absolutely everywhere, the attention has turned to Rose Gold. Metallic pink to the uninformed, Rose Gold is an option on all three versions of iPhone, the 9.7in iPad Pro, the Watch, and the new MacBook. In some light it looks like bright pink and in others it's closer to bronze, just a few shades down from Apple's regular gold option.

The colour, surely ridiculed in the hands of a man just a few years ago, has spread across Apple's product range even more quickly than gold did, itself once criticised for being tacky.

In fact, the colour has become so popular with men that Apple Store staff refer to it as Bros Gold without a hint of irony. Men are buying pink phones today at an unprecedented rate.

A Reddit thread does a better job of the men-buying-pink-phones revolution than I ever could. It begins with "I was thinking of getting a rose gold iPhone but my friends keep saying it would be too feminine" and is soon flooded with men (both gay and straight) saying they bought a Rose Gold iPhone and love it. "Welcome to the Bros in Rose club" one person said.

Apple should be commended here, not just for producing a shade of pink that straight male consumers want to buy, but also for avoiding the crushing stereotype many technology companies comply to when they make a Barbie pink version 'for women'.

I've been using a Rose Gold iPhone SE for two weeks now and, after first thinking I was being trolled by Apple and reaching for a masculine black case, I've grown to like it. Often closer to bronze than pink, it's a genuinely interesting colour which changes a lot depending on the light and how you hold it. It's a beautiful handset and a colour which will likely remain equally popular among men and women.

And so I hand it over to you, dear reader. Of the four iPhone SE and iPhone 6S colours, which is your favourite?