what year year is a macbook a1278

The A1278 model number was used for both MacBooks and MacBook Pros; the now-removed personal information uniquely identified it as an Early 2011 MacBook Pro.

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An A1278 would be a 13-inch, Aluminum Late 2008 MacBook model. It's model identifier would be: MacBook5,1.

These were introduced by Apple in Oct. 2008 and were discontinued in Jun 2009. They are considered "obsolete" for Apple support.

2011.

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Tesserax is correct, there are no 2011 MacBook models.