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Apple Announces MacBook Air Now Starts With Increased 16GB of RAM With No Price Increase

How many people complaining about this also staunchly defend capitalism? This is capitalism. Apple is not a charity. Apple is a publicly traded company with a legal fiduciary duty to its shareholders to maximize profit.
Charging you $200 extra for what *you* needed is one of the ways they did that, until they couldn’t get away with anymore in the light of AI resource requirements and the competition.
 
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Why not just slap a base M4 on it and call it a day? seems freakin' dumb with Apple Intelligence now out.
 
Can we assume the M4 Air will have the same specs as the M4 iMac and the base 14inch M4 Pro? ie the top spec will be 10CPU/10GPU + 32GB ram (up from 24GB)?

If M4 runs 20-25%ish faster than M3 overall - would that make a top spec M4 Air faster than some low tier M2 Pro models?
 
Fuzzball84 said:
Who needs an excuse not to upgrade? Upgrading is a choice, not an obligation. Intel Macs still run great, I have one of them. And in any case, once Apple drops support I’m going to Linux on it.

Ive gradually been more and more interested in non Apple devices lately. I appreciate a system that I can upgrade. Although I have many apples devices I can easily walk away if I wish too.
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Point taken. I still have a perfectly fine Intel iMac that's capable to install macOS Sequoia. However I moved onto the iPad Pro (M4) as a daily driver. For majority of the users, I doubt they will switch to a different platform or changing out parts. From what I noticed at work, the battery in Intel-based Mac notebooks just don't last after 4 or 5 years. Rather than getting a new battery, a base MacBook Air or Pro may be more attractive and come with warranty.

jimbobb24 said:
I bought my intel based mac as the last 27 inch iMac because I was nervous about apple silicon. I was a little bit in a pickle because my kids had thrown the other iMac off a table and busted it so needed to make a purchase but I remember thinking its was best to get intel and then see how the silicon does. Silliest decision ever.
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I bought the last gen 27-inch iMac during the pandemic and the only regret was I picked a 1TB internal drive. Really miss an all-in-one with a bigger display.
 
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batmanofvietnam said:
Can we assume the M4 Air will have the same specs as the M4 iMac and the base 14inch M4 Pro? ie the top spec will be 10CPU/10GPU + 32GB ram (up from 24GB)?

If M4 runs 20-25%ish faster than M3 overall - would that make a top spec M4 Air faster than some low tier M2 Pro models?
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It might not be, the base M4 Air may have the 8CPU/8GPU spec like the base M4 iMac
 
VisceralRealist said:
If the Air had mini LED/HDR, I would get it over the Pro, but it doesn't and that's why I bought the Pro...

I'm definitely never going back to 60Hz/LCD on a MacBook, so the day the Air gets that upgrade, I'll switch from the Pro. Power-wise it would be more than enough for me.
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An air as an upgrade from a 2019 16” mbp is ideal. Dont need the hi(gher) refresh and everything else is better.
 
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I just picked up a used M3 15” with 8gb ram and 512gb storage for $860 usd. But will probably upgrade to the M4 for the base 16gb ram when it gets released next spring.
 
minik said:
Point taken. I still have a perfectly fine Intel iMac that's capable to install macOS Sequoia.
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Yes but with limitations as some Mx chip features are not available.
minik said:
From what I noticed at work, the battery in Intel-based Mac notebooks just don't last after 4 or 5 years. Rather than getting a new battery, a base MacBook Air or Pro may be more attractive and come with warranty.
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Agree, my Intel-based MacBook Pro - the last generation Apple sold (2020 model) - has very poor battery performance but the worst part is the heat and thus the fan kicking in at full speed whenever I use Safari, Photos, and just regular apps. Even MacOS indexing is taxing the CPU so much. These OS updates are definitely not tailored for an Intel Mac. Time to upgrade (thanks Apple but no thanks…)
Thinking of buying the “new” MacBook Air now that it’s $200 cheaper - I always was getting 16GB of RAM - and I might try 512GB instead of my usual 1TB and optimize the storage thus saving an extra $200 on my standard configuration. That way I can upgrade to the 15” screen for the same price which is nice.
 
VisceralRealist said:
If the Air had mini LED/HDR, I would get it over the Pro, but it doesn't and that's why I bought the Pro...

I'm definitely never going back to 60Hz/LCD on a MacBook, so the day the Air gets that upgrade, I'll switch from the Pro. Power-wise it would be more than enough for me.
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Sadly that seems to be what the $1600 M4 MacBook Pro exists for.
 
helloapple1 said:
I just picked up a used M3 15” with 8gb ram and 512gb storage for $860 usd. But will probably upgrade to the M4 for the base 16gb ram when it gets released next spring.
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Rumor has it...potentially ProMotion display on MacBook Air @ 120. With M4 and ProMotion this could help people upgrade. I believe this is to help compete among similar Windows based SnapDragon Elite X laptops.

No Thunderbolt 5 for 2025 Macbook Air. I believe Thunderbolt 5 will be available in late 2025 model with M5 for Macbook Air.
 
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Lioness~ said:
Typical Apple....

My 13'6 will be with me awhile anyway.
But I payed extra for 16GB 🥲
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Maybe try to see it in a different light: you paid extra to get the machine 3 quarters of a year earlier than people who are buying one now!
 
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minik said:
Point taken. I still have a perfectly fine Intel iMac that's capable to install macOS Sequoia. However I moved onto the iPad Pro (M4) as a daily driver. For majority of the users, I doubt they will switch to a different platform or changing out parts. From what I noticed at work, the battery in Intel-based Mac notebooks just don't last after 4 or 5 years. Rather than getting a new battery, a base MacBook Air or Pro may be more attractive and come with warranty.


I bought the last gen 27-inch iMac during the pandemic and the only regret was I picked a 1TB internal drive. Really miss an all-in-one with a bigger display.
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The ARM architecture on low to mid workloads is great for batteries as it uses far less power, resulting in less wear etc Over a period of years the battery in an ARM laptop will be in much better condition than a more power hungry processor. Intel processors of the past weren’t as efficient as most ARM but not they have caught up a bit more on power and speed.
 
Corefile said:
Where are all those folk who said 8GB was more than enough???
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Right here! I'm retired and a casual user and I never get into swap territory. The most i've ever seen compressed memory was 1GB but I will gladly take the extra free 8GB of RAM and disable AI on my Mac.
 
Will pay a visit to the Apple Store, as I have used the student discount programm and gotten free airpods with my base M3, but free airpods aren't worth the tradeoff. I'll return my Airpods with the thing, then. No other way I can get an upgrade on 8GB.
 
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WarmWinterHat said:
Apple Intelligence currently runs on the 8gb M-Series Macs just fine.

..it might suck in the future, though. 15.2, perhaps?
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Apple Intelligence really hasn’t even gotten started yet.
It’s technically running on my phone too, but it’s so basic and lame at the moment… Guessing it will take a lot more resources when it actually becomes useful.
They did the same with the new iPhones, they ALL have increased ram for the “Intelligence.”
 
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creediddy said:
Rumor has it...potentially ProMotion display on MacBook Air @ 120. With M4 and ProMotion this could help people upgrade. I believe this is to help compete among similar Windows based SnapDragon Elite X laptops.

No Thunderbolt 5 for 2025 Macbook Air. I believe Thunderbolt 5 will be available in late 2025 model with M5 for Macbook Air.
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Thanks for telling me. I'd love a promotion display on a M4 MBA 😍
 
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Kay_Ess said:
Maybe try to see it in a different light: you paid extra to get the machine 3 quarters of a year earlier than people who are buying one now!
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Sure thing, and I'm not sure it would've been any big price differences here in Sweden anyway.
It costed me maybe $100 to get it a bit more than a half year earlier with 16GB - so worth it!
No way I could've waited that long with my old 2018 MBA. So I'm good 😎
 
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UliBaer said:
Finally...
What do all the 8GB lovers do/say now?! :eek:


;)
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Don't worry; they will still complain about why Apple keeps making computers better and faster. Because no one needs all that power or memory. Absolutely no one!
 
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