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Apple Announces MacBook Air Now Starts With Increased 16GB of RAM With No Price Increase
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Companies offer what they offer, and Apple's 8 GB baseline came in fairly early, long before I was still able to purchase 4 GB Windows computers. Apple charges more than I would like for RAM upgrades, but that is how capitalism works, as the market appears to be willing to pay the price asked. Rationalizing that Apple RAM is obviously inexpensive because they eventually increased the base amount after many years at a single level completely misses the point that there is a profit/cost balance they are obviously searching for and apparently attaining. As a consumer, you have the ability to buy that product if you feel it is of sufficient value for the cost. Or simply not buy.
I don't recall anyone here ever saying that Apple would be "forcing too much" RAM on them, just that they didn't need more than 8 GB RAM and didn't want Apple bumping the RAM up to more than they needed IF it involved increasing the base price. Yeah, no rational person was going to complain about getting more RAM for the same price, only those people that just like to hear themselves complain.
My neighbour is still using a 2008 iMac and he hates the concept of AI, so it might be a good time for him to go shopping for a clearance store stock 8GB or refurb.There are going to be so many deals on preowned 8GB RAM Macs out there
Sadly, I want no part of 8GB of RAM
You made me rethink things and after reading that, I decided to trade in my M2 mini with 8GB. I too fear its resale value will plummet like a stone in water. I locked in to $260 for my mini and if I had jumped on it before they announced the M4 mini, the trade in value would have been $290 instead.There are going to be so many deals on preowned 8GB RAM Macs out there
Sadly, I want no part of 8GB of RAM
That sounds like the drop already happened, and it was $30. I’m going to have to look at Apple Intelligence again, as I didn’t see anything in it that would make me want to give up my still functional M1 mini for that low a trade in value, and the M1 is surely lower.
It does look that way. However I basically paid $465 for the base M2 mini when it launched in Jan 2023. So I'm only out $205 and I am trading in my 9th gen iPad for $140. I also have a $100 gift card from my last edu purchase. So I could be looking at just paying sales tax on the M4 base model Mini at $499. I'm also waiting for Apple's BF deals hoping they'll give a gift card with the purchase.
Grabbed an M3 16/512 at Best Buy two weeks ago for $1,250. They had a great deal. Based on today’s pricing if I went with the educator discount from Apple, I would’ve saved about $60 something dollars. I have both have Best Buy in an Apple Store near me, but not worth the hassle.
My hope is that someday the MacBook Air will get Pro chip options like the Mac mini. Even though that does confuse the naming conventions even more. Then maybe the MacBook Pro could be renamed MacBook Studio, with OLED and Max and Ultra chips on a more power efficient process node like 2nm or whatever is below that, 1.6nm? Then the Mac Studio can get Ultra and a new Extreme class of CPU. I bet they’d kill off the Mac Pro by then.
You are free to look up my last few responses regarding this.
TL;DR - I stand by everything I have said, and I regret nothing.
Fantastic to hear this. Very surprised to see this increase in RAM today. Was expecting it to happen only with the M4 update. Good that now both M2 and M3 versions start with 16GB and at the same price as before.
Honestly I'm more stoked about this than any other announcement this time around.
I often need to order a replacement Mac for mom at short notice since she doesn't come back to visit me that often these days, which means I'm usually ordering machines already in stock. This year for the first time I can finally order her a 16gb Air without going CTO.
I often need to order a replacement Mac for mom at short notice since she doesn't come back to visit me that often these days, which means I'm usually ordering machines already in stock. This year for the first time I can finally order her a 16gb Air without going CTO.
✋
Bought 16GB M3 back in May or June. Now I want to trade it for a 24GB. Best Buy has a trade in of just over $1000 and I'm tempted. But really I guess that would be a dumb move because 16 is fine. I'm just a bit irked that if I'd waited a bit, I could have gotten the 24 at the same price.
Now we are in store for a very underwhelming Spring update to the MBA. At that rate, just wait for summer or fall and release an M5 version.
Dells and Lenovos go on sale regularly though. Several months ago I picked up Thinkpad P16s gen2. 16" display, Ryzen 7840, 1 TB SSD, 4K 16:10 OLED screen, and 64 GB RAM. It was $1500 Canadian. The upgrade from 32 GB to 64 GB was <$100 iirc. It's been great, and the pricing for upgrades was such an eye opener compared to what would one would expect from Apple. All that said, this week's news has been great, better late than never, and I'm looking forward to revisiting this in the spring when Apple likely updates the Air with M4.
If you got it from Apple, you should at least be able to get a partial refund, as the prices should have dropped on the refurbs.
Cheers. Yeah I did get it from Apple. The same model seems to now be gone in all colours, not sure why. Do you think they'll still partially refund me?
I assume the 16gb model won't be in the refurbished store for a few months?
There has been an upgrade - there is an optional matt screen version. It is 1,000 nits as well. Going way back, Apple's matt screens or anti reflection screens cost a heap more, and were only available on the top notebook configuration. And one pays a heap to get such a screen on an OLED iPad Pro (due to having to order a costly drive upgrade). So IMO the anti reflection is very good value. I reckon they'll be back ordered for a long time. So that means IMO, one will get a unit manufactured some time after the first ones. Which could be a good thing too.
