no?
developers target 8GB which is what half the people wanted in their laptops. what does that have to do with 30MPH cars that no one wants and no one bought?
who said apple would dip into the red? no one. absolutely no one.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple's Regular Mac Base RAM Boosts Ended When Tim Cook Took Over
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
developers target 8GB which is what half the people wanted in their laptops. what does that have to do with 30MPH cars that no one wants and no one bought?
I am curious as to how many people actually pay extra to upgrade the ram, vs simply going with the base model.
I'm certain of one thing: the ratio is acutely tuned at maximising profit rather than the quality or performance of the product. A 0.1% swing in either direction costs Apple at least one cent. And that, in my mind, is where the issue lies - profit leading the product and user experience instead of following both.
Does that make a Mac with 8gb ram a bad product though? Where do we draw the line between “I acknowledge I am the outlier and should therefore pay extra for more ram and storage” vs “Apple is intentionally screwing me (and by extension, their entire user base) by including only 8 gb ram instead of 16, even if there are many people who would get by fine with just 8”?
It makes it a worse product than it could and should be, yes. Like I said - in my mind. It's an opinion but I only speak for myself so that's ok 👍
Not everyone has the technical prowess to handle 8Gb of RAM.
My mother does, however.
That's why no one should be complaining. Just buy that mini PC instead of a Mac.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I actually did convince a friend of mine to get the base M1 MBA for work as everything she does is done in the Cloud anyway.
But pretty much all her colleagues, simply bought a cheap $200 ChromeBook. That is basically what you are competing against.
End of the day this is all opinion, but no one actually wants less RAM and everyone would clap if Apple could be bothered to offer more as a base spec. Even those claiming it's not needed. Ultimately, know this - you can defend 8GB laptops from a tech megacorp selling premium laptops all you like for as long as you like, but your only reward will be more 8GB laptops.
Apple is selling laptops with less RAM than Android smartphones these days for alot of $$$$. There are even $200 Android smartphones that have 8GB RAM.
But Apple understands this "motivates" people to start paying $200 for an extra 8GB RAM module to go from 8GB to 16GB RAM. And Apple knows they can get away with this as they got a fanbase who keeps justifying this.
Yep. And truth be told the 8GB models are undoubtedly lower margin, so simply not buying their 8GB models is no answer. I don't pretend to know the machinations of Apple's business model, but at a guess I imagine the fewer 8GB units they sell vs. 16GB 'upgrades' the better. The only answer, for those with a real distaste for 8GB premium laptops in 2024, is to not buy their laptops. At all.
Indeed. For $1300, I can get
- 500 nits 120hz OLED display and 1.000.000:1 contrast ratio.
- 32 GB RAM
- 1TB SSD
- 1.28kg/2.8lb (a little bit lighter than the MBA)
- much more ports than the MBA
- 15+ hour battery (it is less than the MBA, but it is still more than enough).
Easy choice for me really if I had to shop for an ultra portable laptop today.
If Apple starts putting OLED panels on their MBA, then I might give it an other thought.
Last edited:
Apple's spec/price/color/notch stunts have prevented me from buying a new laptop from them for ages now. And I'm not going to reverse course until they pull their socks up. If happenstance forces me to upgrade in the meantime I'll probably end up running Ubuntu Linux on another brand. I've already disconnected from most iCloud hooks in preparation of making an ecosystem switch as painless as possible.
So let's see who blinks first...
When a PC manufacturer says 15 hour battery life they mean about 3 hours and it sounds like an airplane.
I know that as a Galaxy Book owner which is supposed to be the closest competition to a Mac. It also has soldered memory.
You can clean install Windows and get rid of all the junk apps and you will still be left with terrible x86 energy management and ******** Windows 11.
But I needed this stupid Wintel laptop for coding on Windows.
But, topically, when Apple claims that 8GB Mac is equivalent to 16GB Wintel they are similarly talking horse manure 😃
Which shows the obvious that office workers using cloud apps don’t need beefy or semi-beefy specs. Money and battery life are the biggest considerations.
It's not. Reviewers are getting multiple day battery life with the 2024 Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, not 3 hours. And this is on Windows 11 Pro.
If you install Linux on it, expect way more battery life.
The 2024 Asus Zenbook 14 OLED is not a competition to the MacBook Air, it kills it due to that fantastic 3K 120hz 500 nits OLED display that also has touch + pencil support. So you also get an iPad included.
And all of this for $1300 (with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD and supports more than 3+ external displays).
Last edited:
Another thing to consider: The difference in price between an 8 GB and a 16 GB M2 Air isn't just the $200 upgrade cost on Apple's website. The true upgrade cost is $350, because 3rd parties don't sell 16GB versions.
So my choice is an 8GB M2 Air for $850 from Costco, or a 16GB M2 Air for $1199 from Apple. I have to pay more than 40% over the base price to get an extra 8GB of RAM.
So my choice is an 8GB M2 Air for $850 from Costco, or a 16GB M2 Air for $1199 from Apple. I have to pay more than 40% over the base price to get an extra 8GB of RAM.
Linux will make almost no difference over a clean Windows. We have already discussed and tested this like mad on Reddit. x86 is just ****.
You should know by now that reviews are mostly BS these days. They need to churn that content out quickly for the views.
Reddit is the place to get actual real customer experiences.
And don’t go telling me different because I am a living example of someone who has spent close to $100,000 on Macs and PCs in my life. Why would I waste my precious time telling you real life experience and lie about it?
There’s a reason why Apple had to move to ARM. x86 is just **** for laptops. It might not exist in the laptop space in a few years even on PCs. x86 will just be a desktop and server CPU…until it won’t.
Last edited:
Do you have any real life experience with the 2024 Asus Zenbook 14 OLED? If not, then you're just spreading misinformation.
Do you have any proof that these measurements should all be below 3 hours like what you claim?
Btw, the Core Ultra 7 is obviously the 2024 model in case it is not obvious to you.
Last edited:
Do you have any real life experience with the 2024 Asus Zenbook 14 OLED? If not, then you're just spreading misinformation.
Do you have any proof that these measurements should all be below 3 hours like what you claim?
Btw, the Core Ultra 7 is obviously the 2024 model in case it is not obvious to you.
You are just here to win an internet argument by throwing specs around ‘But Linux!’ ‘Three monitors’ ‘Multi day battery life’!
Here, have some real life customers instead of your BS charts.
I can keep pasting real user experiences for your amazing ASUS garbage line.
But I’ll ignore you from now.
I checked your reddit posts.
- 1st post, no mention of the 2024 model (which is completely different from the 2023 model).
- 2nd. I see people talking about the 2023 model, which is again irrelevant.
- 3rd. Again no mention of the 2024 model (which is completely different from the 2023 model).
- 4th post, it is literally in the title he is talking about the 2023 model.
You do realize that the 2024 model based on the Core Ultra i7/i9 cannot be compared to the previous models right? So you have provided nothing.
I'm not here to win internet arguments, I am asking for facts / proof that the 2024 Asus ZenBook 14 OLED dies out in under 3 hours of battery life. Because all reviewers are getting 9 to 10 hours of real world battery use.
If your best response is to block me, then you just have proven that you don't have facts to back up your claim that the 2024 Asus ZenBook 14 OLED gets under 3 hours of battery life and all the reviewers are lying about getting 9 to 10 hours of battery life in real world usage.
It is all misinformation what you were saying.
Last edited:
Btw, you know that people complain about the MacBook Air too right?
- https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbook-air-terrible-battery.2377247/
- https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/poor-battery-life-on-new-air.2229986/
- https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-m1-battery-usage-is-6-7-hours-normal.2290918/
So what exactly does it even proof that you find some posts on the internet that people are unhappy with the battery life (which doesn't even mention the 2024 model). People complain about the MacBook Air too.
I don’t debate with the expectation of any sort of reward, nor am I interested in making statements steeped in ideology for the sake of driving social change.
There’s a difference between claiming that 8gb ram is insufficient for the majority of Mac users, and making noise in the hope of shaming Apple into providing more ram just because.
I know what I need, and I will pay for what I need. Straightforward as that.
Yes of course and that's fair enough. Up to you. I'm not in the business of telling people what to think or how much to spend, but you may also consider that not everyone's computer use cases remain static. Habits change. Interests change. Jobs change. What's sufficient today may not be sufficient tomorrow, and since these systems aren't upgradeable after the fact, it would be nice if Apple could see their way to providing a little more headroom on RAM. They are allegedly premium machines, and 16GB in 2024 is hardly in the super league, but if "just enough" is ok for you and others then fine. I shall continue to vote with my wallet and hold Apple to the high standards that their prices command 👍