Buying MBA tonight, unsure of M2/M3/2022/2024

[nickosbad]

Hi, my Wife is finally upgrading her 2013 MBA and she has a long service award from work but that means she is limited on where she can purchase.

Whatever she buys we know will be a significant upgrade from here 2013 MBA but she also wants to ensure that she gets many years out of the new one, her usage is very basic....Web Browsing, video watching and occasional MS Office Apps, she doesn't do ANY video or photo editing and no gaming either and no plans to use any of the Ai features upcoming.

Her options are:

2022 M2 8GB - £799
2024 M3 8GB - £920
2022 M2 16GB - £999

She can ONLY buy from one of 2 shops in the UK (John Lewis/Currys) so please don't suggest alternate prices

I think the £799 machine will be more then enough for many years but if she was to get one of the more expensive ones would it be better to have the extra RAM or the newer chip for longevity?

Her usage needs will not change so is the extra RAM going to be of any benefit whereas the M3 chip may see longer life before being unsupported.

 

[Bigwaff]

Xtra RAM

 

[forzagaribaldi]

Definitely extra RAM. M2 => M3 not going to make much difference but I'm very glad I got 16GB for my M1 MBA.

 

[raythompsontn]

Given a choice, go for the M2 Air with more RAM.

I just traded in a M2 Air. Excellent machine. Did everything I needed. I got M4 Pro. Not because I needed it, but because I wanted it. Your wife will be very pleased with the M2 Air.

 

[JPack]

M3

Take the longer macOS support from the newer machine. M3 has faster SSD which helps make up for the 8GB RAM. If she's not using AI, it's not going to use more RAM than before.

 

[SjoukeW]

I would go with 16gb ram.

 

[nickosbad]

So she ended up going for the 8GB M3 as there’s a high likelihood of being supported for an extra 2 years, she can’t believe how much quicker it is so very happy!!

 

[JPack]

So she ended up going for the 8GB M3 as there’s a high likelihood of being supported for an extra 2 years, she can’t believe how much quicker it is so very happy!!

Two extra years and AV1 support will offer a far better overall experience than extra RAM she won’t use.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

RAM.

The chips will be supported for a long time, but with even the base models now starting at 16 gb you’re going to run into memory limitations a lot quicker once every developer is assuming that kind of memory is available on an average laptop.