To be fair, this was pretty much already true about their Intel Mac.
RAM certainly wasn’t upgradable in those 2017 models, and i’ve gotten conflicting results about the SSD.
I’ve heard some people say it works perfectly fine, I’ve heard other people say good luck getting macOS to play nice with a new SSD in a 2017.
Either way, this is absolutely not exclusive to AS, people have been talking about the lack of upgradeability in MacBooks since at least 2012.
Good catch on RAM. It
is soldered on that 2017. I didn't check but just assumed that was still an option 7 years ago.
On SSD,
there are many options for FARRRRRRRRR less than Apple SSD equivalents on Silicon Macs. Take a look at that quantity 1, retail priced 2TB upgrade for $190 and consider it vs. the OEM mass purchased 2TB SSD upgrade for Silicon at $600.
Nevertheless, OP should consider the concept even if it isn't fully comparing his 2017 vs. this 2024 purchase. For example, OP could possibly bail on Apple and buy a good PC laptop where steep competition can make both sizable RAM and SSD options cost less than $600
TOGETHER.
Example of RAM +
Example of SSD... with plenty of room for almost another 4TB of SSD too. Yes, that would sacrifice macOS and all of the glories of Silicon but OP may find that he or she can do every bit of computing they want/need to do on a good PC.
For the first time in 20+ years, I had to buy a PC this year as a replacement for the great "bootcamp" option I used to have on my Intel Macs. I decided full Windows was a superior choice to ARM Windows emulation with the annual Parallels "subscription" cost. In shopping for that PC, I got to refresh my knowledge of what key components like RAM and SSD can cost in very competitive markets... resulting in getting a small size gaming PC with good graphics card, 32GB RAM and 10TB in 2 fast SSDs for LESS than Apple charges for the 8TB upgrade for Apple SSD
alone.
I was delighted to get "old fashioned bootcamp" for so little but also bummed when then taking a look at a new MB and configuring it with better-than-base specs. Yes, I'm well aware of the Apple premium and have paid it many times in the past 24 years... but it was especially in-my-face
this time... leading to derailing what would have historically been a "no-brainer" new Mac purchase and ultimately resulting in spending $55 for a new battery to see if I could squeeze another year or two out of an old MB.
Now that I prob have a year or two of life left in the old one, I find myself thinking a thought I would have never even considered in the last 20+ years: is my next laptop purchase going to be a PC? I'm practically locked in on not paying at least 3-5X more than market rates for commodities like RAM & Storage. So maybe it will.
OP may be locked in- even married- to Mac, macOS, etc. But if not, it's at least worth some consideration when buying a new computer... especially in choosing upgrades to try to best guess the needs of those commodities for the
next 7+ years.
