I wish they did, then i could upgrade the RAM and storage myself. š
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2024 MacBook Air still 8GB Unified Memory
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I wish they did, then i could upgrade the RAM and storage myself. š
The problem is that in 2024 it should be standard. In fact, the window for 16gb being standard started to close years ago. Itās nothing less than a money grab to force people to pay $300 for an extra 8GB of ram if they want their machine to have longevity. We all know it should be standard at this point, this thread exists for a reason. The sheer audacity of the bean counters is an insult to customers and is a cvnty move by Apple.
There is a simple solution. Buy something else. Rather than complain show your commitment by not buying Apple. Stick it to the bean counters.
This argument is old and tired and negates the simple fact that my use cases, which again, are running ~10 browser tabs in Safari, and between 1-3 other stock applications, will frequently entail a spinning beach ball, yellow or red memory pressure, and alerts telling me that I've run out of system memory. I am not putting my base model M1 MacBook Airs and base model M1 iMac (all of which have 7 GPU Cores, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSDs) through any kind of medium, let alone heavy workload. My use case IS the use case everyone talks about wherein "8GB should be fine" and it's not. Period.
Literally every response to this, including yours, seems to conveniently sidestep this and is always predicated on the asinine notion that if no one is there to hear the tree fall in the middle of the forest, then no tree technically fell.
Fill up your pool of RAM and you experience the symptoms of not having enough RAM for what you want to do. Nothing novel here.
Apple is a corporation. Apple's sole objective is to make Apple money. There is no "only Apple knows what's best for Apple" about it. Apple is going for what makes them money. And selling Macs in 2024 above $998 with 8GB is proven to make them money. That doesn't mean it's a good decision for their customers. That just means that they know that they'll be able to get away with it and make enough money in the process. We need to stop acting like they know what's best for consumers. Also like they, like literally every other computer manufacturer in existence, won't sell machines that have a poor bang to buck ratio and/or are not good long term buys. Such practices are not beneath Apple.
And if you never upgrade the operating system, let alone any installed software, that's one thing.
The thing everyone conveniently forgets is that system requirements change over time. 8GB of RAM was a really decent amount 10 years ago. Was even an okay amount to have 5 years ago. That's not true today and it really won't be true in a few years. People buying Macs expect them to last a decade, whether there's any actual truth to that or not.
For someone who admitted to not having the resources to replace 8GB M1 machines, you do seem to neglect the fact that most people can't afford to buy a new Mac every five years. This is MacRumors; you have people on here who are either wealthy and/or prioritize spending money on new Apple things sooner than the average person can afford to in this economy. It's a no-brainer to spend $200 extra now so that you can go 3-5 additional years without having to spend another $1000-1600 on yet another low-end model. The idea of "well, when it becomes insufficient, they'll just replace it as they always have" implies that everyone has the resources to do so and that the need to do so isn't a four-figure inconvenience. I won't be needing to replace my 16GB M1 13-inch MacBook Pro anytime soon; but even I'll probably have to start saving my pennies for the inevitable replacement in the not-too distant future. Can't just do that whenever I feel like it. Most people can't either. For that reason alone, it's smarter to just not buy 8GB of RAM in a machine where upgrading that RAM means replacing the entire computer.
Rather than rail on Apple, I think we should all simply realize that computer purchases from them currently requires a +$400 price from the base models, then use that for considering the value of a purchase. Those entry prices are teasers and should be thought of as such. Those models will do the job if you don't mind a few work arounds and can put up with some bumps here and there. Many people probably can, but we should adjust our thinking to assume you will need to spend a decent amount more to get the "real" product.
Like others have stated, financially Apple is just a company trying to make money. We consumers are the suckers when we assume the base priced product is the full service one. Just add the $400 when you are doing an evaluation and decide from there if you find enough value to make the purchase.
I made a similar move in the last few weeks
I'd been running a Hack desktop and repurposed the parts for a Windows 11 machine and got an RTX card
(still have my 2015 15" MBP -- because ... I love it!!)
Working great - loving the GPU - loving the flexibility and ability to add storage at will, including a backup drive in there.
Apple has lost the plot
Because most people do not need more than 8GB. System on a chip is not like CPU's in the past.
Life long Mac user since the 90s, currently on an M1 MBP. I have never ever said 'I need more ram'. Running Final Cut Pro, premiere, entire adobe creative suite, and an external apple display. (Not saying no one needs 16 or more, but for those that do, just upgrade before you buy, but if you do need 16GB+ you won't be shopping for a MacBook Air in the first place.
Paying for extra storage is a different story, but I'd argue take base 256 and sign up for cloud storage services, unless you want to lose everything if your laptop goes missing, because most peoples backup strategies don't exist in the first place. Upgrading to 512 might be smart though if you will load tons of apps and want to edit video locally without an external drive, but then again, it's a MacBook Air. Not a Pro.
Plus if you understand the systems on a chip Apple makes, you would know M3 chip is 8GB. There are no stock variations. The chip debuted last Halloween. M3 Pro/Max and soon Ultra offer more at base level, but these will never be offered on an Air.
I signed up to reply to this, have been a daily reader without an account since MR first came out... This is my first post, only took 20+ years...
Not sure how you can draw the conclusion that "Apple has lost the plot" wrt the MBA, when your entire post is the antithesis of a the typical MBA consumer.
BTW - Apple claims the MBA is the world's best selling laptop, so if they "lost the plot", it seems to be working out ok.
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I agree with you there. These completely integrated machines will start failing at the 6 year mark. Then they will become nearly worthless because all of the vital parts are serialized and locked to the mother board. So swapping parts from old machines makes it out of the question.
Youāll have a $3500 paper weight. And expected to get a new one as soon as AppleCare wares out.
Apple has changed. And not for the better.
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: respirator sounds: now to convert my son. : respirator sounds :bye bye.
hope you have fun over on the dark side
Weāre still an iOS family. But owning a Mac for work and productivity just doesnāt pay for itself anymore like it use to. Apple has priced a six figure income family out of doing business with it. And I own shares in the company. Donāt worry guys, I wonāt be selling it for Microsoft stock.
My home server is a Hackintosh. An old HP Z440 server. A 12 core intel Xeon processor 128gb of ddr4 ram and 12TB of storage. With an AMD 5600xt gpu. Granted itās on the last flavor of macOS. It works FLAWLESSLY. The ā about this macā thinks itās an iMac Pro 5k. Iāll let it dream a little.
My trash can Mac Pro finally bit the dust and trying to run a home server off 14ā MacBook Pro isā¦. Itās not going to happen. I was going to use the gaming PC I built for myself but thatās the wifeās until I build her replacement.
I still donāt get it. If there is still demand, Apple doing good business, why would they lower prices just because of people who canāt afford it whining about it? Like seriously, no business makes decision to lower prices just to be nice. Like take Mercedes Benz. Some people are complaining that they canāt afford MB and have to buy Kia or whatever. Should MB make their cars more affordable? No. Their business model is premium segment. They target customers who have money and are willing to pay the premium price for the premium product. Just like Apple. Frankly I think itās pathetic to whine about Apple prices. Canāt afford it? Then a) make more money or b) save up longer or c) just get that cheap windows laptop with 16 GB base config because thatās in your budget.
Apple as of the last two years has seen a SHARP decline in computer sales. And weāre getting discounts almost instantly on base model machines. And even deeper discounts on machines with a year on their availability.
Apple usually would NEVER do that.
Discounts on an Apple product? And itās not Black Friday, back to school or Presidentsā Day?
With an ever shrinking middle class the $1200 ā entry level ā laptop will make less and less sense as time progresses.
Lots of faithful Apple fans feeling this way and acting. More than two that I personally know. The reality distortion field has collapsed. Ever-distending, buggy bloatware. Ugly designs. Aggravating, anti-consumer, extortionate, untenable checkout decisions and increasingly questionable component quality is not a good look for a company purporting to be the exemplar of tech utopia. Bad JuJu for Apple. They crested the wave a long, long time ago.
Itās a bit ironic that you āstop buying Macsā but instead you building yourself Hackintoshā¦
Except for being one of the highest valued companies on the planet. That is indeed better for the stockholders. Just because you don't like where they are heading then maybe the problem is your perspective and not Apple's.
I don't like car prices, home prices, utility prices, gas prices. Apple is far down on my list as I don't buy a computer every year. The cost of an Apple computer amortized over five years is pennies a day. People spend more on Starbucks overpriced junk in a year than would be spent on a Apple computer. Yet no one complains about Starbuck prices.
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In the Venn diagram of consumer profiles and priorities, what is the intersection between people that build Hackintosh servers and folks that buy base configuration MBAs? How many MBA consumers even know what a Hackintosh is or would consider for a second building one?
It seems to me that the biggest critics of the new M3 MBA aren't even close to the target market for the computer. To use a well worn car analogy: It really does not make sense for me to criticize a family sedan because it does not meet my needs for a pickup truck. If I am going to evaluate the sedan, I need to overlay the requirements of a typical family sedan buyer.....not my needs as a pickup truck buyer.
This is the reason these threads get so off the rails.....a disconnect between the critics of the product and the actual users of the product. When you talk to people that actually use the MBA, which I do because there are lots of them (8 at last count) in the extended family (mainly college students and office working professionals), they (me included) love these computers. I mean, according to Apple it is the world's most popular laptop. Is it even remotely possible that the critics are the ones out of touch and not the actual users?
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This is true, but is misleading, as
1) the entire industry has, and
2) it follows a stark rise in sales
2021 and 2022 were an outlier. If you leave those out, Mac sales are better than they've ever been.
As a long time Apple shareholder I would politely say youāre wrong. Go see our last earning report.
What am I wrong about?
Whether revenues, units (according to Gartner), or market share (Gartner), my assertion holds true.
14 inch Pros are quarter pound heavier than 15 Air and much much heavier than 13 Air.
So if you need true power then 14 makes sense, but if you need a bit of stealthiness in your life and ability to move this thing, then Air is for the win given if you can get by its' performance. Like if you are not pushing all power on 14, then Air will do the job while being more portable.
Again we running in circlesā¦ not everyone want or need MBP, many just want the most portable/lightest laptop they can have, while having great performance.
Im more then happy to pay extra for 13ā MBA with 24GB RAM and 1TB storage then having similar 14ā MBP.