William Gallagher
The entry-level version of the M3 MacBook Air now has 16GB of unified memory, doubling the previous amount, but staying at $999.
Alongside its announcement of the new M4 MacBook Pro, Apple has updated the MacBook Air. Where the base $999 model had 8GB of RAM, it now ships with 16GB — and does so for both the M2 and M3 editions.
So while there is as yet no M4 version of the MacBook Air, the lower-price alternative to the MacBook Pro has had a significant update. Previously increasing the MacBook Air to 16GB RAM, would cost an extra $200.
That used to bring the MacBook Air to $1299, which meant it was in sight of the $1,599 for the base MacBook Pro.
The MacBook Air was last updated in March 2024, with a redesign that made it resemble the MacBook Pro. Three months after release, AppleInsider described it as the best Mac for nearly everyone.
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14 Comments
But I thought Macs were so efficient that they needed only 8 GBs?
Hindsight is always 20-20. In 2020 Apple wasn't forecasting the fast paced and urgent adoption of AI/ML features to the extent it is happening now. We've already seen rumors of internal communications that Apple is about two years behind the competition. It is pretty clear that they were caught off guard and are now racing to catch up.
That said, I prefer Apple's gradual rollout of these AI features. They really need to get it right (with a strong focus on privacy and security) unlike Microsoft's ham-handed attempt (the CoPilot + debacle).
And just a reminder, all consumer-facing AI features are alpha or early beta stage. There is nothing (consumer-facing) that is remotely close to being of release quality. So Apple's tardiness isn't as much of a burden as some prognosticators would have others believe.
It's clear that 8GB RAM in iPhones and iPads will also ultimately end up being very limiting, especially if the LLM is indeed 6GB. There's less multitasking done on the iPhone but for sure some iPad users will see performance decreases.
It is unlikely that Apple will jump to 16GB on handhelds right away, most likely they will have an intermediate step to 12GB for going to 16GB RAM. And we know those RAM increases will debut in the Pro and Pro Max phone models before they trickle down to the regular iPhone and iPhone Max models. So maybe 12GB for Pro/Pro Max in 2025 and the same for iPhone/iPhone Max in 2026. So looking at 3-4 years before the base iPhone reaches 16GB RAM.
I am glad I bought my Mac mini M2 Pro with 16GB of RAM but then again, it replaced a Mac mini 2018 with the same amount of RAM. 8GB is indeed a little light for today's modern desktop operating systems.
That said, not everyone is running resource-intensive multimedia applications like Lightroom. Tim Cook certainly isn't. There are lot of people who use their MacBook Airs for basic office productivity, e-mail, web surfing, occasional media editing.