As you might not have missed it, Apple recently updated its MacBook Air (13 and 15 inches) with the M3 chip. But one point hasn’t changed since April 2016: By default, Apple equips its MacBook Airs with just 8 GB of RAM. And after almost 8 years, this allocation is very less.
From Apple, 8 GB in a Mac does not correspond to 16 GB in a PC
Dissatisfied people may argue in the comments that this is a bit of a whim of ours, but the observation has been the same for many years: for multiple uses, the amount of RAM provided by default is too small. This is a topic we’ve talked about in one of our podcasts, and one thing we must understand: the problem gets worse over time.
Every year, applications require more and more memory, popular websites require more RAM, and specific uses evolve when the amount of RAM does not change. Tools based on AI (in the broadest sense) require a lot of RAM for some models and this is a point we highlighted in our testing: practical and widely used tools like Whisper can monopolize several gigabytes of RAM. If you’re just launching the program, that might be enough, but it’s 2024 and macOS no longer needs MultiFinder to handle multitasking and can do without showing the bomb. Even the competition has understood this well: Microsoft needs 16 GB for its AI PC. It’s almost comical to watch Apple communicate on “ The world’s best consumer laptop for AI » When equipping the basic version with 8 GB RAM.
MacBook Air M3 review: Even better
One of the new features of the 2024 Vintage can quickly cause problems: the possibility to connect two screens. Indeed, if you connect two modern monitors (4K), you will use a significant part of the RAM and therefore reduce real Available memory for the application. This is a harmful side effect of Apple’s beloved unified memory: Since video memory and central memory are not separate, the GPU can take up large chunks of memory, sometimes several gigabytes per monitor.
The price problem
We are of course aware of the price issue. Apple tends to charge very high prices for its RAM – an upgrade from 8 GB to 16 GB on the base model costs €230 – and for a while, versions with 16 GB of RAM were not widely available commercially. This issue was a problem: you had to buy from Apple and add an option, while third-party resellers sometimes offered promotions, but only on variants equipped with 8 GB. With the MacBook Air M3, things are changing: Apple provides direct references with 16 GB of RAM, available on Amazon. The price is obviously higher (€1,760 for the 13-inch and €2,060 for the 15-inch) but the two MacBook Airs are more durable.
Also note that Apple is apparently well aware of the problem: the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro recently received 16 GB as standard in one of these variants.
And still 256 GB as standard
We can also talk about storage, because Apple is still limited to 256 GB at the entry level, even if the 2024 iteration has the advantage of using at least two chips. But the storage issue is a little less important: if updating the basic equipment is more or less impossible, it is still possible to connect an external SSD or store data in the cloud. While for RAM, you won’t be able to add a USB module…
In any case, you probably get our point: 8 GB is not enough for many uses in 2024 and Apple should really move up to 16 GB as standard for the durability of its MacBook Air.
