Apple officially announced the M4 MacBook series earlier today, but behind that announcement there’s another piece of news that’s perhaps just as important. The company has increased the base memory of its M2 and M3 MacBook Air models to 16 GB of RAM. The best part? Starting prices for these laptops remain the same $999.
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The tech giant doesn’t charge extra for improved performance. This applies only to the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air and 13-inch and 15-inch M3 MacBook Air models. There are no upgrades for the 15-inch M2 MacBook Air as the base memory remains at 8GB RAM.
Also added is an M3 MacBook Air configuration with 24GB of RAM. Prices for this new model start from $1,699as well as previous high-end options. Beyond hardware updates, the series remains unchanged. Keeps the same storage options, Liquid Retina display, and is available in the same colors.
Extra memory makes these great laptops even better and more appealing. More RAM will help your computer browse the internet faster, navigate apps more smoothly, and improve its multitasking capabilities.
Beyond just improving the user experience, I believe there are two other reasons Apple provides additional memory. The first reason has to do with Apple intelligence. Generative AI typically requires a lot of resources from the device on which it runs, so you may have determined that an upgrade is necessary.
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Indeed, modern iPhones like the iPhone 16 can run the tech giant’s AI features with just 8GB of RAM. Apple Intelligence on mobile could be another build that isn’t particularly taxing on your smartphone. The MacBook version, on the other hand, is more capable and powerful, but requires additional resources to run smoothly.
The second reason is that Apple has no plans to release an M4 MacBook Air (at least for now). It’s only been about 8 months since then, M3 MacBook Air was released, but the company may have thought it was too early to release a follow-up.
Launching new laptops can put pressure on sales of older models. The M4 MacBook Air likely won’t arrive until early 2025, probably March or April of next year.
