M2 and M3 MacBook Air models get bumped to 16GB of RAM for no extra money
All baseline Macs have jumped from 8GB to 16GB this week, new processors or no.
Apple’s week of Mac announcements isn’t extending to an M4 MacBook Air—rumors indicate that the Air, as well as desktops like the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, will get new processors sometime in 2025. But Apple is bringing one of the best features of the new M4 Macs to the M3 MacBook Airs, as well as the entry-level M2 model: All of the base models are being bumped from 8GB to 16GB of RAM for the same prices as before. The M2 MacBook Air still starts at $999, while the 13- and 15-inch M3 versions start at $1,099 and $1,299.
All of these laptops were available with 16GB of RAM before, but it was normally a $200 upgrade. All of them still top out at 24GB of RAM, which is now a $200 upgrade to the 16GB models rather than a $400 upgrade as it was before. All models still start with 256GB of storage.
This week’s launches mark the first time since 2012 that Apple has increased the amount of RAM in any of its base-model Macs, and the upgrade addresses one of our single biggest complaints about the laptops. Not all users will immediately notice the benefits of a 16GB RAM upgrade, but it will definitely make the laptops more versatile and capable of keeping up with users as their needs change.