Macbook Air Question

Computers & Tech
1

Looking to buy a Macbook Air. I’ll be using it for browsing, streaming apple music and some TV services. Maybe the odd budget spreadsheet or light photo editing but nothing too taxing. My old Macbook pro, long deceased, lasted me around eight years. I’m not expecting that from a new Air but five years at least would be nice.

So the question is do I just go with the base model or should I be upgrading to a 512G SSD and/or 16G RAM to try to future proof it a little? 8G RAM seems a bit light to me but I believe the M chips and Mac OS uses memory differently from a PC so may be more than sufficient.
My options are

  1. M3 8G RAM 256G SSD £1099
  2. M3 16G RAM 256G SSD £1299 (Includes the 10 core GPU) £1299
  3. M3 8G RAM 512G SSD £1299 (Includes the 10 core GPU) £1299
  4. M3 16G RAM 512G SSD (Includes the 10 core GPU) £1499

Anyone like to share any experience or knowledge on the subject?
(Awaiting incoming recommendations for a Chromebook or Windows box)

2

The M3 Macbook Prop I’m replying to you on now has 18gb of RAM and it is appreciably faster than the Lenovo ThinkPad it replaced that had 32gb. I don’t think you’ll struggle with 8 but I suspect a 16GB one will have a longer useful life.

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3

Personally I’d go for the Pro, when I looked at the Air I thought it was a bit flimsy. I’m on my 3rd pro now. Agree on the RAM, apple software is notoriously memory hungry and I’m regularly using 12GB+ on mine.

For £100 more than the Air I’d go for this

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/G1A90B/A/refurbished-14-inch-macbook-pro-apple-m3-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu-silver?fnode=cb343cacfce09a0aa7f4fa92c037aac29ffa7cfaa04c4e6cb8f4d757b2d1703a32be310e65b84bba362e47d44bcae20e3f370f6e2e2bcfd5ca11d0b1bcc8d4e24cf29f6ad061d164e41a79690c0ee399

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4

I’m currently using a MacBook Pro 13" with 8 GB of RAM and it seems to be plenty. :smiley:

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image

6

But are you running UK ATC on it? :grin:

7

Base model will be absolutely fine. I’ve got an M1 base model and it does all that easily.

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8

I’ve got the same model as Mark and run memory hungry Adobe Lightroom without an issue.

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9

I have the M2 Mac mini with 8GB and it’s plenty. 256GB is OK for me as most stuff is saved on iCloud or external drives. If you go for the MacBook Air the 15" is I think well priced.

This is in the refurb store and I think a fair price.

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/FQKT3B/A/refurbished-15-inch-macbook-air-apple-m2-chip-with-8‑core-cpu-and-10‑core-gpu-silver?fnode=242ff7efd388727ba5b77f6a079a1b798640f3ce8995d59815cd133526513c7251864902f4b5645d09d4bd2bee9a339ae88805a6a4ecd60489754ca26217d4acb8b4469ddc225afd7f3847d404f9701e

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10

Bit late to the party here, but I’m on a 15" M3 Macbook Air, and had the 13" Macbook Air before that. In both cases I went for 16GB of ram. Right now I’m using 12GB or so, but I suspect there’s an element that MacOS will let stuff use as much as it wants until it starts to reach capacity, then will start to prune stuff back (not 100% on this for sure). Excel with one tiny workbook open does want nearly 1GB of RAM though, which feels like a lot.

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