15" MacBook Air: How much RAM do you REALLY Need?

Waiting for 8/512 vs 16/256 comparison 😢

But what if you don’t do any editing?

good info great. stuff thnx

I ordered the 15 inch Air in Space Grey with 16GB Unified Memory and 1TB ssd. It'll serve me well for computer sceince and programming tasks

How about working on Google Chrome with Google suite that demands tons of RAM and need to open a lot of tabs for Slides, sheets etc ¿which one set up you recommend the most?

Which is best upgrade Ram or ssd .?
Pick anyone .....

and 8GB ram with 512GB SSD??

I'll buy another Apple product when they stop being so increasingly greedy. I had more than 8GB in my daily machine 12 years ago. Selling that as a viable machine - for the price that they ask - in 2023 is absurd.

your recommendations contradict each other from one video to the next! You've said in other videos that upgrading SSD is less important than RAM - here you say the opposite! what's going on??

Am I crazy. am I the only one that thinks having more than few tabs up at a time is just ridiculous.

Apple is best of best in term of build quality. Respect for Apple.

Hi, I'm currently considering which MacBook to choose, and I wanted to ask you which one, in your opinion, would be a better choice.

The new MacBook 15 Air with M2, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD.
A used MacBook Pro 16 with M1, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD.
I mainly intend to use it for photography, editing images in programs like Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, and for live photo previews, internet browsing, and working with text documents. I should note that I don't edit a large number of photos in my workflow, just small sessions.

The MacBook Air 15 with M2 is appealing to me due to its lighter weight and greater mobility, as well as its long battery life. However, the price is quite high, so I would probably go with 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD to keep costs down.

On the other hand, a used MacBook Pro 16 with M1 would offer a larger 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM. It has a better display, speakers, an SD card reader, and an HDMI port. Unfortunately, it is considerably heavier and bulkier, which might make typing and carrying it around less convenient compared to the Air 15 with M2.

I would be very grateful for your response.

In Chrome you can put other tabs to sleep and it saves ram and also switches tab pretty instantly

I'd love to see a comparison of 256gb SSD 16gb RAM vs 512gb SSD 8gb RAM. See the difference between only upgrading one or the other.

Nice description and tests. Subscribed!

once again this test isn't valid because they don't have the same SSD, Max you know better than this.

The SSD has an effect on results and we don't know if the difference is SSD or RAM.

We literally said we have 30 tabs or more open but you only went for 10... hahah. Also, could we please have a comparison between the 16gb with M1 16gb?

How much memory does duck duck go search engine use compared to google and chrome??

Am I the only one who closes my tabs when I’m done? 30 tabs? I’ll have one for music if I’m not using Spotify and 5 more if I’m actually using the browser

This comparison is like comparing x and x square!
You could have comapred (8 GB and 512 SSD) vs (16GB and 256 GB) That makes more sense!
That would have helped me who doesn't want to upgrade both RAM and SSD!

Man…I have a 12 years old Asus intel i3 with 750Gb of storage. I usually take 30 minutes just to edit 1 photo on Lightroom (if it doesn’t crash). Anything from apple is better than this

HD upgrade or 16GB RAM better?

Apple is selling glorified chrome books, any useful computer, needs to have 16gb of memory and 512gb for programs and it’s portable documents. Would anyone buy a Porsche with doughnuts tires??? Thank you for your reviews.

Great vid. Trying to decide which MacBook Air to buy and this was extremely helpful!

I need the 12 core CPU 38 core GPU, 96GB RAM, and 8TB SSD MacBook pro 16 for my math homework.

I just want one to watch movies and web search.

I am an amateur musician, and I do record individual pieces - usually just instrumentals and use software like OBS Studio and also live on Zoom. I'm currently walking away from Windows 11 because of the notorious problems it tends to have with this. I will purchase a MacAir M2. I wouldn't be exporting long videos, but I need it to work when I need it. Would I really notice a difference with the 16gb model? My assumption is yes, but am curious.

I just realized that this 2023 apple M2 has a 256gb storage 30% to 50% slower. I just canceled my order.

What happen if i choose only 16gb ram and 256 ssd?

So I have a 2016 15 inch i7 MBP and I was really looking forward to the new 15 inch air, obviously for the speed bump of the new M2 chip, but I was let down when I started to do research and found that the screen resolution and quality is pretty much the exact same as my 7 year old MBP. Obviously I’d have to upgrade to the current Pro but I’m finding the 14 inch small and the 16 inch too big and heavy😅wish they just made a 15 inch pro

This is very helpful and great testing, thank you so much

8gb vs 16 gb with 250 ssd ?

What about a maxed out MacBook Air lol

Hi MaxTech. Awesome video as always. Very thorough and easy to understand.

I have a question. I am a very general user. Sometimes do light financial modelling in my laptop. Which of the two model is more future-proof? Because my last laptop is a Windows laptop and it lasted for almost 10 years, to give you an image of how do I use my laptop. Thanks.

Is 24GB ram recommended if you use AutoCAD with Parallels Desktop if you use this MacBook Air?

As a music guy I do legit need the 64gb option

It’s even worse if you do GPU heavy workloads, since the system RAM on M1/M2 Macbooks is shared between the CPU and the GPU. 8GB discrete GPU + 8GB RAM is 16GB in total. Most 1000$ Windows laptops (and older Macbooks with discrete GPU) ship with 8GB + 16GB = 24GB total. On new Macbooks you need the 32GB model to match that. 16GB is fine for light workloads, but iffy for any workload that requires memory heavy software (utilizing both CPU and GPU) + web browser with a lots of tabs open. I would personally avoid the 8GB configuration alltogether. That’s practically a 4GB + 4GB split if you need the GPU. That’s what you expect from and old 32 bit system, not from a new 1000$+ computer.

I would have gotten the 16gb model with a 512gb SSD but Apple loves money to much.

You should have tested with a third mac like the MacBook Air M1 8GB to see how it’s against its predecessor.

Guys please don't get the 8GB model, it's so easy to fill up that space with just browser tabs. My biggest regret for my M1 Air was to cheap out and not get 16GB ram.

It's not understandable that someone spends so much money just to have a Mac to be limited. I bought the Mac Mini M1 for a great price and I love it but the MacOS is too limited, no dual boot anymore and that Apple for a lot of money still uses such a basic option, it makes no sense at all. Only for those that need psychologically a Mac. Just yesterday for 1299€ (in Europe it already includes all taxes) you could choose an Asus or lenovo, Ultra thin, oled screen 2880 x 1800, AMD 6900hs or Intel 1260P, 512 GB SSD, 16 GB RAM. Those can use all windows apps AND games and even use an eGPU (which I have on my Surface Pro 8 and BTW I upgraded myself the 256 GB SSD to a 1 TB SSD for 89€). Nonsense to buy such apple devices as they are ATM. I could fully understand if the base model (at the base price) would be the 512 GB 16 GB RAM. Not the miserable fixed Apple amounts...

Iam not impressed...wonder? Double Ram and SSD is double fast than 8/256🤔....🐛💸

Just got yesterday the basic 15" Macbook Air for my wife and she is very happy to upgrade from the 2018 13" Macbook Air. I'm very impressed with the machine it feels great in the hands, it's impossibly thin and the sound is great for this tiny chassis and lack of front-facing speakers. I'm using a 16" M1 MBP, but for a lot of travel and work on the move the 15" MBA is a great machine even for professionals if you upgrade the ram and the SSD. Sadly for the upgraded configuration here we needed to wait at least 6 weeks, so decide to go with the basic machine.

For basic use the base model is completely fine. If you are doing anything intensive, you shouldn’t buy Air anyway since its fan less.

For me the extra cost for the piece of mind and longevity is worth it to me. Constantly using swap isnt great for SSD drives and will get people by short term, but not the best long term. Buying a laptop that costs this much should last a good 5 years and a few extra £££ to make sure it's going to be at its best down the line is worth it for me!.

That said, ram is cheap and Apple really shouldn't have 8gb base ram on laptops that cost this much.

In my opinion the 256 GB nor the 8 GB of ram are contemporary. Can’t understand why Apple still has these low standard shipment… it’s hilarious for a computer with this quality and high pricing!

Thanks for reviewing the 16 cuz most are reviewing base model

What about CPU, GPU and neutral engine core of these two machines?