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Liquinn

Suspended
Original poster
Apr 10, 2011
3,016
57
That the RAM is soldered and you can't upgrade the machine post-purchase?
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,448
43,370
That the RAM is soldered and you can't upgrade the machine post-purchase?

Why don't they also mention the MBA (and rMBP) uses proprietary SSDs? Most consumers who buy these things generally don't upgrade the ram after the affect. It impacts them very little and why state something that could be viewed negatively. That is they want to sell laptops and pointing out some negative things won't help them in that endeavor.
 

nissan.gtp

macrumors 6502
Aug 22, 2007
386
35
Virginia
That the RAM is soldered and you can't upgrade the machine post-purchase?

It's not prominent, but they do say this:

Every MacBook Air comes with 4GB of memory built into the system. If you feel you may need 8GB in the future, it is important to upgrade at the time of purchase, as RAM is not upgradeable in this model.
 

Johnny Alien

macrumors member
Nov 17, 2012
98
0
Methinks this might actually encourage more people to opt for the ram upgrade. :p

It would have little impact either way because (as maflynn,Demi-God pointed out) the average consumer (ie the literal bulk of Apple buyers) don't ever buy a computer assuming they will upgrade the ram by themselves. Every purchase they make is on the assumption that the ram they get will be the ram they live with for the lifespan of the computer.
 

James_C

macrumors 68030
Sep 13, 2002
2,817
1,822
Bristol, UK
I have bought around 8 different Macs in the last 11 years, and I have never upgraded the RAM after the initial purchase, sometimes I have bought 3rd Party RAM at the time of purchase, but generally by the time I needed to upgrade the RAM I would replace the entire machine. My last Desktop was a Mac Pro that I bought in 2006 and still has 4GB of Ram that I purchased when I first got the machine. Still runs today as well as it did when I first bought it.
 

bobr1952

macrumors 68020
Jan 21, 2008
2,040
39
Melbourne, FL
I have bought around 8 different Macs in the last 11 years, and I have never upgraded the RAM after the initial purchase, sometimes I have bought 3rd Party RAM at the time of purchase, but generally by the time I needed to upgrade the RAM I would replace the entire machine. My last Desktop was a Mac Pro that I bought in 2006 and still has 4GB of Ram that I purchased when I first got the machine. Still runs today as well as it did when I first bought it.

That's me too. I am certainly capable and have done so in the past with PCs but I am perfectly content with the configuration when I buy and really have no plans to change anything on my 2008 iMac--still running with 2GB of RAM--and I am happy with the base configuration of my rMBP. I have to agree with many that most Apple customers--excepting many on this forum--don't care about upgrading so it is just not worthy of headline news on the specs page.
 

Paulywauly

macrumors 6502a
Sep 26, 2009
766
0
Durham, UK
We might not like having soldered RAM, but to be quite frank we are in a minority. 90% of folk dont care or even realise it was ever an option.
 

Seamaster

macrumors 65816
Feb 24, 2003
1,125
176
I've never upgraded any Mac I've owned in twenty years. If I wanted to deal with all that stuff, I'd buy a PC clone.
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
That the RAM is soldered and you can't upgrade the machine post-purchase?

Strange question. From the Apple Store site for the 11" MBA: "Every MacBook Air comes with 4GB of memory built into the system. If you feel you may need 8GB in the future, it is important to upgrade at the time of purchase, as RAM is not upgradeable in this model."

Noticed this was posted before. Just saying that this is posted on the Mac configuration page, in the section where you configure RAM, when you click on "Learn More". I think clicking to read all the available information when you buy an expensive item is not too much to ask for.
 

Randyrat

macrumors member
Feb 20, 2011
39
0
Strange question. From the Apple Store site for the 11" MBA: "Every MacBook Air comes with 4GB of memory built into the system. If you feel you may need 8GB in the future, it is important to upgrade at the time of purchase, as RAM is not upgradeable in this model."

Noticed this was posted before. Just saying that this is posted on the Mac configuration page, in the section where you configure RAM, when you click on "Learn More". I think clicking to read all the available information when you buy an expensive item is not too much to ask for.

ah, beat me to the punch.
When I originally bought my Macbook Air I remembered reading this tidbit of information. And I agree; it doesn't seem too much to ask of a consumer to click the "learn more" button when spending north of a grand.
 
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