What kind of user do you imagine that has the combination of a need for running many large, memory hungry apps at once but doesn’t know enough to consider how much RAM they might need? Your basic: browsing, email, word processing, photo editing user will be fine with 8GB of RAM and is unlikely to run into performance issues.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
15-Inch MacBook Air Reviews: The Sweet Spot for Performance, Size, and Value
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple isn’t forcing any one to buy their devices at gun point. You are free to purchase laptops from other vendors.
I swear it’s been the same complaining here for maybe 15 years if not longer. People seem to forget Apple is a for profit company and there are plenty of other options available. Don’t like the prices? Then go buy a Window’s based laptop.
But where in the Windows world can I get a fan-less 15-inch laptop?
So it is cheaper, lighter and smaller?
Consumers do not want to lug expensive, heavy and big things.
It’s about choices. You want 15 inch MBA, you buy what Apple has to offer with MBA. Don’t like Apples offering, get a laptop with fan.
Within the context of the other words I used... it is.
Ligher is expensive
Smaller is expensive
Fan-less is expensive
For what it is the MBA 15" is very affordable.
Only a desirable feature if you're using it in a perfectly silent cave. The rest of us have ambient noises all around us. Dogs, people, music, TV, cars, birds, you name it. An occasional fan whir is just another noise and if it cools my laptop faster than just passive heatsinks, that, for me, is a desirable feature.
My MBP 16 has fans. I don't think I've ever actually heard them.
I have seen my MBP 64 GB M1 Max fans go full speed. MBP hasn’t throttled though, but its noise is drowned with my 4090 going crazy. I still think MBP 16 is lot quieter than most laptops.
All you have to do is be a user who likes to keep open a lot of web browser tabs (there are a lot of us in this category, and for all sorts of genuine, useful reasons, so don't scoff at the idea) to find the AS machines choke up with only 8GB RAM.
I have a good friend who bought one of the first release M1 MBA's when they came out, and being the typical user you described, happily picked up the 8 GB machine. He also had simultaneously found a buyer for his old laptop, so didn't have it to fall back on. And even with the 2 week return warranty period, the 16 GB versions were still being produced, so weren't even available for sale, so he was up sh*t creek without a paddle.
Yeah, he prefers Chrome, and yeah, he tried switching to Safari instead, but he said it actually made things worse!
He suffered with it, and wasn't willing to lose so much money selling it 2nd hand and buying a new 16 GB model. Until I reported to him that I was loving my 16" M1P MBP (with 32 GB RAM), so he bit the bullet, and upgraded to a 14" MBP with 16 GB RAM. Finally, he was happy, but what an unnecessary drama. Especially when you know how damn miniscule an amount of money it actually costs Apple for the RAM that goes into these machines. In reality, the only reason the base amount isn't simply 16 GB, or even 32 GB, is purely so Apple can ream the buyers for upgrades.