Because there are multiple variations of the 8GB model as stock configurations. The 1TB 8GB model is also available.
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.
Apple's New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Available From $1,399 With Latest Steep Discounts
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Fair enough. Should specify both specs then. Also I personally think it's kind of crazy to buy a laptop with a 1TB SSD and 8 gigs of RAM.
This! 8GB is fine for a lot of people. I had a client somewhat reluctantly replace his old PC with the base model M2 Air 15, and you know what? It's way better, and given his usage he would never see the difference in real life with a 16gb model. So, if 8GB is what it takes to shave off a $200 off the price and make it more attainable for more people, I'm ok with that. Let's have some empathy for people with different needs.
Is Apple a bit greedy on upgrades? No arguments out of me on that, but the base models are such a compelling value for the mainstream consumer. Compare a $750 on sale M1 with any PC in that range, there is absolutely no comparison. None.
I know Apple employees frequent MacRumors. Just read the comment section and realize charging $200 for an extra 8GB of RAM is preposterous. Same $200 for another 256GB HD. Extra GPU core for +4% performance? Another $100.
Sad listening the Apple apologists saying 8GB is enough. If the use case is browsing the web and basic stuff, a $150-200 Chrome laptop is "enough", so saying the M1 is a steal...
I know many would upgrade if the price was more down-to-earth instead of milking the few ones willing to pay $5k for a fully upgraded laptop.
Sad listening the Apple apologists saying 8GB is enough. If the use case is browsing the web and basic stuff, a $150-200 Chrome laptop is "enough", so saying the M1 is a steal...
I know many would upgrade if the price was more down-to-earth instead of milking the few ones willing to pay $5k for a fully upgraded laptop.
MR why do you conveniently leave out the Ram each time you post these advertorials …errr… "news" articles.
Just a cheap way to get us to click links so Best Buy can be happy.
Just a cheap way to get us to click links so Best Buy can be happy.
Anyone that finds it enough for them should just be getting an Air though instead.
Yes, they generally should, but maybe they'd like that nicer screen. I wish they sold an Air with pro-motion and more brightness.
WHY do they and everyone keep calling it a pro when there is no 'pro stamp' on the bottom?
This is a "Macbook M3)
This is a "Macbook M3)
Agree that Apple zestfully seeks to maximize profit. But disagree that 8GB is “harming the basic performance”. That hardly applies to fetching mail, surfing the net, shopping, running basic spreadsheets, and doing basic word processing.
8GB is more than enough for many, if not most, M1 and M2 Mac users — as many people have found. Even my venerable 8GB 2015 13” MacBook Air still handles all sorts of demanding tasks with aplomb.
What evidence do you have for that? Sure, if someone is opening up scores of tabs, with video running in them, you can produce slower performance with 8 GB. But who plays multiple videos at once in different tabs?! In any case, for *normal* browsing, where's the evidence of a marked slowdown with 8GB? How much slower is it? How bothersome is that to the average user?
Perhaps with 40 tabs opened at once in Chrome, you might, and I say might, find there's a modest gain in speed with 16 GB. (Likely measured in seconds, and perhaps only a couple at that.) But for most browsing, with only a handful of tabs open, and for the users don’t even do tabs, I’ll bet there is no demonstrable, troubling slowdown when browsing with 8GB.
This is the reality. 8GB is clearly enough for all sorts of people. Lots of them. My word! My 2015 13” MacBook Air with only 8GB still works quickly and responsively, even with two dozen plus tabs opened, along with a book manuscript in Word, a large multi-sheet financial spreadsheet in Excel, and Photos and Preview running! An Apple Silicon Mac with “only” 8GB does even better.
In fact, the opposite case could be made! Those who keep insisting 8GB isn't enough — and harms basic performance — are needlessly pushing, persuading, or misleading people to buy far more RAM than they need! They may be unwittingly encouraging the average user to buy Apple's overpriced RAM upgrades!
That, in fact, serves Apple's bottom-line, corporate interests far more than those who, realistically, say 8GB is just fine for many people! 😁
Instead of being apologists, those in the 8GB crowd are being realists! Like you all, we criticize Apple for its enormous mark-ups and recognize that some, even many, users may, indeed, need 16GB or more. But we don’t want the average person paying for costly upgrades they don't need!
In any case, I’ll wager that in the next year or two Apple upgrades the base RAM of new models and charges more for them — and keeps selling older models with less RAM at lower cost. That would maximize their profits even more than the current approach!
Last edited:
They most certainly can sell it with 16G of RAM. Their margins are huge and we're not talking about all that much cost to Apple, maybe $30 difference... The price apple charges for the 16G upgrade is not the real cost nor anywhere close to it.
Apple really needs to standardize on 16 GBs, I upgraded a customer from 16 GBs to 32 GBs this morning. Yeah, its a Windows laptop, but it says as much about how easy it was for an after market experience and giving users the flexibility. You don't have that with Apple if your needs change. So, at lease make it reasonable and make 16 GB the standard without charging an arm an a leg.
Such a deal! If I didn't already have an M2 MBP still under AppleCare, I'd be in line for it. (The standard M2 came with more RAM, but the same storage. But it cost us $1749, so the M3 is still cheaper comparably equipped.)
To be fair, Apple dropped the 13" M2 Air's price a bit when they released the 15". I think Apple wants to update the Airs to M3 at the same time, but since they released the 15" five months ago I really didn't expect them to update the 13".
I agree that it's best to think of it as the 14" MacBook, but MBP is debossed on the bottom panel.
Image from an unboxing.
Apple should completely kill 8GB options from the Pro line, it is a pure embarrassment.
For those of you asking why someone who just uses a machine for surfing the web needs 16GB of RAM - me. I have a MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM, and it's markedly faster than my MacBook Air with 8GB.
Now, granted, both of these are two core machines from 2015, but even that ought to show how stingy Apple's being nearly 10 years later.
Now, I don't do much on my MacBook aside from posting rants on MacRumors (and other) forums. But I have over 100 tabs open in Safari (I'll get to reading all those NYT articles... someday), Another dozen open in Chrome (for stuff that Safari's just not happy with). And depending on the day, I'll have Mail, Excel, VLC, Reader, etc all open in the background, waiting for me to flip over to them as needed - but none of these are video apps, or compilers, or rendering, or machine learning. They're just... everyday apps.
Switching between apps is much slower on the MBA once I've gotten more than a dozen or so tabs open. I don't generally get to that point on the 16GB MBP unless I'm being exceptionally greedy.
My wife uses her corporate MBP the same way - she has half a dozen Chrome windows open (reflecting different projects/tasks), each with 50-100 tabs. And she complains that her 16" Intel MBP cranks its fan up too much.
So yeah, 8GB is a joke, even for people who who don't do 'pro' stuff.
I don't need an M3P - but Apple simply doesn't sell an inexpensive portable machine that has more RAM than my 2015 13" MBP. I propose that the M3 MBP is a bit of a miss, and it should've been refocused:
Now, granted, both of these are two core machines from 2015, but even that ought to show how stingy Apple's being nearly 10 years later.
Now, I don't do much on my MacBook aside from posting rants on MacRumors (and other) forums. But I have over 100 tabs open in Safari (I'll get to reading all those NYT articles... someday), Another dozen open in Chrome (for stuff that Safari's just not happy with). And depending on the day, I'll have Mail, Excel, VLC, Reader, etc all open in the background, waiting for me to flip over to them as needed - but none of these are video apps, or compilers, or rendering, or machine learning. They're just... everyday apps.
Switching between apps is much slower on the MBA once I've gotten more than a dozen or so tabs open. I don't generally get to that point on the 16GB MBP unless I'm being exceptionally greedy.
My wife uses her corporate MBP the same way - she has half a dozen Chrome windows open (reflecting different projects/tasks), each with 50-100 tabs. And she complains that her 16" Intel MBP cranks its fan up too much.
So yeah, 8GB is a joke, even for people who who don't do 'pro' stuff.
I don't need an M3P - but Apple simply doesn't sell an inexpensive portable machine that has more RAM than my 2015 13" MBP. I propose that the M3 MBP is a bit of a miss, and it should've been refocused:
- An M3 (M3+, if you will) with the same core count as the M3, but with more I/O - a second external monitor, 3rd USB port, and dedicated video out, just like the M3P
- 16GB of RAM
- Standard LED display (to cut down on COGS)