Need advice on the choice

[Jay Tee]

Picked it up today and very happy with the choice I made. Went for the Starlight.

Still happy with starlight, a month later; apparently, it masks blemishes better than either silver or space grey ?

 

[TNSN]

I bought the base model 13 inch M3, it works perfectly fine for your use case i assume. But if you can afford it and plan on to keep it for a long time (5+ years) then upgrade the specs. I always upgrade my Macbook every 2-3 years so 8gb is plenty for me at the moment.

 

[Jay Tee]

Hi guys, the question of buying a new MacBook Air has come up, I've got my eye on a MacBook Air 13″.

But I can't decide between M3, RAM 8 GB or M2 RAM 16 GB.

Anyone who might know what would be much better to choose here, the new generation M3 or the RAM.

I ordered the 16GB just in case the AI stuff, that’s coming down the pipeline fairly soon, could use the extra space.

$200 extra is only 12 hours of work, even on minimum wage; i don't see cause for deliberation.

 

[Saturn007]

Perhaps. But external storage also provides a different location for the storage of data that is not on the computer. Which will fail at some point, generally the most inconvenient time.

Not an either-or. The point being that if you have, e.g., large photo and video libraries that you want convenient, fast access to, you should get more storage in your main laptop for the outset. Don't buy small storage and fall for the argument that external storage is cheap. That's the path to having to carrying around an external drive and cable just to get your basics done.

But opting for more internal storage doesn’t mean foregoing getting an external hard drive for regular backups! That's to cover exactly what you bring up — the potential corruption or failure of the internal SSD or simply user error deleting a key file. Which is where wireless Time Machine backing up comes in, too.

I'm particularly those who pose the choice between more RAM or more storage as get more RAM because you can also add storage later. Nope! False choice or not equivalent. Get as much RAM and storage as you anticipate needing — from the get go. Don't shortchange yourself on the SSD front.

 

[Torty]

The M2 gives you more RAM but the M3 gives you one more MacOS update. Your choice.

 

[judethat]

Still happy with starlight, a month later; apparently, it masks blemishes better than either silver or space grey ?

Yes I am happy with the choice I made, loving the colour.