Refurb M1 MacBook Air - 8GB Enough in 2022?

[A4orce84]

Hey Everyone,

As the subject states, I am getting ready to pull the trigger on a refurb M1 MBA with 8GB of Ram for my wife. She will mainly use the laptop for basic stuff (surfing, music, email, Netflix, etc.).

Question:
I wanted to find out if 8GB is enough for her? I've seen mixed reports that say that for 'normal' usage, people should really try and grab a 16GB model if possible.

Thanks in advance to everyone for your time and help, it is greatly appreciated!

 

[ericg301]

yes. just bought my wife a new one from amazon ($799) and coming from her 7 year old Acer, it's a whole new world. for basic computing tasks, it's more than fine. don't let anyone convince you that you need more than 8GB for her needs.

As a primary CONSUMPTION machine, you can't beat it. If she need it to be a PRODUCTION machine, then you might want to consider more RAM. But as an entry level machine, it's perfect for entry level tasks.

 

[wilberforce]

People have different ideas of what "surfing" means. If she likes to have (say) 20 or more content-rich tabs open at once and flip back and forth, then 8GB might not be the best choice. Many tabs can be demanding on RAM.

 

[russell_314]

Hey Everyone,

As the subject states, I am getting ready to pull the trigger on a refurb M1 MBA with 8GB of Ram for my wife. She will mainly use the laptop for basic stuff (surfing, music, email, Netflix, etc.).

Question:
I wanted to find out if 8GB is enough for her? I've seen mixed reports that say that for 'normal' usage, people should really try and grab a 16GB model if possible.

Thanks in advance to everyone for your time and help, it is greatly appreciated!

More than enough. I think techy people forget that normal people do normal things on computers. Somehow many think you can't open more than one Chrome tab without at least a M1 Max MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM 🤣.

 

[ignatius345]

In 2022, 8GB is OK for a lot of uses. Ask yourself about 2024 or 2025, though.

 

[A4orce84]

In 2022, 8GB is OK for a lot of uses. Ask yourself about 2024 or 2025, though.

I mean my old 2009 MacBook Pro made survived nearly 10 years (with a few upgrades). So, I would think an M1 would at least be able to make it to the 2024/2025 timeframe.

 

[ignatius345]

I mean my old 2009 MacBook Pro made survived nearly 10 years (with a few upgrades). So, I would think an M1 would at least be able to make it to the 2024/2025 timeframe.

Yeah, I'm sure it'll survive, but those upgrades you did on your '09 MBP are not possible now. Everything is locked in.

Every time I've skimped on some non-upgradeable item like RAM, I've found myself wishing a couple years down the road that I could retroactively pay that same $200-300 or whatever it was to upgrade the machine.

 

[Scarpad]

yes, its perfectly fine

 

[v1ctorS]

There are certain workflows that require 16 GB of memory (Virtual machines like Parallels, professional editing e.g.), but for normal everyday use 8 GB of unified memory are enough. There will be memory swapping, but the SSDs in the M1 MBA are so fast that you won't notice it.

 

[v1ctorS]

People have different ideas of what "surfing" means. If she likes to have (say) 20 or more content-rich tabs open at once and flip back and forth, then 8GB might not be the best choice. Many tabs can be demanding on RAM.

Even with 10 apps running including 20 tabs in Safari, you won't notice a difference in performance unless we're talking about the base M2 MBA.

 

[martin2345uk]

Got a refurbished 8GB 2020 M1 Air earlier this year and it's never dropped a beat, absolutely love it.

 

[biffuz]

No.

If you want a basic Facebook machine, just get a $300 laptop and be happy with it. Or a base iPad, if you want to stay in the Apple garden. Non expandable 8 GB in a $1k machine is an insult in 2022.

 

[neo_cs193p]

I'm doing iOS dev & other basic stuff on a base M2. Wanted to get a 16GB/1TB to cover all my needs, but then decided against it. Everything is very smooth on the 8GB if I don't keep a lot of browser tabs open and use no more than 1-2 simulators at a time. I would benefit from the performance of the extra RAM maybe 5% of the time when using multiple simulators, and I also need to use an external drive to hold my Photos collection, which I use less than 5% of the time. But I like the $600 that remained in my pocket 100% of the time. Plus I got a good discount on the base model, which is almost never the case on custom order specs.

 

[TorontoSS]

I would agree with the general consensus here. I bought myself an M2 Air with 512GB but 8GB of RAM and i stressed about the fact that 8gb wouldn't be enough as i watch sooooooo many youtube videos on it. But honestly it's fine. As someone has already noted here, they don't get most people just do normal people things, and i do normal people things like browse websites, youtube, netflix, some word/excel/powerpoint. And it's been amazing.

 

[Cromulent]

I have the MBA M1 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and I'm amazed at what you can do with it. I regularly have 10+ Safari tabs open along with Visual Studio Code, Apple Music and Discord simultaneously, and it seems to be fast enough for me.

 

[EugW]

I'm currently typing this on a 5 year-old 2017 Intel dual-core MacBook Air with 8 GB RAM. No speed issues.

BTW, its Core i5-5350U's single-core speed is less than half of M1's single-core, with a much slower SSD as well, and yet it is still very responsive with 8 GB RAM. No slow downs at all with the usage described by the OP.

 

[Technerd108]

I think on these forums you are going to get a slanted opinion.

I would say it really depends how she will use the device. Sure an old Macbook does fine for her but when you step up in performance then you start to more with the device and then your needs go up.

That being said for an average user who just does normal computing like checking email. Browsing the web with a couple tabs. Editing word documents and the like and doesn't multi-task like crazy then 8gb ram is fine.

Personally I would get a base model M2 MBA on sale. The M2 chip is faster in single core which is more geared to the activities of the average user and a faster chip is more important than ram in these cases. Also support on the M2 will be longer. Having Magsafe, brighter screen, and smaller bezels might be important to her.

That being said if budget Isa major concern and $800 vs. $1050 or whatever sales there will be on both devices then the M1 MBA is a solid choice. You may even find the base model MBA for $749 during Black Friday and at that price there really isn't much competition in terms of cost that can deliver as much in terms of quality and performance in a thin and light laptop.

 

[michaelscarn]

I shared your concern before getting my 8GB M1 Air, but it hasn't been an issue. In fact, this computer is incredibly fast and smooth compared to my 2014 15" Pro i7 16GB. For example, with many browser tabs or windows open, the 2014 Pro gets loud and slows down; the M1 Air doesn't skip a beat, handles everything no problem. I saw them on sale recently for $799 and was thinking how it is probably the best laptop value at the present time (unless you need a Windows PC for whatever reason)

 

[boswald]

If she plans to keep it for a few years, I would go for the 16GB model for a tad more future-proofing.

 

[speedyraf]

Our 2015 MacBook Airs (i5, 4GB) got used for "normal" computing, so we considered both the M1 and M2 base models upon the latter's introduction. We wound up buying the M1s as they were on sale for $849 at the time. Several of the M2's features tempted us, but not enough to justify the difference in price. Our M1s do all we ask of them.

 

[ian87w]

Hey Everyone,

As the subject states, I am getting ready to pull the trigger on a refurb M1 MBA with 8GB of Ram for my wife. She will mainly use the laptop for basic stuff (surfing, music, email, Netflix, etc.).

Question:
I wanted to find out if 8GB is enough for her? I've seen mixed reports that say that for 'normal' usage, people should really try and grab a 16GB model if possible.

Thanks in advance to everyone for your time and help, it is greatly appreciated!

I'd say 16GB, unless you can be sure that her usage and behavior remains constant for the life of the laptop. Simple check, see what her usage is on her current computer. Think about her usage 5 years ago. Then extrapolate that into 5 years into the future. These things are not cheap, and you cannot upgrade the RAM later.

Surfing the internet is no longer "basic" use. Surfing the internet can mean dozens of tabs open, each loading heavy websites, streaming, web apps, etc etc. I had a client in the pass that wanted me to recommend her a laptop. She claimed she only use it for "basic" stuff. I asked to see how her old laptop is, and I saw that her "basic" stuff is having Chrome with about 30 tabs open, Excel with about 10 huge spread sheets open, Word with about 10 huge Word documents open, along with other applets in the background like Google Drive, OneDrive, and chatting apps. That's her "basic" stuff.

 

[Mcuserr]

Easy enough, my wife still uses an early 2015 MacBook Pro, works as good as day she got it.
I have a 24” iMac and mba m2 both 8gb, no issues.

 

[A4orce84]

Thanks everyone for your input, I super appreciate it. Just to close the loop, I ended up rolling the dice and picked up a lightly used M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM / 256GB SSD) for $700. Hoping I got a decent deal!

Thanks,
Asif

 

[EugW]

Thanks everyone for your input, I super appreciate it. Just to close the loop, I ended up rolling the dice and picked up a lightly used M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM / 256GB SSD) for $700. Hoping I got a decent deal!

View attachment 2113429

Hmmm... Well... That might be a decent deal in other countries, but in the US, you can get those brand new for US$799.

EDIT:

I see that @ericg301 had already posted that US$799 Amazon.com (USA) price.

 

[James Godfrey]

Most will always recommend 16GB RAM, however with Apple silicon it is so efficient and quick most probably won’t notice a difference between 8 and 16, I think the 16GB recommendation is an old intel habit dying hard.

8GB of RAM should be more than sufficient for a large chunk of the market.