I have a MacBook Pro. It's all right. When I upgrade, I will purchase more Unified Memory or RAM.
Fundamentally if you are a real Pro user as opposed to a pretend one, then you'll be using your Mac for business and can claim 100% of the cost as a tax deduction. So why not just get the 24gb version and stop sticking forks into the legs of yourself and anyone else reading this thread...
If you arent a Pro then 16gb is sufficient, given the price of the computer. By the time you hit a wall memory wise (which will be years down the line) there will be vastly better Macs available for the price that you paid for the M4 Mini, so you just buy a new one.
...because memory usage is very hard to estimate (esp. if you want some room for future expansion) and the only choice if you're worried is to bite the bullet and fork out $200 for an upgrade. Guess wrong and you'll face the double whammy of losing money on a trade-in and still having to fork out the $200 upgrade on top of that.It would seem that the original posters issue is FOMO more than anything else, and ultimately nobody can offer the definitive advice to settle this mental issue.
I am eternally amused by forum-dwellers across the interwebs who think they know better than Apple, (market cap as of now $3.16T, 2025Q1 sales of $124B) where the optimum memory size for their SKUs lands.As I shout into the void, yet again, that 16GB is really more than y’all think. I bet 95% of users out there would be just fine. Still, everyone can buy what they want. If you are worried you won’t have enough, you should definitely purchase more.
Apple finally upping the base spec to 16GB is a great improvement but it's still under par for a $600-$800 computer (esp. combined with the failure to bring base SSD up to date to match).
Thanks for your reply.
Can I ask about your usage in the situations where you eventually need to force quit apps?
What sort of apps are you running, how many apps? That sort of thing. That insight would be very useful.
For me it really is a big turn-off. Upgrading to 8 GB Ram more + 512 GB SSD more, exactly 500€. No thanks. I'll pass.There's no way around the fact (apart from going into denial) that base RAM/SSD specs and high upgrade prices are a massive turn-off for potential Mac buyers, and pretty indefensible.
What is this fact based on? It’s pretty well-understood that in a given product range, the cheapest option is almost always the best-selling.There's no way around the fact (apart from going into denial) that base RAM/SSD specs and high upgrade prices are a massive turn-off for potential Mac buyers, and pretty indefensible.
Last I looked, Apple laptops started at $999, so you’ve wasted your time there. Even in your price range you found a few 32GB RAM options, and 256GB SSD machines were a minority. Of course, laptops are extra-tricky to compare because of the screen - but if you shop around in the $900-$1300 price range of the MacBook Air, looking at retina-like screens you'll find a few 32GB options, almost universal minimum 512GB SSD. More to the point, you'll be able to find 32GB/1TB models for a lot less than a 32GB/1TB Mac.I just did a search on Best Buy's website for laptops between $600 and $800. I'm going to break down some specific configuration options below, both overall and limited to new models only:
And Apple’s customer satisfaction ratings are above industry averages across the board, so whatever they’re doing with their RAM and storage choices, it isn’t hurting them at all.
These forums tell you nothing whatsoever about what Apple’s customers at large want or need. We’re a tiny self-selecting group of technology enthusiasts.You can't throw a brick on these forums without finding someone agonising over whether or not they need to pay $200 for an 8GB RAM upgrade and/or $200 for a SSD upgrade - when, anywhere else, either the base specs would cover that or a <=$200 option would get you both upgraded.
99% of potential customers don’t know or care what any of those words mean. Does it turn on, quickly enough? Does it go on the internet, quickly enough? Yes? Job done, end of conversation. Honestly, for an awful lot of MBA customers, the colour is the biggest decision.Potential customers should be agonising over whether they wanted to spend extra to get more cores, a Pro, or Max chip, - not whether they wanted to spend $400 on $100 worth of bog-standard LPDDR5x RAM and PCIe x4-grade Flash. Unfortunately - especially with the Mini range - Apple don't have the "discriminators" they used to get from different clock speeds, TDPs and iGPUs on Intel CPUs, so they have built an artificial pricing structure around RAM and Flash.
On the Windows PC side, I suspect there's a lot to that...since that's the predominant mainstream platform people tend to default to, sometimes without a lot of thought (or because it's what was assigned at work). Some PC enthusiasts are technically literate, and some users...not so much.99% of potential customers don’t know or care what any of those words mean. Does it turn on, quickly enough? Does it go on the internet, quickly enough? Yes? Job done, end of conversation. Honestly, for an awful lot of MBA customers, the colour is the biggest decision.
But here we're talking about wanting the 'best' (whether that's 64 or 128 gig RAM, an 8 terabyte internal SSD, an M3 Ultra or a Mac Pro), but mid.-range spec.s.Folks that are not happy about Apple pricing should consider the Intel / AMD line of computers. I have seen these same complaints in the PC world, people not happy about the price of an OE Nvidia card, they want the best but are unwilling to pay for it.
What is this suspicion based on?I suspect the average Mac user is savvy enough to care about RAM and SSD capacities
That they chose a small niche market platform over the mainstream, potentially inconveniencing themselves in various ways. Using a Mac is less of a functional compromise than it was many years ago, as we do a lot of our 'computing' via online via browser rather than so much reliance on platform-specific application software, and the Mac has many app.s, but a Mac is still usually something different from what most workplaces and most relatives (and I imagine most schools) are using. Removable media formats differ, some games and other app.s aren't available on Mac, some 'cross-platform' app.s don't look quite the same on Mac or lack a few features, etc...What is this suspicion based on?
That may be, but a person paying for a MacBook Pro ought to have some idea of those things.I’d venture more users have been swayed towards buying a Mac by seeing an HDR video playing on a MacBook Pro on the display stand, because it looks incredible and they can immediately see the benefit to them personally, than they ever have by nerdy debates about RAM and SSD sizes.
This is why I do get the debate on RAM. It isn’t like you can add a couple of sticks—like I did with my gaming laptop.If 16GB is not enough, just down the line upgrade to 16GB or just use the SSD to help with the RAM limits. Down the line just upgrade the SSD if you find yourself using it too much to reduce its lifespan.
Jokes aside, depending on your usage I would always suggest to always get more RAM than you need right now, AND never rely on using an SSD as a "replacement" for smaller amount of RAM. Even more so when at least one of them is soldered.