The MacBook Air gets a surprise upgrade to 16GB of RAM

Apple has conscionable announced that 16GB of RAM is present the minimum for the M2 and M3 MacBook Air, giving the laptops the aforesaid RAM bump arsenic each of the company’s different caller computers this week. The cheapest MacBook Air inactive starts astatine $999.

Before this, it was a $200 upsell to get a MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM. Now, that’s nary longer the case, bringing Apple’s cheapest laptop much successful enactment with its competitors. Apple made a akin determination successful 2016 erstwhile it made 8GB the minimum for the 13-inch MacBook Air and discontinued the 4GB 11-inch version months later.

Of the company’s new iMacs, a smaller Mac Mini, and refreshed MacBook Pros introduced this week, nary commencement with little than 16GB. Given the precocious RAM level of the existing Mac Studio and Mac Pro models, the 8GB RAM tier is present gone from the company’s machine lineup.

The astir apt crushed for each that other RAM? It’s Apple Intelligence — AI models thin to need a batch of RAM to relation well. While 8GB seems to beryllium good for the iPhone, 16GB is the caller array stakes for machines moving the overmuch much unfastened macOS.