This option kind of make sense. For those using laptops for very light use, such as basic web browsing, Document editing, replying to emails and want to have a Mac could buy them.
If apple could sell 16GB variant at the price of 8GB, then that would be the best.
I’m other words, base config is good for people needing a Chromebook but want an Apple device.
And wanting a macbook is a perfectly acceptable reason for getting a MacBook. I just get annoyed when people try to argue that it’s an actually sensible decision.
but for the price…
If that’s all you’re doing you could save a $1000+ and just get a cheap Chromebook. Or if you want to be sustainable and reduce e-waste you could spend around the same amount on a framework laptop that’s upgradeable and then spend a tiny fraction of that every few years keeping it up to date, rather than going the Apple approach and chucking the whole thing in the trash every few years and buying a brand new one.
No matter how you slice it, an 8GB macbook is a crap deal.
I said, want to have a Mac. Anyways you are right.
Indeed, many people must have a mac as it is a fashion accessory.
Some people prefer a Mac because it integrates nicely with the rest of the Apple ecosystem.
Some people prefer a Mac because it
integrates nicely with the rest of the Apple ecosystem.matches the rest of their overpriced wardrobe.I think a lot of people buy Macs because they think the only other choice is a computer running Windows.
This stuff is almost ewaste.
This is just not enough memory to make a computer last, especially since you can’t upgrade.
Websites and apps that a lot of people use just aren’t really expecting to only have 8gb ram available. Any kind of multitasking could easily run out of ram
Macbooks, even these low spec ones tend to outlive other laptops substantially. The better build quality and higher resale value keeps them in use much longer.
The argument these devices are e-waste doesn’t make sense and doesn’t track.
8GB is enough as that’s what I have on my 2019 Surface Go.
But that’s a device I bought 399.- (almost the same as dollars) 5 years ago.
So I don’t think it’s okay to sell a new laptop with Pro in its name for a high price in 2024. Especially because it wouldn’t cost them much to upgrade the RAM.
It’s like buying a 30bhp car in 2024. Yeah it’s enough, but not for the price of a normal car.
I’m fairly sure my computer uses more than 8 GB of RAM every time I much as look at the Chrome icon.
my 3 year old phone has more RAM than that
This is nothing to brag about, when Android needs this to run smoothly, compared to the same performance of a 6 GB RAM iPhone.
Edit: Just look at benchmarks and every day use cases. How exactly has any Android smartphone ever achieved any significant speed gains by using huge amounts of RAM compared to the then-current iPhone model? I agree with the Apple criticism when it comes to computers. When it comes to efficiency of smartphones, Android just seems to have tons of overhead and has always needed significantly more RAM than iPhones while not being faster at all. Maybe we can put the „look at how edgy I am for not using Apple devices“ aside for a moment.
Android has a garbage collector, meaning it requires an additional 2GB of RAM of overhead to keep things smooth. iPhones run significantly hotter than Androids, and consume more energy to achieve their performance gains.
It’s not true to simply state “one is better than the other”. There’s various metrics in which either one may be better.
That‘s exactly what I was criticizing. So how is “more RAM = better“ as an absolute statement right, then?
jfc this is inane.
there’s this thing called multitasking, you might have heard of it. when you want to open more than one app and use them all at the same time, GUESS WHAT BRIGHT LIGHTS? Takes more memory.
This is the dumbest shit take I’ve ever seen.
I‘m talking about smartphones. Funny that you‘d call me bright lights when you even lack the basic skill of reading.
Never had any problems with „multitasking“ there since the iPhone 5.
LOL, you think people don’t multitask on smart phones and tablets?
oof… and yes, on android you can have both open on the same screen at the same time. I don’t know about fischer price unix, er, aye-aye-aye-os…
nah, didn’t misread, you’re def the sharpest tool in the spoon drawer.
Sure. I have just never encountered any problems. I used to, to be honest, as mentioned back with the iPhone 4 where Safari tabs were reloading because of the lack of RAM. But Android had its own problems back then, for example with the update policy of most manufacturers leaving my wife‘s Android phone obsolete after only one year.
What exactly do you do? Hook up your smartphone as a desktop replacement with a bulky USB dongle, firing up some CAD software on two 6K displays while rendering an 8K HDR video in the background? People never disappoint creating completely made-up scenarios just to discredit.
Never talked about tablets, so it’s reading – again!
Well, more RAM will always help. An iPhone with more RAM will allow it to perform better than one with less RAM. Similarly, too little RAM will hamper performance regardless of the device.
Okay. But why is it that Android phones don‘t all just have 128 GB of RAM built in, then? I‘m still talking about smartphones only. And there, RAM is completely irrelevant for users unless it‘s a necessity for the OS and for apps to run well. This is the case for Android smartphones. This is not the case for iPhones. Because everything you want to do just works, without thinking about RAM. This has been the case since the iPhone X.
But here it seems to be really hard to accept that getting an iPhone is the far superior choice for many people, also for tech savvy people. While others choose an Android smartphone and are happy with that.
And for computers: just accept that it‘s plain economy calculus to offer 8 GB RAM as standard because this will lead more buyers to choose an upgrade and pay more than the standard price, instead of accusing Apple to offer this without this plan in mind. Just don‘t buy these machines and continue your life as a superior tech being, where companies like Samsung or Dell have the sole purpose to make as little profit as possible.
Who let the apple marketing people in here?
I can say that it wasn‘t any of the Android edgelords or Linux neckbeards.
Some of us want to buy tools instead of toys. 4GB was great for the xbox 360 slim. Will it run anything a sane person would get a mac for? Probably not, most mac DAW I’ve used personally are hungry and 4gb is less than the machine I had my last crash filled experience on.
I work with my Mac every day. It‘s not a toy. I chose the platform in the early 2000s because I liked the OS, the far superior app experience across many 3rd party apps and because I like to work with things I like aesthetically. I chose a 32 GB MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and paid for the upgrade. Because I could and because I wanted to (100% tax deduction helped as well). No need for pity or anything.
What most people use a Mac for could be just as well handled by a Chromebook and an Apple decal.
At least in the consumer market. Not knocking graphic artists or any other industry that prefers Apple (though I’m still really not sure why, at this point it seems to go back to things that don’t apply anymore)
The 8gb ram MacBook works great for your average Mac user. The person who uses it for writing resumes and surfing YouTube which I’m sure is a huge chunk of the market. Devs/Gamers/power users can’t make do with 8gb, but my sister in law who just does paper work and teams meetings all day is served well by her 2016 laptop, and wouldn’t have any issue with an 8gb MacBook.
Except it’s cost 3x more than average 8GB ram laptops
Not cost effective by any means, but then again none buys apple for cost effective anything. Some people just the brand it seems 🤦
If the alternative is Windows which is increasingly filled with ads or Linux which shifts the burden of computer administration to a user who might not have a clue about what they’re supposed to do if their WiFi doesn’t “just work”, paying for a managed walled garden that doesn’t try to install candy crush without you asking for it isn’t such a bad option.
How long is the average laptop usable, though? I still have a 2012 MacBook Air with 4GB of ram that gets daily use with no visible issues. I don’t feel like it’s slow. I don’t feel like there’s much (the only issue is usually flash) daily business it can’t do (mostly web/email/pdfs/virtual meetings or classes/excel/word). I’ve never had it repaired or upgraded. I’ve also had about 4 windows laptops since about 2011. My primary desktop is a windows gaming PC and I complain more about its quirks than I do about the Mac.
Given how terrible Teams performes, I’d dread to have merely 8GB to run it on.
If you ran teams on the CERN supercomputer I’m pretty sure it would use up all the RAM as well. The more you have the more it seems to eat up.
Very much like Chrome.
Yeah it works fine by swapping and eating away the SSD
The NON-USER-REPLACEABLE SSD.
The 8gb ram MacBook works great for […] writing resumes…
Um I’m not sure where you heard that but ChatGPT requires a shit ton of memory
(Sorry, I’ll show myself out)
It has terrible future proofing however. Sure, apple is generally good at supporting their devices, but I’m sure a device with more than 8 would remain usable for a longer time.
Generally good at supporting phones but not at supporting computers, a 5-6 years lifetime is unacceptable from an environmental point of view.
I experienced it last week when I turned on an old Mac with MacOS 10.7. It can’t run anything. Everything that you download doesn’t run anymore, Firefox and chrome are limited to some ancient version like 40 that breaks every modern website and due to some expired SSL root certificate you can’t access any website that’s using let’s encrypt which is a big chunk.
And it’s like this not from recently but at least 5 years, so it was put in a corner and never turned on anymore until last week
It can theoretically be updated to some newer version but the updater to 10.8 has been delisted from the store so you have to alternatively source that.
For comparison, a PC that was purchased the year prior to that Mac is running the latest version of windows 10 without any issue (except slowness due to the 1st gen core architecture)
Ah, thats terrible then. A computer should last longer than that, especially with a battery replacement mid-life
this is a trap to upsell you 16 GB or sell you upgrade
for grossly inflated pricing, in proud apple tradition.
You can’t upgrade a Macbook’s ram, you need to replace the whole machine
It’s also a nice way to tax their poorest customers more. A lot of people are keeping their machines way past what apple provides updates for, if the ssd that can’t be changed dies (because of constant swapping) faster than what they intended or could keep the machine for, I guess it’s too bad for them.
At these prices I’d expect at least 32 GB of RAM. 8 GB is for entry level phones and SOHO 2 to 4 bay NAS boxes.
My mid-range smartphone from 2022 has 8gb of ram. I paid $250 for it brand new.
Do you have a Kimovil link for this incredible phone?
Poco x3 pro 8/256, and it have 3.5 jack and microsd slot, i still using one, in fact I’m writing from it right now
https://www.kimovil.com/en/where-to-buy-xiaomi-poco-x3-pro-256gb
Listed at $322 currently, meaning you bought it half price or less in ‘22. Good purchase!
Don’t forget 120Hz screen. The phone has a great value. I paid mine €290 two years ago and I am not replacing it any time soon.
Even more, kernel source code is available and xda-developers community on device is active, unofficial support gonna be really long term, since 2 years of usage i just swapped battery on mine once, it’s truly a long lived phone
Yeah, my (sigh) “Motorola Moto G Stylus 5G 2023” has 8GB. And the 3.5 jack. And an actual fingerprint sensor. And I spent $160, although I bought it used.
Why sigh tho) i always saying that obscure devices have the best peripheral support, no need to buy popular devices because they often skimp on peripherals and overpriced, be proud my man) you have good phone for good money after all
Sigh was because I was about to type out that stupid-ass name :)
I like the phone a lot.
That is the phone I was originally referring to, except mine in the 2022 version. And I understand the sigh. I do it every time someone asks me what kind of phone I have.
Overpowered Chinese phones sold at minimal margins my beloved
My 6 year old CHROMEBOOK has 16gb…
My 13 year old MB has 16GB.
It came with 8GB and at some point I spent $50 or so to add another 8GB.
You know, back when upgrading Macs was a thing.
Ok Gramps, we need to get you to bed now
Pretty sad trolling effort
Because Chrome takes up 75% of it.
Laugh. I made fun of Chrome.
Wamp wamp so true
It’s totally so they can list a really low “starting at” price and then upsell marked up parts in the configurator.
Disclaimer: I didn’t read the article and just came in to shit on scummy business practices that I made assumptions about.
Your assumption is based and factual
Oh Timmy… Linux typically uses less RAM than macos and I have 64 gigs in my laptop.
Pretty sure my phone has 8GB of RAM. Apple should probably rethink this.
They have, they want you to buy the more expensive model with greater profit margins.
Yeah they’ve spent $1 extra on manufacturing costs, but charge you an extra $2,000 for the privilege.
Who doesn’t love a 20,000% profit margin
deleted by creator
8 is fine for a tablet.
8 is not fine for a brand-fucking new state of the art laptop.
8 GB is fine for a medium-priced laptop, where you can add more or at least swap out the existing stick for a bigger one if you ever need it.
It’s not even enough for a tablet and apple know it, which is why the iPad Pro has 16GB of RAM
My iPad has 3GB RAM and honestly that’s enough. I don’t know what you do on your tablet, but for my everyday activities I have never felt limited
We’re talking about laptops though. I was just using tablets as a comparison point.
I replied to the wrong comment
iPads don’t really multitask so it is super easy to hide the low ram with swap.
“With an apple silicon architecture, 8gb is like 16gb” -some stupid apple flunkey
That was just after face planting in a Scarface size pile of cocaine as is standard procedure with all apple marketing teams
The irony is that it’s arguably the opposite, since the GPU and CPU just have a shared memory pool, rather than having dedicated memory and the shared memory pool.
So if you’re watching a 4k video, you might have lost a gigabyte or two just for VRAM.
It’s because they think that people only do one thing at a time.
New feature turns off the screen to flush graphics memory so the cpu can process data.
The “touch grass” mode.
They certainly don’t want to connect more than one external screen, just ask Tim Apple
Sure or a phone.
I like Apple. Got Apple Watch, AirPods Pro and iPhone. I love the design of MacBooks however I refuse to ever buy MacBooks.
Overpriced like crazy. For half of the price you can get a really great laptop.
I’m honestly even thinking to buy a €200 android device to get used to the system.
The best way to have a MacBook is your employer giving you one, but trust me you kinda wont want to work on regular notebooks after experiencing macbook.
I don’t have one of the ARM ones, and after using Macs for like 20+ years, I barely use the ones I have. But that 16 hour battery life and performance is really nice.
Mac OS X used to wow me in the 2000s and even 2010s; it was definitely why I used Macs. But nothing about it is all that interesting to me anymore, and in some ways it’s gotten worse.
I’m honestly even thinking to buy a €200 android device to get used to the system.
Don’t do that, I can tell you from experience: Most of them suck, especially cheap Chinese ones.
The Google Pixel 7a is currently $350 and it will get cheaper when the 8a comes out. The 7a will get security updates until May 2028. If you want to get into mobile device privacy/security, a Pixel is an excellent choice. You can install an alternative operating system called GrapheneOS, it’s a much more private and secure, improved version of Android. It doesn’t include Google spyware and thus also improves battery life. It also extends your feature updates, by default the 7a would only get feature updates until 2026, but GrapheneOS provides Android feature updates as long as the device gets security updates. That would mean 2 additional years of Android feature updates. I highly recommend it!
I agree with this. Pixel A series are pretty much the smoothest android experience for cheap. Plus they have a pretty good camera as a bonus. The low end Chinese phones and even the Samsung A series just don’t quite do it for me. I think OneUI was made for faster hardware.
The affordable Sony Xperia 10 series is really good. My new Xperia runs circles around my OG Pixel, costs basically nothing, is waterproof, has upgradable storage and a headphone jack, and besides Apple, Google and Intel, Sony is the only manufacturer that actually has working bluetooth.
I dunno, I’ve got a base model M1 and it feels like one of the best laptops I’ve owned. Overpriced is exactly what I feel it isn’t. $1000 for a decent laptop is not bad. Nothing below that price has a good trackpad.
Lol $1000 for “decent”
Beats the $800-1200 PC laptops that I would consider trash based on the trackpad and display. I’ve had it for years now and haven’t found myself wanting for anything but dual booting.
I’m honestly even thinking to buy a €200 android device to get used to the system.
Don’t. Unless it’s a slightly older Pixel A-series 2nd hand phone. Manufacturers of cheap Android phones skimp on everything and add bullshit crapware. Shit like that is the cause of many “Android sucks” comments.
Ohh that’s sad to hear. I was thinking to get the Samsung Galaxy A14.
Samsungs come with excellent Windows support right out of the box, so if Windows is you jam it’s a good choice. Not familiar with the A14, though. Would advise against cheap Chinese brands.
Windows support? What does that even mean in the context of a smartphone?
What does that even mean in the context of a smartphone?
Windows Phone Link has: Shared clipboard, notification sync, media player widget, you can even share the Android screen to Windows and run apps from there. It’s quite nice. The Samsung file manager and photo gallery also support OneDrive, Samsung Mail has Exchange support.
Phone Link overlaps quite a bit with KDE Connect which also works between two Android devices and comes out of the box with Steam Deck which is why I prefer KDE Connect to Phone Link but that’s just me.
Honestly imo 200€ phones are allright, but you do get what you pay. And the A14 at least here in Germany starts at like 120€, which is substantially below 200€. So if you get it and end up comparing it to an iphone, then it most certainly will look lackluster.
I would say that the sweet spot is probably in the 300-350€ range. There you have a decent amount of selection and get some really solid phones that are good for daily drivers. Like the already mentioned pixel A series that gets you clean software and shoots some of the best pictures. Or the samsung a54/55 that gets you a nice allrounder, which still includes a headphone jack and sd-card slot.
They’re acceptable for basic productivity but very sluggish if you’re coming from a flagship device. Get an S10 series if you’re looking for something cheap and Samsung
The A series is great to be honest.
It’s the same as the S series, but for people who don’t play high end games or live stream or render videos or don’t need to record videos in a high quality that I can’t even replay on my other devices.
The A30 and A50 series are fine to be honest, plenty fast for most people. Not sure about the A10 line though
Don’t the new ones have shit processors?
would be a very ecological phone if it had a waste treatment facility built in
Apply phone directly to anus.
They’re okay, nothing to write home about and also not really any better than their predecessors, but they handle day to day tasks just fine
Are there any other good ARM laptops?
There’s the thinkpad x13s. But its pretty slow. Should be snapdragon elite laptops coming out this year tho.
It’s weird how you draw the line at MacBooks for being overpriced, considering every other apple device you name dropped is equally overpriced.
Everyone’s experience and usage is different, but I have a base M2 MacBook Air with 8gb of RAM and besides web browsing, streaming/air playing some videos, and typing some documents, I don’t do much else. I never feel the need for more RAM.
Do not take anyone that buys a mac seriously. In any way.
32GB has been my minimum laptop memory for YEARS now. My current laptop was 64GB from the factory and 2 years later I made it 128GB. Nice socketed ECC RAM. If the RAM or SSD is soldered on a laptop, I’m not buying it.
