Apple MacBook Air 2024, Apple M3 Chip, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, 13.6 Inch

For those that might have missed it in the specs these now support two external displays (in clamshell mode). That might be a dealbreaker for some between this and the earlier models (if they don’t want to rely on DisplayLink).

The craziest thing about this thread is how some people are finding reasons to justify a multi trillion dollar company's decision to include the bare minimum RAM in £1100 device. The question shouldn't be 'why do you need more RAM? ' or 'LOL, this idiot has probably not used a mac before and doesn't know how superior it's 8gb unified memory is!!'. Instead, one should be asking why is it OK to charge all this money and give the the least amount of RAM they can get away with or the ridiculous cost to upgrade RAM or storage when storage prices are falling like a rock.

Good deal on a new laptop, but the cult like behaviour surrounding Apple products is very strange. For some Apple can do no wrong and it's because of people like these that Apple feels it's absolutely fine to pull ridiculous stunts like these. (edited)

I will always agree that apple takes the mick with 8gb of ram, however having had an 8gb m2 and upgraded to a 16gb pro for work, the 8gb m2 was still fine. As a laptop in general, the macbook air/pro is king, this is from someone who was using windows laptop for years. Granted most of the age group on hotukdeals is probably the age of my mum, M3 8gb is fine for general use and even professional use in most cases.

8GB of ram is a joke if you don't need more you don't need to spend £1000

My phone has more RAM and storage than this, so I would find it hard to justify buying such a fancy CPU to be limited else where.

You'd have to be sniffing some serious Tim Apple powder to actually believe that they do some crazy magic with 8GB to make it similar to having 16GB.

What they actually do is use the soldered, non-replaceable or upgradeable SSD for swaps.

For non-tech folk, they're essentially wearing your already low spec storage down significantly faster by using a portion of that memory to compensate for the lack of extra RAM.

But it's okay, because when your abused SSD wears out, you can just buy another MacBook, problem solved! 🙃

I find it mental that they release new products with 8gb 256gb….

My £150 mini pc has double the RAM, and double the storage of this.

Only 8gb ...bait taken

I don't believe in this reverse psychology

Ah yes, apple. Excellent stuff but way overpriced, oh well.

what the cheapest m1 one macbook pro with 16gb i need to upgrade my one

so in theory they can't make M1 obsolete for a while on Mac OS since the latest start at 8GB?

If you're planning to keep this for like 5+ years (which Macs often can do) I'd suggest going for 16GB RAM.

medium.com/@mrvincentvega/m3-vs-m3-pro-the-ultimate-mac-showdown-12fb0c941533

Interesting, looks like they've intentionally throttled its true capabilities by limiting the base model RAM to 8gb. Upgrading to 16GB, even if you keep the same M3 processor and not the M3 Pro, seems to make a huge difference in performance. (edited)

Wifi 6E which increase speed even on regular router