Gone are the Intel days where you’d easily chew up every available gigabyte simply by leaving a few too many browser tabs and apps open.ĭon’t get me wrong – you can max out the memory on an M-powered Mac. This is thanks to the incredibly efficient way in which the M1 and M2 chips work with memory. The good news for both those asking and yours truly is that it’s far less of a challenging decision these days. So, let’s look at these two upgrade options and work out which one is best for you, shall we? M2 MacBook Air: 8GB vs 16GBĪs noted earlier, I’ve pretty much made a living from helping people choose between 8GB or 16GB of unified memory on their Apple silicon Macs. Apple knows what it’s doing, and has provided a brilliant laptop if the base model is the one you want.ĭespite this, the 256GB ‘controversy’ has clearly prompted many people to question whether or not they should upgrade the storage as opposed to the unified memory during their M2 MacBook Air buying journey.įor some, this could be the wrong decision. So, first things first: ignore all of this relentless crap about the M2 chip. I, on the other hand, have been hammering the base model M2 MacBook Air for the last few weeks now, and it feels identical to the M1 version, if not a little faster. Most of the people who have contributed to those flames have never touched one of these laptops. As a result, the internet has set fire to itself in a fit of sweaty-palmed rage about how dreadfully Apple is treating its customers. Tests have revealed that this results in slower performance.

Unlike its predecessor, the M2 uses just one NAND chip to make up the 256GB of storage (the M1 uses two). I think this is pretty simple, and it’s thanks to the furore that has developed around the M2 chip and its base model configuration. If you’re trying to make that decision, I’m here to help. You see, for the same price, you can either go from 8GB to 16GB of unified memory or from 256GB to 512GB of SSD storage.

Now, we have the M2 chip, and the question I’m suddenly being asked most often is whether to upgrade the unified memory or the SSD storage. In fact, that question is asked countless times each week, and I’ve pretty much built my business around it. When the M1 chip launched in 2020, it was: “should I go for 8GB or 16GB of unified memory?”. Every time Apple launches a new Mac, there’s at least one common question among buyers in my comments thread.

Macbook air ssd upgrade