With all of the discussions about air vs pro, varying RAM/storage, and upgrading chips I’m wondering what factors can be used to argue for an upgrade. Most discussions and videos I see talk about two main use cases: programming and “creative work”.
In the next week or so I’ll be buying a MacBook to replace my Dell Inspiron 17-3000 series and I feel like a “base” user surrounded with suggestions to upgrade if you’re going to use more than 3 tabs and messenger.
I’m a grad student studying physical therapy and my laptop will largely be for school purposes: up to a dozen tabs, my note taking app (notion or I might try obsidian), where I’m taking notes from (a web lecture and PowerPoint imported to onenote), and a couple productivity/messenger style apps. Occasionally I use a 3d anatomy app but generally not for longer than half an hour at time.
Are there metrics outside of coding, Photoshop, and video editing to help me figure out where I fall along the upgrade spectrum? I would like this to last me a couple years into professional work while minimizing cost but man is it hard to figure out what I’ll actually need.
Tldr: there should be a sliding scale of a handful of functional activities to help us less computer-literate differentiate between upgrade factors within MacBooks.
You would be fine with an Air. 16GB of memory would future proof it so it lasts you longer. What you described is definitely not a “Pro” workflow though.
There’s no such thing as Future-Proofing. Apple can come out with a new product that has a specific feature that works only on M3/M3 Pro/M3 Max. That leaves M1/M2 users in the cold. Pumping up specs such as more memory or a bigger SSD does nothing to “future proof” a machine.
But let’s say there is such a thing as future-proofing, 16GB ain’t gonna do it. LOL.
A computer with 16GB of memory is going to remain useful longer than one with 8GB memory. That was pretty obviously my point. Please spare me your misguided pedantism.