Apple just gave the MacBook Air a huge upgrade you probably didn’t notice

These days you can’t move without getting hit over the head with a Mac product announcement. We got a new M4 iMac on Monday, a new Mac mini on Tuesday, and a new MacBook Pro today. Apple wasn’t kidding when it referred to this as an ‘exciting week’.

The problem with densely carpeted info-bombs is that it’s easy to miss important tidbits. Hidden at the bottom of the MacBook Pro press release, for example, Apple slipped in the welcome news that the MacBook Air is getting a pretty big upgrade of its own. And we’d be surprised if most people even noticed.

It might not be the most thrilling of announcements—there’s no new model; the Air will have to wait until next year to get access to the new M4 chipsets and upgraded camera—so we understand why Apple didn’t feel the news was worthy of its own press release. But the average laptop buyer will be pleased to hear that the M2 and M3 MacBook Air models now start at a baseline of 16GB of RAM rather than 8GB, yet the entry-level prices remain the same, starting at $999/£999.

In our guide to optimal Mac specs, we explain that 8GB of unified memory is enough “if you’re doing general productivity work, internet access media streaming, and easy media production.” But even then, your Mac may have to use the SSD as virtual memory, which impacts performance. “Even for people who don’t do processor-intensive work,” we explain, “[16GB] is a better fit.” And as anyone can attest, more for the same price is always better.

So it’s good news to hear that you can get 16GB without having to pay extra.