Apple’s latest hardware announcements mark a significant shift for its base Macs, notably by upgrading all base variants to 16GB of unified RAM.
This update likely responds to rising demands for on-device AI processing, especially with the rollout of Apple Intelligence, Apple’s AI initiative that requires 16GB of memory to handle tasks efficiently.
The new M4 chip family is now available on the newly refreshed iMac, Mac Mini, and MacBook Pro models. Specifically, the iMac sports the M4 chip, while the Mac Mini offers both M4 and M4 Pro configurations.
For the 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros, base models start with the M4, with options for the M4 Pro and M4 Pro Max for users seeking higher performance.
Leaving aside the new M4 chip family, all the newly announced Macs now come with 16GB unified RAM by default. While this was already the case with the MacBook Pro, the Mac Mini and iMac both had 8GB RAM on the base variant.
This RAM upgrade has also extended to Apple’s MacBook Air models, as Apple has discontinued the 8GB variant for both the M2 and M3 MacBook Airs, making 16GB standard across all entry-level Mac models at no additional cost.
For reference, Air was the last to transition when Apple made 8GB RAM, the standard in entry-level Mac models, and discarded the 4GB models in 2016.
This change addresses long-standing criticism of Apple’s non-upgradeable 8GB RAM options on M-series chips and reflects a broader industry shift towards higher memory requirements.
