I bought an MacBook Air M4 a week ago to upgrade from a Touch Bar M1 MBP. I really love this computer in every way except that I decided to save a few bucks and go with the 16gb Memory model. I’m an academic in religious studies so I’m writing, doing email, multitasking but nothing super heavy for the processor. But I want this computer to last awhile. Will I regret not getting the 24gb of Memory or do you think that with the M4 I will be fine for a long time? Curious how others have made this decisions. Thanks!
1 Like
No.
Power user here Mac Mini M2 Pro and 16GB is enough to run server level stuff. You’ll be fine.
3 Likes
I agree
1 Like
How much memory are you using at the moment?
If you’re using less than about 12GB, I suspect you’ll be fine.
If you’re already using more than that and can foresee that you’ll use a lot of on device AI functionality, you may regret it in a year or two.
Thanks. I’m at 13.5 currently. I am not using AI heavily but run Claude desktop fairly regularly.
I’ll echo other comments. I was running an M1 MacBook Air with 8 GB of RAM as a music production machine. I never experienced slow downs or hiccups with it, even running full sessions with lots of plug-ins. I’m pretty sure a current gen M4 with 16 GB will be plenty fine for what you need.
2 Likes
Thanks everyone! This is helpful feedback. I think I’m going to stick with what I have. I’m also running MacOS26 and noticing some lag with apps like Zoom currently so hopefully that will adjust eventually? Worst case scenario is I hand this down to one of my kids in a couple years. 
1 Like
Don’t expect anything to work properly on MacOS 26 at this point. If you’re evaluating a new MacBook (presumably within a return window?), I would highly suggest evaluating it with the current operating system.
4 Likes