Hi All,
I love my 2014 Apple Macbook Air (rare 11"). Unfortunately after the last upgrade (Big Sur) it is running out of steam. Big Fat Sur definitely eats much more resources and battery life than it's predecessor. I tried to "downgrade" the OS but even with usable backups, it refuses.
Mine is the standard 4Gb RAM version, the 8Gb version was apparently never available in SA.
I think it would have been usable for longer with 8Gb, because today's webpages hog memory and it swops memory annoyingly often now.
Which bring me to the dilemma:
I want to buy the new M1 Air, but once again in SA you only get the 8Gb RAM version and not the 16Gb version. Now you may say that 8Gb is enough or that because it is "unified" it is enough etc, and it may be true now, but 6/7 years from now things will look different again (for the first 6 years my 4Gb was plenty strong enough and battery life was great, etc).
So I really want the 16Gb version.
The standard 8Gb Air costs R18 000 (R17000 today on Takealot). I can get the 16Gb as a "special order" for R22 600. That's a big jump, and then is basically in the bottom end Macbook Pro range. I don't really want a Pro (unnecessarily thick) + I don't really know what makes it better (for my needs anyway).
US prices are $999 for standard 8Gb and +$200 for 16Gb Ram (all my options use the smaller 256GB SSD). So that upgrade comes at a perceived R23:$1, while the base price comes in at a perceived exchange rate of R18:$1
I was even thinking of buying it in USA / UK and shipping it here, but I don't know how the import duties will hit me, and of course then I don't have much of a guarantee.
So after all this rambling, what would you do?
Thanks
I love my 2014 Apple Macbook Air (rare 11"). Unfortunately after the last upgrade (Big Sur) it is running out of steam. Big Fat Sur definitely eats much more resources and battery life than it's predecessor. I tried to "downgrade" the OS but even with usable backups, it refuses.
Mine is the standard 4Gb RAM version, the 8Gb version was apparently never available in SA.
I think it would have been usable for longer with 8Gb, because today's webpages hog memory and it swops memory annoyingly often now.
Which bring me to the dilemma:
I want to buy the new M1 Air, but once again in SA you only get the 8Gb RAM version and not the 16Gb version. Now you may say that 8Gb is enough or that because it is "unified" it is enough etc, and it may be true now, but 6/7 years from now things will look different again (for the first 6 years my 4Gb was plenty strong enough and battery life was great, etc).
So I really want the 16Gb version.
The standard 8Gb Air costs R18 000 (R17000 today on Takealot). I can get the 16Gb as a "special order" for R22 600. That's a big jump, and then is basically in the bottom end Macbook Pro range. I don't really want a Pro (unnecessarily thick) + I don't really know what makes it better (for my needs anyway).
US prices are $999 for standard 8Gb and +$200 for 16Gb Ram (all my options use the smaller 256GB SSD). So that upgrade comes at a perceived R23:$1, while the base price comes in at a perceived exchange rate of R18:$1
I was even thinking of buying it in USA / UK and shipping it here, but I don't know how the import duties will hit me, and of course then I don't have much of a guarantee.
So after all this rambling, what would you do?
Thanks
