@joelhamill For the first time ever when I bought my M1 MacBook Pro when they were released I stayed with 8GB RAM (with much trepidation). I seldom do anything that's really demanding (eg exporting videos) and have had no problems at all.
@Miraz Thanks. I didn't think it would be an issue for just a general use machine. Not sure if $200 is worth the "extra bang for the buck" so to speak.
@joelhamill I'm using a MBA as a development/programming machine with 16 GB. If you're just using it for general usage, I would think 8 GB will be fine. If you are a power user with lots of programs open at a time, or lots of image/video processing, then 16 GB could be a useful.
It's a lovely machine. Hope you enjoy it!
@joelhamill my 8Gb MacBook feels RAM starved from time to time so if I was being new I’d go for 16Gb. In fact I hope that the “M2” can support more than 16Gb without stepping up to the Pro chips.
@joelhamill If you plan to keep it for any length of time, get the 16G. Applications are using more and more ram and moving more to Electron.
@bjhess I don't plan on doing any development/programmin or video processing. I think I'll be fine with the 8GB RAM.
@mcg That's a good point. I would keep it for as long as possible. So, it does make sense to kind of future proof it.
@SamHawken Yeah, that was my inital thinking. But, I wanted to see what the community thought as well.
@joelhamill More memory makes almost any Apple device better, in my experience. All the OS's are busy busy busy in the background, more so what with this whole internet craze, so if the marginal % increase in price is bearable for the additional RAM, you will certainly have less, uh, mechanical issues, as you experience what a Mac can be for you.