Apple has announced that the MacBook Air, already the world’s most popular laptop, is now even more affordable. The company has doubled the starting memory but has not increased its price.

The 16GB models with the M2 and M3 chips for the MacBook Air now have a starting price of $999. Before this, upgrading to 16GB of RAM on the MacBook Air cost an additional $200. Even though Mac laptops aren’t as hungry for memory as a typical Windows system, it still wasn’t a lot of RAM. Thankfully, this change takes out this upcharge, making the 16GB model a great starting option. This does not seem to include the 15 inch version, which is normally priced higher than the other two, but that may change throughout the day as prices are updated.

The decision to lower the price point may be a way to keep the minimum RAM higher because it might be needed. Apple is heavily promoting its new Apple Intelligence software suite, which does consume additional memory in the background and when activated. The company’s decision to increase the standard RAM allocation in the MacBook Air can be seen as a strategic move to make sure that its most popular laptop model is equipped to handle these new AI-driven features. This way, fewer customers will be complaining on public forums about issues that may only exist because of 8GB RAM.

The MacBook Air M3 chip on Amazon still has the $999 price with the 8GB. However, Apple now has the M2 Chip at $999, while the M3 chip version is still at $1,099 at the time of writing, when you try and buy it, the 8GB starting point will change to 16GB with no additional cost. Bestbuy still has the 8GB MacBook Air M3 Chip for sale at previous prices. All the prices will likely be updated soon, so check your favorite store later if it’s not showing up right now.

Source: Apple