Why? Lots of people more or less use their computer as a glorified web browser, with some zoom calls and document editing thrown in for good measure. 256gb seems overkill. My girlfriend is somehow still rocking a 2011 MacBook Air. She mostly just uses it for internet banking and managing her finances. Why would she want more than 256gb?
1Tb m.2 SSD cost 70 USD in summer 2025, and probably much less when bought in bulk as a chip. It doesn't make sense to install anything less than 1Tb in an expensive premium laptop. Or it should be upgradeable.
Apple's pricing is one of the reasons I am not going to buy their laptops. Expensive, and with no upgradeable or replaceable parts. And closed-source OS with telemetry.
> Lots of people more or less use their computer as a glorified web browser
For this purpose they can buy $350 laptop with larger screen.
Because the price tag is quite high to get as much storage as you would 15 years ago for about the same money.
I agree that many people use them as glorified internet machines but even then when they occasionally decide to back up some photos or edit a few videos the 256GB non-upgradable storage quickly becomes a limitation.
Price matters. 256GB is fine on a $500 web browsing laptop, but on a $1000+ one it's just a bad deal in 2025, even ignoring the fact that you cannot upgrade it later (it's soldered in place).
Possibly, but I don't see why those people would buy a new MacBook rather than a used 100$ laptop (which would be both better for their finances but also for the planet...)
Have you ever used windows on a $100 second hand laptop?
Imagine for a second that you don't know much about computers. You buy something crap like that and turn it on. Windows is of course already installed. Along with 18 antivirus programs and who knows what other junk. The computer will run dog slow. Even if you get rid of all the preinstalled programs, it'll run horribly slowly.
My mum has a computer from her work. Its pretty recent - worth way more than $100. It takes about 5-10 seconds for zoom or google chrome to start. And about 15 seconds for outlook to open. Its an utterly horrible experience.
If you can afford it, you'll have a way better experience on a macbook air from the last few years. In comparison, everything starts instantly. The experience is fantastic. Premium, even.
Personally I think its criminal that cheap laptops run modern software so poorly. Its just laziness. There's no reason for the experience to be so horrible. But the world being what it is, there is plenty of reasons to spring for a $1000 macbook air over a $100 second hand windows crapbook if you can afford it. Even if you don't do much with the computer.
> Have you ever used windows on a $100 second hand laptop?
Who talked about using Windows ?
Many of my family/relatives (most of which have zero knowledge about computers, and little money to invest) use ~100$ laptops, with Debian+XFCE, Firefox+ublock origin, Libreoffice, vlc, thunderbird... I just put the maximum RAM I could, and installed a SATA SSD, which makes the machine fast and completely usable. I now live on the other side of the planet yet I get very little complains from them or demands for remote support as it works very reliably and fast.
And those were 100$ machines 8-10 years ago. Today's 100$ machines will give you a decently recent core i5 or i7, nvme, 8G RAM...
> there is plenty of reasons to spring for a $1000 macbook air over a $100 second hand windows crapbook if you can afford it
Plus you can pick up a used M1 MacBook Air for as little as $300 these days. Despite being 5 years old, it'll still smoke anything on the PC side much under a grand, in terms of responsiveness.
I don’t know, I kind of like 10 hrs on battery with normal usage and screen fully lit on a 15” screen while not being bulky. Virtually no contenders in that space.
10 hour battery life, 15 inch screen, not bulky, $200. A bit more money will get you better specs, screen or battery life from this or another brand, but it hits all the spots for someone who doesn't need downloaded software.
