How to choose the right 2025 Mac for upgrades?

zcoqui wrote:

…Seems most recent releases are limited to 16/258.

What model of the 2025 mac laptops can be upgraded or come with more juice?…

Apple is selling MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, and hasn’t been selling MacBook models for a while.

As for which MacBook Air and MacBook Pro can be configured with more than 16 GB memory and more than 256 GB storage?

All of them.

In addition to the correct info in the above reply: Mac - Compare Models - Apple

Apple released M4 MacBook Airs in 2025. They have plain M4 chips. They can have up to 32 GB of RAM, and up to 2 TB of SSD storage.

Apple released M4-series MacBook Pros in 2024. They come with a choice of processor chips.

• One with a plain M4 chip can have up to 32 GB of RAM, and up to 2 TB of SSD storage.
• One with a M4 Pro chip can have up to 48 GB of RAM, and up to 4 TB of SSD storage.
• One with a M4 Max chip can have up to 128 GB of RAM, and up to 8 TB of SSD storage.

Relative to the MacBook Airs, the MacBook Pros

• Have more ports (a third USB-C/Thunderbolt port, a HDMI port, and a SDXC card slot)
• Can drive more external displays
• Have fancier mini-LED-backlit screens with support for playing pre-recorded HDR video content
• Have stronger CPUs and GPUs. The CPU difference might not matter so much unless you run lots of CPU-bound batch jobs that can make good use of multiple cores. (As far as single-core CPU performance goes, even a plain M4 might run at a speed similar to that of a M4 Max, provided that neither was starved for RAM.)

None of these Mac notebooks can have their RAM, or their internal SSD storage, upgraded after purchase. Be sure to order your Mac notebook with whatever amount of RAM and storage space you need – even if that means having to custom-order a machine on Apple's Web site.

The new MacBook Air can be configured with up to 32GB memory and 2TB SSD storage. Click the 13" or 15" size at Buy 13-inch MacBook Air - Apple then click the blue "Select" button to see the memory and storage upgrade and other choices.

The MacBook Pro can be configured with up to 32GB memory and 8TB SSD storage by doing similar choices at Buy 14-inch MacBook Pro - Apple