The base 14″ MacBook Pro’s 512GB SSD is small, but Apple’s upgraded options are so expensive that it’s cheaper to purchase two larger external SSDs, which also lets you reap the benefit of a spare drive and easier offloading to another computer. Plus, the speedy SSD enables memory swapping with little performance impact in real-world situations, should the need arise. While more RAM is always nice, I don’t plan on stitching massive panoramas on this device. Part of this is because the upgrade options don’t necessarily offer huge benefits for photographers, which is my main use for this laptop. In fact, I’ve been very happy with the base model and am glad I didn’t spend more for the upgrades. The basic numbers aren’t the whole story, however, as I’ll explain in the benchmarking section. The default specs, including 16GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and an 8 core CPU, aren’t particularly impressive on a raw-number basis, particularly for a $2,000 laptop. Not to mention that, at the time I bought it, choosing a custom order option would have pushed the delivery date out for months.

I ended up purchasing the base model of the 14 inch MacBook Pro. As I detailed in my guide to the MacBook lineup, Apple’s upgrade options are great for specific customers, but aren’t universally necessary.

8gb vs 16gb ram macbook pro 2019