In the wake of the holiday season, as the folks out there enjoy their brand new Mac products, one question I am frequently asked is, “can I upgrade or add more memory?”.
Let’s take a look at the MacBook Pro. The short answer is no. If you have already purchased a MacBook Pro, (Mid-2012 Retina and beyond) you will be unable to alter the memory or RAM configuration post-purchase. However, with that said there are some current-gen models that do allow pre-purchase RAM configuration. These models include the 13” MacBook Pro (Non-Touch Bar) and the 13” MacBook Pro (w/ Touch Bar), both upgradeable to 16GB of RAM pre-purchase. But, in this circumstance, it should be noted that the current-gen 15” MacBook Pro’s come stock with 16GB RAM, no more and no less!
In the case of upgrading an older generation model MacBook Pro, the Mid-2012 non-Retina models are the only Apple-supported MacBook Pro that offer an end-user RAM upgrade option up to 16GB.
Lets shift focus over to the iMac. Virtually all across the board, the 27” iMac can be upgraded to a higher RAM configuration pre & post-purchase. The 21.5” iMac is a different story, however. Unfortunately, these models that are still supported by Apple are not end-user RAM configurable. These, along with the lineup of Macbook Pro’s, Macbooks, and MacBook Air’s have onboard RAM, meaning the RAM is built directly onto the Logic Board, making it impossible for end-user upgrades.