I want to purchase a MacBook Air M2 Base version, but I've found out that its SSD is slower than the M1 Air's. Since the M2 Air has 256GB of SSD and 16GB of RAM, it's not really a base version. In this scenario, is the SSD performance of the M2 Air equal as the M1 Air's 256GB of SSD?
The new MacBook Airs with 256GB storage use a single NAND chip and is slower than the M1 since its 256GB version uses to NAND chips. The 512GB version of the M2 MacBook Air uses two NAND chips and is therefore faster. If you are concerned about SSD speed, get the 512GB version. Also, the 512GB version will get you a 10 core GPU vs. the base 256GB version.
The new MacBook Airs with 256GB storage use a single NAND chip and is slower than the M1 since its 256GB version uses to NAND chips. The 512GB version of the M2 MacBook Air uses two NAND chips and is therefore faster. If you are concerned about SSD speed, get the 512GB version. Also, the 512GB version will get you a 10 core GPU vs. the base 256GB version.
Emran003 wrote:
Is it really true that mabook air M1 is faster than M2?
I don't believe that the M2 processor is slower than the M1 processor. But the 256 GB SSD on the M2 MacBook Air is reportedly slower than the 256 GB SSD on the M1 MacBook Air.
Here's how 256 GB SSDs are reportedly implemented on these machines:
On a M1 MacBook Air with a 256 GB SSD, the processor has the opportunity to access both chips simultaneously. On a M2 MacBook Air with a 256 GB SSD, everything has to go through a single chip.
If I remember correctly, the "slow" 256 GB SSD on the M2 MacBook Airs still benchmarks as being faster than any USB 3.0 / SATA SSD can run. It just doesn't hit the same level as a Thunderbolt 3 / NVMe SSD or as most internal SSDs.
If you order a M2 MacBook Air with 512 GB of storage, I believe that you get two 256 GB flash chips. This allows the processor to pull the "access both chips simultaneously" trick. So ordering at least 512 GB of SSD storage is one way to get a "fast" SSD. If you're going to be shooting a lot of large videos and copying them back and forth between the internal SSD and external Thunderbolt 3 SSDs – the sort of application where you'd really notice the SSD speed the most – you're going to want 512 GB (or more) of storage anyway. Video eats storage space like it was cotton candy.
FYI, 9to5Mac reports that M3 MacBook Airs with 256 GB SSDs offer "significantly faster" SSD speeds than their M2 counterparts. Apparently Apple went back to implementing the 256 GB as (2 x 128 GB) (like it was for the M1 Airs), instead of as (1 x 256 GB).
9to5Mac – Base M3 MacBook Air offers significantly faster SSD speeds than before
Is it really true that mabook air M1 is faster than M2?
The MacBook Air M2 Base's SSD performance is slower than the M1 Air's, despite having 256GB SSD and 16GB RAM.
