Apple MacBook Air M2 Storage Speed ​​Test: Yes, It’s Slow

previously, number From the reviewers informed That Apple Beginner MacBook Pro M2The SSD of the SSD is much slower than that of MacBook Pro M1 Due to the configuration of storage models in the computer. apple stressed to the edge That the base M2 MacBook Air has the same storage configuration as the Pro, so, naturally, we were wondering if it would have the same problem. Well, we finally got a base model (including 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of memory) and the answer is: Yes, it is.

Given the results we’re seeing in Blackmagic’s Disk Speed ​​Test, the base model of the M2 MacBook Air has write speeds that are generally 15 to 30 percent slower than those of the 512GB model that Apple sent out. the edge To review – and read speeds can be 40 to 50 percent slower.

This isn’t an unexpected result because the Air Base only has one NAND chip, while the M1 and 512GB (and above) M2 models have two, which can allow for nearly double speeds.

Although I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the speeds we’re seeing from this base MacBook Air are bad, They are (especially when it comes to reading data) the kind of speeds you can easily get on laptops that are a bit more, well, meh. For example, the base model is a little faster than mine 2019 Intel MacBook Pro When it comes to write speeds, their read speeds are noticeably worse. To pick a Windows device from the hat, Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 (Starting at $600) also loses to the airbase when writing but demolishes it when reading. (Read speeds are generally more important for general use, as they measure how quickly your device can access files on its system.)

We didn’t have a 256GB M1 Air to test, but our 512GB model is also faster than the base M2 at reading and writing, as you can see in the results below.

as such edge Editor Dan Seifert explains in His review of the M2 Air, Slow storage speeds can affect a number of tasks, including file transfers, and can also slow down overall performance because Macs use SSD space as temporary memory (swap memory) when using their built-in RAM.

Having said that, will these specific differences affect you? The people the Air is marketing for likely won’t see the life-changing discrepancy between the 256GB and 512GB models when it comes to everyday performance. I played two 4K YouTube videos on 25 open Chrome tabs for 30 minutes on both devices without having to plunge into the switch memory. The boot time was identical too – I flipped the two devices side by side a few times. And I didn’t see much difference when it came to opening any of the apps I usually use, including Chrome, Safari, Messages, Photos, Activity Monitor, Slack, Music, etc.

for macbook Professionals Target audience, although a limitation like this can be a deal breaker. If you are someone with a heavy workload (who may notice a good difference), we generally recommend purchasing a file MacBook Pro with M1 Pro or Max chip instead of air.

However, these results will certainly be important to some people. If you’re in that camp, you’ll do it need to pay 200 dollars To upgrade from 256 GB to 512 GB, that brings the price of the eight-core M2 MacBook Air from $1,199 to $1,399. If that sounds like a lot, you also get 512GB of storage and 8GB of RAM in perfect condition. M1 MacBook Air for $1199 (Same price as the base M2 Air). Real-world comparisons I found that the M2 machines are clearly better in graphics-heavy use cases (such as playing games) but their performance differences are not significantly impactful in other tasks (editing images and audio, working online, etc.) that the average user might do. .

We have reached out to Apple for comment on these specific findings and have yet to receive a response. When we asked the company about the different storage configurations for our review of the device, company spokeswoman Michele Del Rio provided the following statement:

Thanks to the increased performance of the M2, the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro are incredibly fast, even compared to Mac laptops equipped with the powerful M1 chip. These new systems use a new high-density NAND that provides 256GB of storage using a single chip. While the 256GB SSD benchmarks may show a difference compared to the previous generation, these M2-based systems perform faster for real-world activities.