The first reviews of Apple’s M2 MacBook Air have surfaced, and while the reviews are generally glowing, a number of them cited that the $1,199 base model equipped with 256GB of storage has a single NAND chip, has demonstrated slower SSD speeds in benchmark testing, but real-world performance may vary.
Last month, it was discovered that the 256GB model of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip has up to 50 percent slower SSD read speeds and up to 30 percent slower SSD write speeds compared to the equivalent previous-generation model in benchmarks.
The issue stems from Apple having switched to using a single 256GB flash storage chips as opposed to two 128GB chips in the base models of the M2 MacBook Air and the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro. Configurations equipped with 512GB of storage or more are equipped with multiple NAND chips, allowing for faster speeds in parallel.
In a statement issued to The Verge, Apple offered the following remarks regarding the issue:
Thanks to the performance increases of M2, the new MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pro are incredibly fast, even compared to Mac laptops with the powerful M1 chip. These new systems use a new higher density NAND that delivers 256GB storage using a single chip. While benchmarks of the 256GB SSD may show a difference compared to the previous generation, the performance of these M2 based systems for real world activities are even faster.
It’s unknown as to whether Apple’s comments refer explicitly to real-world SSD performance or overall system performance. The benchmarks offered mixed results, with some showing that SSD speeds were even slower in real-world usage. It’s sort of a mess right now and it’s unclear as to how Apple will address this or if they’ll offer a firmware fix to set things right.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.