Buyers of the basic version of the new MacBook Air 15″ M2 have to reckon with lower SSD transfer rates. The manufacturer has been installing slower flash modules in the entry-level models of various Mac series for around a year was shown in the test of the new models.
Slower 256 GB SSD in the entry-level Air
While the MacBook Air 15″ with 1 TB capacity at least achieved transfer rates of around 3000 MB/s in the Mac & i test, the basic model with the 256 GB SSD performed significantly worse with write and read speeds of around 1600 MB/s. Admittedly Larger SSDs almost always deliver faster transfer rates, however, the SSD built in by Apple in the M2 entry-level models is also significantly slower than in the M1 predecessors with the same storage capacity.The reason is that instead of two 128 GB modules, Apple now has a single flash module with 256 GB of storage space. This reduces the usable memory channels and thus the speed. A similar thing was also observed with the MacBook Pro and Mac mini 2023 – as well as with the previously introduced MacBook Air 13″ M2.
Apple confirmed the move last year with the brief note that the MacBook Air M2 uses a higher-density NAND module, which could lead to “differences” in benchmarks. Many users of the MacBook Air will probably not notice the lower SSD transfer rates in everyday use. The integrated SSD is permanently soldered to the motherboard and cannot be upgraded later. Apple itself estimates 230 euros for the upgrade to 512 GB and 460 euros for 1 TB of storage space.
Limited range of interfaces
The limited number of ports is also unchanged on the larger MacBook Air: Like the smaller 13″ Air, it is limited to two USB-C ports (Thunderbolt 3), a MagSafe charging port and a headphone jack. One that used to be common in the MacBook Air SD card slot did not return. An Apple manager pointed this out to Tom’s Guidethat the selection of connections goes well with the thin and light design of the laptop and that users can also charge their iPhone using the second USB-C port of the included power adapter.
(lbe)