You've probably heard about the whole slow SSD issue
on the new M2 MacBook Pro.
But what about the M2 MacBook Air?
Does it have the same issue?
Are one of the SSD NAND chips missing?
And how might this slow down performance?
So, I'm just going to get straight
to it and not waste your time.
Yes, the M2 MacBook Air does have the same slow SSD issue.
It is missing that second SSD NAND chip.
It's much slower in read and write speeds
when compared to the M1.
And this does have an impact on performance,
where in some situations,
the M1 MacBook Air,
which is now a two-year-old device,
actually outperforms the new M2 MacBook Air.
So in this video, I'm going to break down
and explain this issue.
Do some testing to see if that slower SSD
does actually have an impact on performance
and tell you if you should be worried or not.
I'll also put chapters down below
so you can skip to a specific section.
Also, I just want to say that the purpose
of this video is not to trash the M2 MacBook Air.
I still think it's a really, really good device.
The purpose of this video is simply to talk
about the base model, 256 gigabyte SSD.
So, to give you an idea
of just how much slower the M2 SSD is compared to the M1,
let's run a quick Blackmagic Disc Speed Test.
And you can immediately see the difference.
The M2's write speeds are much slower, and for read speeds,
the M2 sees a whopping 50% decrease in performance.
If I put this data into a graph,
you can see the massive difference between the two,
represented visually.
To put this into perspective, the 2016 MacBook Pro,
which is a six-year-old device,
has arguably better SSD speeds
than the brand new M2 MacBook Air.
Wow.
So, opening up the M2 MacBook Air
reveals a slightly different internal situation.
There's a layer of thermal material
over the entire logic board,
covering the M2 chip and of course,
the SSD NAND chip.
Now Apple has confirmed it is only using a single NAND chip
on this device.
So, I didn't peel off this thermal material to check,
as I wanted to do some thermal testing
on this MacBook later.
But, here it is on the M2 MacBook Pro,
using the same M2 chip.
And here's the M1 MacBook Air for comparison.
You can see it has two 128 gigabyte NAND chips
instead of just one 256 gigabyte chip on the M2 MacBook Air.
So, why is having two smaller NAND chips better
than just one big one?
Well, by using two of them,
it allows each one to connect to the M1
or M2 controller separately
and fill two data buses in parallel.
Bus, as in the communication system that transfers data
between components inside a computer.
It's kind of like a highway for data.
And having two lanes on a highway is much faster
than just one.
So, on the M1,
you are basically getting double the available bandwidth,
which results in higher read and write speeds.
Here's my 16 inch M1 Max MacBook Pro
with a four terabyte SSD as an example.
The speeds on this are incredibly fast,
at least twice as fast as the M1,
and you can see why.
Look at all of those NAND chips soldered to the logic board.
This is also why the 512 gigabyte SSDs,
on the M2 Pro and Air are not affected by this issue
because they use at least two NAND chips.
Also, just FYI,
We are doing a giveaway on this channel.
It's either an M1 MacBook Air
or a $1000 Apple gift card.
All you need to do to enter is subscribe
and check the description down below for more details.
Okay.
So, why are these slower SSDs
in base model M2 MacBook Air's a bad thing?
Well, if you're just browsing the internet
or sending emails, you probably won't notice it.
But, you will notice it when transferring files
on and off your internal drive
and office workers copying big PDFs or Excel documents
for example, will notice the 50% reduction in speed,
especially if you've just come from an M1 Air.
However, the slow speeds are most noticeable
once you start multi-tasking
with a few apps open in the background,
and that is due to something called swap memory.
Quick crash course on swap memory for the uninitiated,
it basically allows your computer
to run faster and multi-task better.
It achieves this by moving processes
and programs that aren't currently being used
out of physical memory, which is your RAM
and onto virtual memory,
which is essentially just temporarily writing
and then reading this data from your SSD.
If you want more info on this and Mac SSDs in general,
I'll link one of my previous videos.
But, on a base model MacBook Air,
with just eight gigabytes of RAM,
this swap process is going to happen a lot.
And the speed on your SSD will have a big impact
on this process.
How much impact, you ask?
Well, let's find out.
In most benchmarks you see online,
these are run with no other apps or tasks running
in the background.
And, at first glance it does seem like the M2 MacBook Air
outperforms the previous M1 generation by a decent amount.
But this isn't realistic because most people are
going to have some apps open in the background consuming RAM,
while they're focusing on their main task.
For example, browsing the web,
or listening to Spotify while compiling code
or editing photos, for example.
So, I replicated this and did these same benchmarks again,
and the results were pretty shocking.
Doing a really simple after effects 2D animation render,
the M2 Air comes out ahead when no other apps are open.
But, if you have 10 Chrome tabs open in the background,
which is pretty realistic, in my opinion,
the M1 Air actually very slightly outperforms the M2 Air.
Or how about editing photos in Lightroom Classic?
This usually isn't a very intensive task
and it's a pretty popular workflow on the Air.
And again, most people also have a few Google Chrome tabs
open in the background
and maybe a basic Photoshop project as well.
And here's where you can start to see the true impact
of the slow SSD.
When one or two other apps are open in the background,
using up the RAM,
and the computer has to rely on swap memory.
The M1 significantly outperforms the M2.
Now the effect the slower SSD will have depends
on your specific workflow
and how much stuff you've got open at once.
I just use those two examples to show you that,
yes, in some situations,
the slower SSD can impact performance.
Now, there are some people out there who will say
that most people won't notice this, so who cares?
But I think that argument kind of misses the point
because most people will think
that they're paying for a better and faster machine.
And I think that's a reasonable assumption.
Since the M2 is newer,
you'd expect everything to be the same or better.
Plus, this new M2 MacBook Air is $200 more expensive
than the M1 Air.
And I do think it's a little ironic
that Apple loves highlighting the "up to" speeds
of the M1 Pro and M1 Max SSDs.
So, why can't they put a "down to" disclaimer
on the product page of the M2 MacBook Air?
It's just been complete radio silence from Apple
and when "theverge" reached out to them for comment,
this is the response they got from the Apple spokesperson.
Now, let's break down that last sentence for a second.
Apple is essentially saying, yep,
the SSD is slower, but hey,
the M2 is still faster than M1 overall,
so it doesn't matter.
And while this may be true
when looking at just the CPU and GPU
or even the fact that the M2 uses faster DDR5 memory,
instead of DDR4 on the M1.
When you look at the actual real life workflows
that Apple intends purchases of the M2 Air to do,
in many situations the M2 is beaten by the M1,
a two-year-old device.
And I just think this is a little bit disappointing
because the M1 MacBook Air was such a good product
with almost zero issues or controversy at launch.
I just hope that this SSD issue
doesn't tarnish the reputation
of the Apple Silicon Air lineup going forward,
because it would be a shame.
And if you think about,
nerfing the SSD is such a weird performance bottleneck
to put on this device.
I mean, out of all the things you can change
like the chassis, the screen,
the speakers, the ports,
keeping the SSD the same as the previous generation,
is literally the easiest thing to do.
So, what could be the reason for Apple doing this
to the M2 MacBook Air?
Well, let's play devil's advocate for a second,
and no, don't take this as me defending Apple in any way.
The biggest possible explanation is the fact
that Western Digital and Kioxia lost 6.5 exabytes worth
of their NAND flash storage in January
due to contaminated materials.
These are the exact NAND flash chips that Apple uses
in their new MacBooks.
This contamination would've taken a few months
to affect supply.
And there's the very real possibility
that the 128 gigabyte NAND chips are simply harder
to source now or it's just Apple being greedy
and screwing people
who can only afford the base model M2 MacBooks.
I think the reality though, is somewhere in the middle.
Yes, this whole SSD contamination issue
probably did affect supply.
But on the other hand, I also find it hard to believe
that Apple couldn't have figured out
some kind of work around.
So, my money is on Apple just cutting costs.
So yeah guys, really weird decision here from Apple.
I just think this is a little bit frustrating
because there are a lot of people
that simply can't afford to upgrade
to the 512 gigabyte SSD, which mitigates this issue.
And it also becomes more difficult for you
as a buyer to decide between 16 gigabytes of RAM
or maybe the 512 gigabyte SSD.
But if you have any comments or questions,
make sure you leave them down below.
I will have more videos on this topic,
but apart from that, thanks for watching.
And I'll catch you in the next one.