Introduced at the WWDC 2022 conference, MacBook Air with M2 processor managed to become one of the most popular Apple products in a short time. MacBook Air, which has delivery problems due to high demand, has started to reach some users. The 256GB model of the new MacBook Air is disappointing with SSD speeds.
A single NAND storage chip slows read and write speeds
In the past weeks, MacBook Pro with M2 processor has attracted attention with its SSD performance. The device, which has a single NAND storage chip in the 256GB model, was disappointing with its slow read and write speeds compared to the previous generation. It was discovered that the MacBook Air with the M2 processor was also suffering from the same problem.
According to tests by The Verge, the 256GB M2 MacBook Air suffers between 15-30% performance drops in write speeds compared to the 512GB model. In read speeds, the 256GB model suffers a 40-50% performance drop. Although The Verge states that SSD speeds do not make much difference in real-use tests, professionals are not recommended to buy the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with 256GB SSDs. Apple, which used 128GB NAND memories in previous generations, probably started using 256GB NAND memories for production savings.