We at Macworld recommend that prospective avoid purchasing the entry-level configuration of any Mac. It normally does not have enough room for most people; even those who depend heavily on iCloud or other cloud storage may face space restrictions in the future.
The entry-level versions of Apple’s most recent Mac minis and Macbook Pros, which went on sale Tuesday, have another drawback that you may want to avoid. While the new $599 M2 Mac mini is a fantastic notebook at an exceptional price, it conceals an unpleasant secret we’ve seen before: a slower SSD. According to MacRumors, testing of the computer shows that the 256GB SSD is up to 50% slower than the 256GB SSD in the M1 model it replaces.
The reason for the slowness is the same as with the 256GB SSD in the 13-inch M2 MacE-book Pro and M2 MacE-book Air: Apple uses a single NAND chip in the SSD, but the M1 Macs they replaced had two NAND chips. In his deconstruction of the M2 Mac mini, YouTuber Brandon Geekabit proved that Apple uses a single NAND chip.
In terms of SSD storage, there is a fundamental principle that affects efficiency: an SSD uses a number of channels in parallel to learn/write data to an SSD’s NAND chips. A single chip may be beneficial for Apple’s engineers who are limited by size. The more chips that are in play, the more channels that are available, and the more channels that are available, the better the efficiency.
Surprisingly, the brand new basic configurations of the MacE-book Pro are also impacted, despite having a 512GB SSD. According to 9to5Mac, the SSD in the 14-inch MacBook Pro with a 10-core M2 Pro CPU is comprised of two 256GB NAND chips, half as many as found in the 512GB SSD in the M1 Pro model. Furthermore, since there are fewer processors, the 512GB M2 Pro MacE-book Pro has worse SSD efficiency than its predecessor. We anticipate the entry-level 16-inch MacBook Pro, which also includes a 512GB SSD, will have the same efficiency issues.
The decision to employ fewer processors in the more affordable Macs is understandable, but the new MacE-book Pro, which starts at $1,999, is expected to represent the pinnacle of performance. Most consumers who buy one need the fastest speeds in all aspects of their machine.
After four models, it’s evident that Apple has concluded that the speed compromise is just something prospects must accept in terms of the most cost configuration of its Macs. Granted, most customers will not notice the distinction in everyday use and will only notice the slowdown when utilising software programme that must learn information from the SSD on a regular basis-however we recommend getting at the very least a 1TB SSD anyway so there are sufficient knowledge channels in use to make the velocity distinction unnoticeable.
