Here at Macworld , we tend to advocate that customers not buy the debut - level configuration of any Mac . It by and large does n’t have enough storage for most masses , even people who rely heavily on iCloud or other cloud storage will in all probability run into space restraint down the contrast .
But there ’s another reason why you might want to avoid the entry - level contour of Apple ’s latest Mac miniskirt and MacBook Pros , which go on sale Tuesday . While the young $ 599M2 Mac miniis a very overnice computer at a great monetary value , it hides an ugly arcanum we ’ve seen before : aslower SSD . MacRumors reports thatbenchmarksof the political machine show that the 256 GB SSD is up to 50 percent slower than the 256 GB SSD in theM1 modelit replaces .
The reason for the slowdown is the same as with the 256 GB SSD in the13 - inch M2 MacBook ProandM2 MacBook Air : Apple uses a individual NAND crisp in the SSD , while the M1 Macs they replaced used two NAND chips . YouTuberBrandon Geekabitconfirmed that Apple use one NAND chipping in his teardown of the M2 Mac mini .
A single chip might be good for Apple ’s space - challenged engineers , but when it comes to SSD store , there ’s ageneral principlethat touch on performance : an SSD uses multiple channels in analogue to read / write information to an SSD ’s NAND silicon chip . The more chips that are in play , the more television channel that are available , and the more channel available , the better the carrying into action .
Somewhat amazingly , the new base form of the MacBook Pro are also affected , despite having a 512 GB SSD . 9to5Macreportsthat in its testing and teardown of the 14 - inch MacBook Pro with a 10 - core M2 Pro processor , the SSD is comprised of two 256 GB NAND chip , half as many as found in the 512 GB SSD in the M1 Pro example . And as a result of the fewer chips , the 512 GB M2 Pro MacBook Pro has slow SSD performance than its predecessor . We take over the entry - level 16 - inch MacBook Pro , which also has a 512 GB SSD , has the same performance issues as well .
While we can understand the decisiveness to utilize few chips in the low - end Macs , the fresh MacBook Pro set out at $ 1,999 and is expect to be the ultimate in performance . Most users who buy one want the fastest hurrying in all aspects of their machine . In the higher - end model we tested , disk speeds were as expected , with write scores that blew past the M1 Pro and M2 .
After four models , it ’s clear that Apple has decided that the speed forfeit is just something customers will have to live with when it add up to the cheapest form of its Macs . grant , most users wo n’t experience the conflict in routine use and will only notice it the slowdown when using software system that needs to read files from the SSD frequently – but we recommend getting at least a 1 TB SSD anyway so there are enough data channels in utilisation to make the stop number difference of opinion obscure .
