Labo – Le SSD de 256 Go des nouveaux MacBook est-il vraiment plus lent ?

Both the MacBook Pro M2 and MacBook Air M2 scored top marks in our tests. The Pro has seen its performance progress, even if the chassis has remained identical to previous generations, and the Air has not only benefited from the benefits of the M2, but also from a more modern aesthetic.

We tested models equipped with 512 GB SSDs and 1 TB of storage, which did not allow us to notice any anomalies in their speed of operation when they passed through our laboratory. However, according to many users, a problem would be related to the 256 GB SSDs built into the most affordable MacBooks. So we get our hands on a MacBook Pro M2 equipped with a 256GB SSD to see what’s going on.

As we see under the Blackmagic benchmark, even allowing for some margin of error, the result is clear: the 256GB MacBook Pro M2’s SSD is literally half as fast as its 1TB cousin, reading than writing.

why and how

How to explain this difference? Apple has decided to integrate a single 256GB NAND storage chip into its entry-level computers instead of the two 128GB chips found in the M1 versions. However, two chips running in parallel are faster than one. We can see in our photo of the inside of the 1TB MacBook Pro M2 that there are two modules (framed in red), but we only find one in the 256GB version. Perhaps the manufacturer has had to adapt to supply difficulties. certain components or that it wanted to achieve economies of scale, but in any case, it is unfortunate that Apple has not been transparent in explaining to users that there is a difference in speeds between SSD sizes.

What impact on reality?

Although the speeds are much lower, the impact on daily use will be almost unnoticeable, whether it is in the speed of startup or in opening applications. On the other hand, it will be more annoying for those who want to transfer heavy files to an external SSD. In this case, we can only advise you to go for MacBooks with at least 512GB of storage.

The problem would be a priori identical in the MacBook Air M2, although we have not been able to verify it ourselves as we have not yet been able to test a 256 GB version.