Teardown Reveals New 13-Inch MacBook Air SSD is Nearly Twice as Fast as SSD in New 11-Inch MacBook Air

11" mba

gpat said:

The 11" MBA is Apple's cheap parts bin. Just look at that crappy screen, it looks like it was pulled out of a netbook. Unexcusable.

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My company issued me a 15" MBP that I never use - actually set up a profile for the wife to use as a 2nd computer. I paid out of pocket for the lowest spec'd 11" MBA to compliment my 27" retina iMac.

I love using the 11 incher on the road and the screen size doesn't get in the way for email, salesforce, or light Excel work.

That's right. For me a free 15" MBP is a throw away machine. Glad Apple doesn't base their product lineup off of comments in this forum.

sualpine said:

So, Apple was telling the truth then. Any complainers?

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Damit!!! its not 3x the speed!!!

Upgrading to New Mac

I currently have a mid-2007 macbook that is still running pretty well for its age (depsite the fact that I'm behind on a couple OSs). Do you think it would be worth upgrading to the new rMBP?

jlseattle said:

I can personally speak to this. Once I buy a mac I typically keep it for 5-6 years and only upgrade because the new OS doesn't support the old hardware. My macs run strong until the end. With windows pc's they last only a year or so depending how much you spend.

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I'm sorry, but that is a complete ridiculous comment.

CoMoMacUser said:

Nice, but I'm holding out for the tantric touchpad.

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Yes, that will be om-mazing!

Rotk99 said:

I currently have a mid-2007 macbook that is still running pretty well for its age (depsite the fact that I'm behind on a couple OSs). Do you think it would be worth upgrading to the new rMBP?

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what do you need to do on the computer?

malexandria said:

I'm upgrading my SSHD (I Love It) in my 2012 MBP in the next few weeks to a full SSD. A 1tb Evo is $399 vs. the Pro model at $549. And the Crucial is $379. I'm leaning towards the Crucial.

Anyone have any real world opinions (beyond just pointing me to a spec sheet)?


I'm going with full SSD because the SSHD breathed new life into my 2012 MBP, but now I want to go all in on the flash goodness

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The one suggestion I will make is that until Samsung really addresses the non-recent file issue with the 840 EVO, I would stay away from that one (and I say this as the owner of one of these SSDs).

I don't know about this new Macbook. I mean, did we really need it? I can't say I ever heard even one person say "wow, the Macbook Air is just too thick and heavy, we need something even thinner and lighter, with fewer ports."

Take the existing Air body, add the new trackpad and Retina, the faster SSD - and you're good to go.

512. 512. 512. How difficult is it to get 1 TB into a macBook Air? I have been running my 2011 Air with a 1 TB SSD from Transcend without issues. What's the issue with Apple?

I just bought a MBA 13" 2014 model last night for $675 after movers and student discounts and no tax, from BB. Should I return and wait for the 2015 model? I am sure they will still let me use those coupons.

Lucky me

jlseattle said:

I can personally speak to this. Once I buy a mac I typically keep it for 5-6 years and only upgrade because the new OS doesn't support the old hardware. My macs run strong until the end. With windows pc's they last only a year or so depending how much you spend.

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My Windows laptop, (two years old now) has never been formatted and still turns on in less than 30 secs.
it's a:
2.4ghz quad core
8 gigs ram
8870 amd card (2 gb gddr5 . try getting this on a mac)
solid 6-8 hour battery (depending on usage and screen brightness)
weighs less than 5 pounds
and it cost a 1000 bucks

plus office works really good on this because you know, microsoft.

btw, it replaced a Aluminium Macbook that I treated like a child (love and care, not spanking and yelling) but that crapped out on me for no diagnosable reason (even though I paid 40 clams at an Apple authorized repairer to get a diagnostics done)

also. I used to be just like you. I miss OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard' last build) terribly. I don't miss Apple's OS X's of today.

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Cmd-Z said:

Yes, that will be om-mazing!

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your post made me sound like a retarded seal.
you need more upvotes.
I might just create a few accounts to do it.

mypins said:

512. 512. 512. How difficult is it to get 1 TB into a macBook Air? I have been running my 2011 Air with a 1 TB SSD from Transcend without issues. What's the issue with Apple?

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Cost. Even though 1TB doesn't cost that much in the real world, it does in Apple's hyper-marked up pricing, and the Air with 1TB would be too expensive, compared to the 512GB.

Boyd01 said:

I have a 2013 11" i7/8gb/512gb MBA. When it was new, the Blackmagic speed test reported about 700MB/s write and 720MB/s read. Today, with about 180gb free space left on my SSD, the Blackmagic test reports about 650MB/s write and 700MB/s read.

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I have the maxed out, 1TB Macbook Pro Retina 15, and Blackmagic reported 950MB read and write speeds. I still get over 900MB after 1 year. Almost 1Gigabit R/W speeds are just plain sick. If they had made a 1TB option available for for ne Macbooks, the newer drives might have been even faster than what I am getting.

Rafterman said:

I have the maxed out, 1TB Macbook Pro Retina 15, and Blackmagic reported 950MB read and write speeds. I still get over 900MB after 1 year. Almost 1Gigabit R/W speeds are just plain sick. If they had made a 1TB option available for for ne Macbooks, the newer drives might have been even faster than what I am getting.

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Your 1TB SSD uses four lanes. It was the only SSD to do so. Now the 13's SSDs are also 4 lane. You wouldn't see that much change in speed because you got the good stuff to begin with.

malexandria said:

I'm upgrading my SSHD (I Love It) in my 2012 MBP in the next few weeks to a full SSD. A 1tb Evo is $399 vs. the Pro model at $549. And the Crucial is $379. I'm leaning towards the Crucial.

Anyone have any real world opinions (beyond just pointing me to a spec sheet)?

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I'd go with the Crucial BX100. I don't trust the 850 Evo yet due to the firmware issues the 840 Evo has.

mypins said:

512. 512. 512. How difficult is it to get 1 TB into a macBook Air? I have been running my 2011 Air with a 1 TB SSD from Transcend without issues. What's the issue with Apple?

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Maybe they wait until the MBP offers 2 TB. If I am not mistaken, that separation also applies to RAM, ie, both in storage and RAM the MBA maxes out at half the MBP maximum.

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Rafterman said:

I don't know about this new Macbook. I mean, did we really need it? I can't say I ever heard even one person say "wow, the Macbook Air is just too thick and heavy, we need something even thinner and lighter, with fewer ports."

Take the existing Air body, add the new trackpad and Retina, the faster SSD - and you're good to go.

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I didn't here people saying that about the 13" MBP neither, yet the MBA still found a lot of success.

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ani4ani said:

So the estimated 60% of Intel Macs that have boot camp or Paralells Windows installed don't suffer this phenomenon if it exists at all?

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The vast majority of people having boot camp or a virtual machine installed will use Windows for less than the OS X. On top of that virtual machines have the nice feature of making it very easy to roll back to an earlier state which further reduces the number of accumulated net use hours.

I think the new MB is aimed at iPad owners who haven't made the jump from Windows to Mac. Apple assumed iPad owners would upgrade every year or two like iPhone owners do but that hasn't been the case. The new MB gives those people another buying opportunity. Buy a MB to match your iPad - same colour, same great screen, etc. It's not my cup of tea but I think the Gold version will prove very popular just like the Gold iPhone was.

Keirasplace said:

I'm not arguing that it wouldn't give better performance.
I'm just telling you that it isn't easy or cheap right now.

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Sorry to drag this on, but why are you telling me this? I have never argued about easy or cheap, nor been talking about absolutes. This is a strawman.

Improvements in memory subsystems is a net win on performance, on this we agree. The new Flash memory on the MacBook Air represents a 2x performance increase, it's thus a welcomed improvement.

coolfactor said:

Were you unconscious for 8 months? June (aka "Soon") was 9 months ago. Just look at the complaining when Apple _doesn't_ update their machines for extended periods. The Mac Pro is a good example.

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The huge delays for Mac Pro are a good example of something Apple gets totally wrong.

Is this same drive compatible with the Mac Pro, or is the socket/bus actually faster than previous generations? If it is compatible, how long will it take them to update the MP and other machines to have this too?

BigBeast said:

Many people suggest what you have, but I wonder where you or anyone else gets this information from. On the other hand, I have real-world knowledge of customer RAM upgrades, as I previously worked at an authorized Apple retail and repair store. The two most common service requests? RAM & HDDs. And we had a lot of service orders.

Additionally, while end users may not feel comfortable doing this themselves, many still will pay someone else to do so. With soldered components, this isn't possible.

Further, there is still no reason to solder the RAM on the logic board-- the amount of additional space that non-soldered RAM consumes is negligible. It's a money grab from Apple, plain & simple. I hate to admit it, but that's today's Apple.

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The information comes straight from their marketshare and their customer base now compared to what it was 10 years ago. Apple used to tap into a fraction of consumers. We all know these people. They are generally older, not as tech savvy, they probably value their time more than hobbyists and enthuisiasts do. It's basically common sense. There are tons of people that base their decisions on upgradability and end up asking questions that you get in the Apple store before and after purchase. There are 100x more people that pay a computer, tablet or phone and never consider upgrading it.

As far as the RAM soldered to logic board, it's not Apple making a money grab. It's just Apple trying to control all the internals components too. Apple owns Anobit to create custom SSDs and they want to create the thinnest devices. With these kind of goals, you cannot expect Apple to rely on a 3rd party's RAM size and allow for modules.

In the end it doesn't matter because they usually crank out a great laptop update every 18 months. I wouldn't bother upgrading RAM in only 18 months when they have a great new laptop with new features that have nothing to do with RAM or hard drive space. The days of owning Mac Pro towers for 7+ years and upgrading are over. Did I save more money back then? A little but I was also slowly chugging along with a slow Mac that I wanted to replace for years, I just didn't have a good reason to.

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melendezest said:

You missed my point. I can venture out and say that everyone here would prefer a MacBook Air with a Retina display, and the option to upgrade the SSD to more than 512 GB, and the more powerful Iris graphics card.

Or a even a Macbook with more than one (stupid) port.

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I can venture to say that Apple has already determined that more people would buy the configuration they offer than the configuration you want. Apple and I are right party because they don't have to and cannot possibly prove it.

unobtainium said:

Actually people seem to be replacing their computers less often than they used to, according to sales figures.

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correct. computer performance related to computer demands has peaked.

it used to be that you had to upgrade you memory every 2 yrs to keep up. how long has 4GB of memory been standard now?

every computer being sold, even if it's a $300 budget Acer will last someone through college and beyond with regards to requirements.

i still have a 2011 $377 Acer running an i3 sandy bridge w/ HD3000 that can drive (2) 24" HD monitors. netflix can be streaming in HD on one screen and i can have 15 Chrome tabs open on the other without any slow down whatsoever.

any future incompatibilities now with specs are intentional manufacturer implemented maneuvers to force you to upgrade since operating systems are the most stable today than they ever have been, especially windows now being able to be run on those 7" tablets with 1GB of memory. it now has nothing to do really with the specs being inadequate anymore. Apple is of course known for this, as are some of the manufacturers of android devices.

Belmont31R said:

Theres some truth to that, yes, but I really do think in a lot of cases they aren't willing to compromise something else because then people would bitch. There are some tech restrictions they have to work around that other companies are more likely to breach just for the sake of checking a box on a chart.

But the only way they're going to learn is if people don't buy their products. I'm amazed people even buy the MBA with the terrible screen. They would be forced to improve that product besides CPU refreshes if people stopped buying them. But then you can look around a college classroom and 25-50% of laptops people are using are MBA's. It's taken a long time for the PC crew to start making innovative and quality designs and in a lot of cases they still come up short. So Apple is in a position where they can leverage their position in the market, their marketing, and brand to do less than they could do. Sometimes businesses do that and take risks. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But not many businesses become a brand anywhere near Apple's if they don't take risks. They are there to make a profit and Apple is not immune to that nor are they are a charity. From where they've been as a business to where they are now is really remarkable. They didn't get where they are today by playing things safe nor just flooding the market with the kitchen sink to have appeal to 'everyone.'

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No, they got to where they are today by building the best machines of their time, period. They have now forgotten that. That philosophy died with Steve.

I find my 2 MBPs (17" and 15" cMBPs) to be above and beyond anything anyone, even Apple, makes.

They're beautiful, light for their size (I'm not a weakling), easily repairable, expandable as all get out, highly flexible, and powerful. I don't need a dongle for everything, external anything (not even a backup drive-I can do that internally), I'll never run out of disk space (easily swapped), I can connect to pretty much anything out there in use, I can easily expand their RAM. In all, REAL pro machines.

Now, at the height of their popularity, they kill features because it'll save them money and because they know they can get away with it. They're well aware that now people will buy and even defend their machines no matter what. As you state, they 'leverage their position in the market'. That is their greatest strength.

All under the guise of "innovation".

BS. It is regression.

I can't wait for people to realize this and it blows up in Apple's face, so they can get back to building the best products and not cater only to the so-called high-class, fashionista, IT tourist, trendy crowd.

I really, really hope that Microsoft delivers with WinX and OEMs keep cranking out improved hardware (they've come a long way) so that they put a hurting to Apple and we can all get some real computers out of these guys.

melendezest said:

No, they got to where they are today by building the best machines of their time, period. They have now forgotten that. That philosophy died with Steve.

I find my 2 MBPs (17" and 15" cMBPs) to be above and beyond anything anyone, even Apple, makes.

They're beautiful, light for their size (I'm not a weakling), easily repairable, expandable as all get out, highly flexible, and powerful. I don't need a dongle for everything, external anything (not even a backup drive-I can do that internally), I'll never run out of disk space (easily swapped), I can connect to pretty much anything out there in use, I can easily expand their RAM. In all, REAL pro machines.

Now, at the height of their popularity, they kill features because it'll save them money and because they know they can get away with it. They're well aware that now people will buy and even defend their machines no matter what. As you state, they 'leverage their position in the market'. That is their greatest strength.

All under the guise of "innovation".

BS. It is regression.

I can't wait for people to realize this and it blows up in Apple's face, so they can get back to building the best products and not cater only to the so-called high-class, fashionista, IT tourist, trendy crowd.

I really, really hope that Microsoft delivers with WinX and OEMs keep cranking out improved hardware (they've come a long way) so that they put a hurting to Apple and we can all get some real computers out of these guys.

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I think you made excellent points.... I think the MacBook is kind of a joke.... I don't know who would pay about the same for something that has a small amount power and no ports, when you can get a whole lot more machine for a little more.... Why do the MacBook's need to be paper thin and weigh 2lbs.? What are we babies? How about forget what the trend is, which will change, and stick with making the best you can? While the current Pro's are great machines, I think this next update to the 15" or when Skylake comes, we need something better, not lighter..... We're getting to a point where we can't get any smaller and who wants a tiny screen anyways, in the long run? TV's are getting bigger, so why are computers getting smaller? That's great for the Air line, but leave the Pro alone.... They're not giving much diversity to they're computers, except for power.... TBH, I'm surprised we haven't seen a touchscreen on a Mac, with the trend....

kylewiens said:

Swap successful

We took the SSD out of our 13" unit, put it in the 11" Air, and benchmarked it.

It worked great! The 11" was just as fast as the stock 13". Perhaps Apple will add this as a build-to-order option. Or you could just swap it out yourself later if you really want the 11" now.

Kyle
iFixit

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Hi Kyle, whats special with those ssd then? what do I have to look for exactly if I want to put one into my 11" Air. Do you at iFixit sell it?
thanks