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

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Apple on Monday refreshed its MacBook Air lineup, adding Broadwell chips and Intel 6000 graphics. Both models received the same processor updates, but the 13-inch MacBook Air got an extra boost -- new PCIe-based flash storage that Apple says is "up to two times faster" than the flash storage used in the previous generation MacBook Air. The 11-inch MacBook Air did not receive the same flash storage update.

iFixit decided to test Apple's "two times faster" claim by comparing SSD speeds between a new 11-inch MacBook Air and a new 13-inch MacBook Air, with results that suggest the SSD in the 13-inch MacBook Air is indeed nearly twice as fast as the SSD in the MacBook Air.

Average write speeds for the 11-inch MacBook Air using Black Magic's Disk Speed Test were 315MB/s, while average read speeds were 668MB/s. The 13-inch MacBook Air saw average write speeds of 629.9MB/s and average read speeds of 1285.4MB/s.

flashstorage13inchmacbookair.jpg
An iFixit teardown of the 13-inch MacBook Air conducted this morning suggests the notebook is using Samsung flash memory with a Samsung controller. A teardown of the 11-inch MacBook Air, which does not feature the faster flash storage, was equipped with SanDisk flash memory and a Marvell controller. In comparison to the Samsung flash storage used in the previous-generation 13-inch MacBook Air, iFixit said "it's definitely an update."

The new 13-inch MacBook Air is available from Apple's online and retail stores with prices that start at $999. The higher-end $1,199 model can be configured with up to 512GB of flash storage.

Article Link: Teardown Reveals New 13-Inch MacBook Air SSD is Nearly Twice as Fast as SSD in New 11-Inch MacBook Air
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/11/13-inch-macbook-air-ssd-2x-faster/
macduke

macduke

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,133
19,662
Mother of…wow that is fast. Now only if there was a BTO retina display option!
 
fzfpff

fzfpff

macrumors member
Nov 8, 2012
72
155
That's impressive, but not impressive enough to make me wanna buy it.
 
rishiomedia

rishiomedia

macrumors regular
Mar 10, 2015
132
160
Faster than macbook pro?

Is the new HD in the new 13" MacBook Pro and updated MacBook Air faster than the flash HD in the 15" Macbook Pro?
 
jmoore5196

jmoore5196

macrumors 6502a
May 19, 2009
840
333
Russellville AR
My 2014 11" MBA has always felt blindingly fast. Would anyone know if the speed increase for the new 13" model is something that's going to be noticeable? I run a lot of CC apps and have never had a problem with my 11", but I'm tempted to upgrade if the new Samsung SSD and controller will make an appreciable difference.

Any SSD experts care to weigh in?

Comparing the new MBA to my i7 2014 MBP (2.5/16/512) the write speeds are approximately the same. The read speeds, however, are very impressive ... 1285 to 718.
 
B

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
Why is this in the Air and not the Pro - that makes no sense to me!

That's exceeding the speeds I get with two SSDs in Raid 0 in my iMac - craziness.
 
AppleGeek1127

AppleGeek1127

macrumors member
Dec 30, 2014
78
10
I just bought a 2014 model back in June. Why does it always seem like the major advancments come soon after you make your purchase?
 
PowerBook-G5

PowerBook-G5

macrumors 65816
Jul 30, 2013
1,243
1,179
It seems like if I want a new MacBook soon, the Air 13" or the Pro 15" will be the best choices.

The Air 13" because of the updated internals.

Or the Pro 15", because I feel like I won't be liking the new trackpads in the MacBook and MacBook Pro 13"

BTW, has anyone had a chance to play around with the new Pro 13" and it's trackpad in any Apple stores yet?
 
G

gpat

macrumors 68000
Mar 1, 2011
1,870
5,047
Italy
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.
 
S

symple84

macrumors member
Apr 11, 2009
86
1
PowerBook-G5 said:
It seems like if I want a new MacBook soon, the Air 13" or the Pro 15" will be the best choices.

The Air 13" because of the updated internals.

Or the Pro 15", because I feel like I won't be liking the new trackpads in the MacBook and MacBook Pro 13"

BTW, has anyone had a chance to play around with the new Pro 13" and it's trackpad in any Apple stores yet?
Click to expand...

I just got back from the store. Its a little strange at first but nothing crazy imo. I believe the new 13 retina mbp also get the new SSD speed.
 
P

poematik13

macrumors 65816
Jun 5, 2014
1,218
1,367
Brian Y said:
Why is this in the Air and not the Pro - that makes no sense to me!

That's exceeding the speeds I get with two SSDs in Raid 0 in my iMac - craziness.
Click to expand...

My rMBP's 1TB flash gets around 800-1000 read and write regularly.
 
PowerBook-G5

PowerBook-G5

macrumors 65816
Jul 30, 2013
1,243
1,179
symple84 said:
I just got back from the store. Its a little strange at first but nothing crazy imo. I believe the new 13 retina mbp also get the new SSD speed.
Click to expand...

How's the Taptic Engine work in it? I've heard that it feels just like an old trackpad then you click, but I find that hard to believe. I'm going to be near a store on Monday, hopefully they'll have on in so I can just play around with it. Who knows, maybe I'll like it :rolleyes:
 
ksuyen

ksuyen

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2012
772
141
Cue all the negative comments...

Really, Apple should not come out with anything new. You will always pick something negative from such a positive product. This site should call MacHater. Or Mad Hater? :p
 
FasterQuieter

FasterQuieter

macrumors 6502a
Feb 21, 2008
782
1,791
I'm glad I'm not in the market for an 11" air. I hate finding out things like this, they eat away at me. It's better to never know.

Another example from recent days is the 480p FaceTime camera on the new MacBook. If I bought one of them, that would bother me for the lifetime of the machine.
 
K

kylewiens

macrumors newbie
Mar 11, 2015
2
0
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
 
shadowbird423

shadowbird423

macrumors 6502
Sep 8, 2009
294
154
Chapel Hill
kylewiens said:
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
Click to expand...

Wow, I was wondering about that. Thanks for the info!
Is there a material difference between the connectors in the 2014 machines and the new ones?
 
Last edited:
Mattsasa

Mattsasa

macrumors 68020
Apr 12, 2010
2,339
744
Minnesota
kylewiens said:
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
Click to expand...

Thanks Kyle!

Your tests are very appreciated
 
QCassidy352

QCassidy352

macrumors G5
Mar 20, 2003
12,028
6,036
Bay Area
Brian Y said:
Why is this in the Air and not the Pro - that makes no sense to me!
Click to expand...

The 13" pro does have the same thing. The 15" does not, I suspect because they did not want to do an update without updating the cpu - which is not possible yet, as there are no quad core broadwell chips.

AppleGeek1127 said:
I just bought a 2014 model back in June. Why does it always seem like the major advancments come soon after you make your purchase?
Click to expand...

There are always improvements. This time it's a nice ssd bump but almost no change in cpu power and a modest (~20%) change in gpu power. Overall it's a decent but unspectacular upgrade for the air over your 2014.
 
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