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I think that SSD speeds on the M2 base is fine for the average user senecio. I bought a Dell XPS 13 9305 last year, black Friday for 649. It has a I5 U processor. Is it super powerful? not by any means. I'm not a video editor, just basic use. The issues are the windows software, and the Dell bloatware which you need. Retired now, I have a base Mac Mini, and love it. Remember it is the software which makes a Mac so much easier to use. I feel that if you need more power, storage or memory for you use case, get a Pro. I'm going to save my ducats for a base M2 Air. Sucks living on fixed income!
 
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I think that SSD speeds on the M2 base is fine for the average user senecio. I bought a Dell XPS 13 9305 last year, black Friday for 649. It has a I5 U processor. Is it super powerful? not by any means. I'm not a video editor, just basic use. The issues are the windows software, and the Dell bloatware which you need. Retired now, I have a base Mac Mini, and love it. Remember it is the software which makes a Mac so much easier to use. I feel that if you need more power, storage or memory for you use case, get a Pro. I'm going to save my ducats for a base M2 Air. Sucks living on fixed income!
Tests have shown that there is significant reduction in performance and responsiveness once you do simple multitasking as this base models only have 8GB of RAM. The base config works well when user only have one app open. Such lousy $1200 laptop then.
 
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Most Windows PCs around $1,000 that have Intel integrated graphics also share with system RAM.
I am comparing with older macbooks with dgpus. And intel igpus should have a cache of 128mb (from a few years ago in Iris era)
 
The source is my own direct experience. I have an M1 Air with 8GB of RAM and I'm able to do all kinds of things on it, and very smoothly. I also had the last Intel i5 Air, pretty much an identical machine also with 8GB RAM. The i5 Air was dog slow by comparison. I also rather doubt, given all the heat and general sweatiness of the Intel machine, that it would've been a competitor to the M1 even with 16 GB of RAM.



Who cares? The basic question is whether an M1 MacBook provides a good user experience with 8GB of RAM, and it most definitely does. If a user has a burning need for a lot more RAM, it's available to spec, but the machine is quite zippy with the base config.
We all know m chips are fast, no doubt. My argument is the ram might not run faster than old machines. If your older laptop runs slower than it should due to excessive ram usage, m series chips won’t fix it, and it might be worse. Thus slower ssd might be a bigger issue than people suggests.

your points are valid, so are mine.
 
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Apple doesn't disclose the performance discrepancy nor single NAND configuration. Consumers looking at Apple's website wouldn't have any idea about this issue.
Because 90% of consumers don’t actually care. The 8/256 is what they can afford or what they think they need. Maybe they got advice and maybe they didn’t. God knows that the technorati who volunteer their opinions sure will volunteer that advice. You’re looking at this through your lense and you’re entitled to do that, but your projecting your anger at Apple and thinking that translates to the general public who truly do not give two sh***. They just don’t. Apple changed the wording on the M1, M2 and M2 MBP and left off any speed declarations. They’re perfectly within their rights to do so. Is it deceptive marketing? That’s debatable. Reading your copious posts, you’re carry around your anger on your sleeve and howling at the moon and the fact is that other than a few like-minded compatriots on this site, NOBODY CARES. But that’s a tech enthusiast’s greatest blind spot - thinking other people care about what you care about. Guess what? They don’t. You’re literally howling into a void and getting a few echoes back. Godspeed.
 
Anybody else notice that 256GB is no longer available to preorder? 8/512 is the base now.
 
Wow, that's a new one.
So a company is free to do anything as long as they don't say anything about it. Don't say don't tell.
I see a lobbyist in the making. You have a bright future.
LOL. You act like this change is going to kill millions of people. Trying for an Oscar for best dramatic actor?

Uh, yeah. Companies make changes to things all the time and don't bother to tell customers. Is there some law obligating them to do so? I must have missed that one.
 
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The SSD is slower when using big files you wouldn't normally use on a tiny internal drive, or when multitasking like its a MBP.

Oh, I wasn’t aware that MacBook Air doesn’t have multitasking. Even iPadOS can do multitasking now, so that’s a pretty big downgrade!
 
Less of an issue if you get 16GB/256GB?
Less often for you to reach the bottleneck, depending on your usage. The SSD performance bottleneck is obvious when the system starts swapping. With 16GB of RAM, you might not be faced with that situation often. It could work though, but to get 16GB RAM you have to BTO.
 
The 8/256 is what they can afford or what they think they need.
And that's as designed, intended, by Apple. People who don't know any better would just get the base model. Then they will experience slowdowns and then they will be more likely to upgrade sooner to newer Macbooks. Faster upgrade turn-around, and Tim Cook is happy.

My point is, this is all as intended by Apple. It's their exact business strategy. It's triple combo of profit generation.
1. Regular consumers will get base model, and they might upgrade sooner since the machine performance is compromised once swapping occurs. Apple cut cost, and get faster new purchases.
2. People who knew thanks to the youtubers will try getting the 512GB models. Upselling, Apple gets more profit.
3. People who decided to BTO to 16/512 might see the price is not much more to just get the 14" Macbook Pro. Another upsell, more profit for Apple.

In the end, Apple wins, Tim Cook is happy, another record breaking revenue. Apple defenders should stop defending Apple with their excuses and simply face the facts, this is a business strategy. It's the most advance version of upsize your happy meal strategy.
 
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So Apple basically created a computer that will be infamous for bad multitasking performance
Hmm, different perspective. With the base model, Apple just designed a machine that would age quicker. It's akin to buying a computer with a 5400rpm drive. You will probably feel fine in the early life of the machine, but once you have more apps and do more, you will feel the slowdowns, and then you might start looking to upgrade sooner than you would have. In the end, a win for Apple.
 
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