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Base Model MacBook Air With M2 Chip Has Slower SSD Speeds in Benchmarks
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Honestly M1 is already so fast, even M2 is controlled to slower than M1 to save energy for better battery life then no one can notice in real life lol xd
Since MaxTech tends to be someone sensationalistic, it would be nice to see independent testing of this mod. But assuming it actually performs as shown, maybe the reason Apple didn't do this is because it creates a direct thermal connection between the chip and the bottom of the case at that spot, leading to a hotspot whose temperatures are too high. I scanned through the video quickly, so I may have missed it, but I didn't see anywhere he did a thermal measurement of the case exterior after installing the mod.
You mean Apple marketing team or public relationship team? Lol xd
I assume the engineers are the ones that decided on putting thermal pads or not.
Why do so few people get this. Of course a higher end part will be better. But they put an inferior part into a newer version of the base model of the same line. And I absolutely would not put it past them doing it on purpose to "force" people to upgrade
Your conspiracy theory conflicts with the other conspiracy theory though from people saying they snuck this into the computer figuring nobody would know they did it.
Even worse -- some people "get it" ...and are defending it!
(same with still not supporting more than 1 external monitor -- on a $1200+ laptop ... in 2022)
I don’t think it’s about defending it, it’s understanding that no amount of whining on a forum is going to change it.
Then a more proper response is to make that clear ... or say nothing..
Not carry water for Apple and say things like "it's the base model, what do you expect!"
(when it's a major regression from its immediate predecessor)
I agree people need to vote with their wallets instead of complaining and clicking add to cart in the same second. And don't upgrade like they want you to. Buy nothing.
He did. Ended up being same as temp scanner measurement when aimed at the keyboard, 47c.
As I mentioned in my post, I was wondering if his thermal solution might create an uncomfortable hot spot on the bottom of the case (where it's resting on people's laps). And I don't recall him doing a before-and-after thermal scan of the bottom.
He mentioned that he thought 50C was a legal limit, so I’d imagine 47C might feel a tad warm.
Again, that's for the keyboard. He applied the thermal tape at the bottom, so the 47C measurement isn't germane here.
He measured the temp on the bottom of the machine as well. It was also 47C after running tests with thermal tape applied.
Another YouTuber doing the same. He measures the bottom with 2 configurations.
- One configuration with a smaller pad only over the cpu area. This measures around 52C on the bottom (toasty).
- One configuration with the whole cooling area covered. This measures around 46C - 47C on the bottom (warm but not toasty).
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47C is what Max Tech measured on the outside bottom of the machine as well.
Now I am tempted to trade in my older M1 MBA for a base M2 model just to prove a point.
We benchmarked the base M2 MacBook Air’s storage and (surprise!) it’s slow
The 512GB model beats the base model by a lot.
One thing that gets lost in this 256 GB vs 512 GB debate is the performance degradation that can occur when SSDs are close to being filled. I recall Anand Shimpli recommended keeping SSD's at <=75% fill. Others quote similar numbers. So the more important performance difference between a 256 GB vs. 512 GB Air SSD may not be the difference when empty, but the difference between running a nearly-full 256 GB SSD vs. a 512 GB SSD with significant free space.
More generally: A lot of students, and others on budgets, buy the base 256 GB model of the Air (their most popular laptop) or Mini. And thus, in real-world use, those are probably going to be ~>75% filled. Given this, I'm thinking that, when reviewers test the base Air and Mini (and other base models, like the 512 GB M1 Pro), they should examine what happens when their SSDs are at 80% fill. That would give their findings a closer correspondence to real-world usage.
More generally: A lot of students, and others on budgets, buy the base 256 GB model of the Air (their most popular laptop) or Mini. And thus, in real-world use, those are probably going to be ~>75% filled. Given this, I'm thinking that, when reviewers test the base Air and Mini (and other base models, like the 512 GB M1 Pro), they should examine what happens when their SSDs are at 80% fill. That would give their findings a closer correspondence to real-world usage.
Not surprising. There was this guy from Unbox therapy who tested iphones with different storage configurations and demonstrated how much faster iphone booted with an upgraded storage compared to 64gb. I am not hardcore photographer or vlogger but with 256 GB I easily filled half of the storage. That was when iphone 11/11 pro was released and base was only 64gb which made upgrade decision much easier.
I imagine findings would be similar with Mac.