It doesn't mean anything, still haven't seen a shred of speedtest on 256GB SSD! No one knows yet what real performance it has.
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M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pros Feature Faster SSD Write Speeds, Tests Show
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Do you understand the difference between storage and memory? Your “soldered” statement leads me to believe you do not.
I use Windows and Mac and Linux nearly daily. Yes - all 3 daily because of my work. So yes. I will continue to use Windows hardware and enjoy the benefits that come with that.
Easily upgradable storage should not be a debatable subject. Why would anyone disagree with that?
Which are the easily upgradable PC Laptops today? They all used to have panels, and five minutes I was done upgrading the hardware. Today it seems even if the stuff isn't soldered, you still have to disassemble the Laptop to some degree to upgrade.
🤦🏼♂️😂
Ok. What’s your point? I mean… there are and have been laptops that have easy access storage panels, but having to open the laptop has never been the problem.
The problem with Mac is that you can open it up and take out the storage, but you can only replace it with Apple sanctioned storage. In some case - Mac Studio - You can’t change the storage at all without going to Apple or authorized repair shop.
Why can’t people just pop in whatever ssd they can get. And if that ssd is faster, then also deliver those speeds as far as the platform supports - ie: PCIe 4 up to ~7000 MB/s.
I do, so you? Apple started solder DRAM in 2012 with the Retina MBP and started soldering the NAND storage down to the motherboard with the 2016 MacBook Pros. Some newer Macs have Apple proprietary NAND in slotted cards. Apple is never going to embrace nVME storage and doesn’t even use storage with a built in controller leaving it all as dumb NAND chips. This is the way and always will be apple controlling the whole widget.
You don’t know much about what you’re talking about. It’s not clear why you feel this way about standardized SSDs.
Regardless… If you feel that way and are unwilling to put more thought into this and what I’m trying to express as a concern with this approach, then good luck to you.
I'm ok with soldered storage AND memory. Seen too many cases of folks not using an antistatic mat and wrist strap when adding, changing or tapping chips (and frying the memory, storage and/or cpu). I have soldered memory in my backup chromebook. Many/most cell phones and tablets have mostly soldered components. On SoC memory has less latency than off-chip discrete memory. Would even be open to storage (SSD) being on the SoC chip, which should further lower latency.
I stand corrected - though i'm pretty sure the internal SSD will be manufactured to communicate at PCIe 4 speeds. I doubt Apple have a completely customised system, they'll be piggy backing on current protocols for communication. But yes looks like both are PCIe 4, so it's not that making the difference.
Edit, according to Wiki, the M1/2 does include a PCIe 4 storage controller, i'm pretty certain this IS talking to the internet SSD, it's just part of the SOC.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M2
Just so everyone who comes here to pile on with the ignorant/stupid opinion of "this doesn't matter for most users" fully understands the longer-term ramifications of this decision by Apple, I'm going to explain it to you simple-like:
We aren't talking a mere 5% or 10% difference in performance here; we're talking half. Or a quarter. Testing shows that users, generally, can only begin to discern performance differences when they are above ~15%. If you sit down to a CPU that's 10% faster, you won't likely notice. 15% slower SSD, probably won't notice. Half? You'll notice. Quarter? Oh, yeah, you're going to notice.
Now… that depends on ONE THING: relativity! The user has to have relative knowledge: using the slower system AND the faster system. Most users don't have that luxury… they have THEIR system. So, yes, for "most" buyers, they're not going to know Apple screwed them. Not for another 4 or 6 years. But, by then, they're already expecting whatever is new is faster, so they don't "feel" it. ("Feel" it as having been jilted in the "value proposition" from their prior purchase.)
But… make no mistake: Apple isn't sitting still. Tech isn't sitting still. Development isn't sitting still. In 3 years, everything is going to be fatter… macOS, apps, what users do as they progress from "newbie" to "advanced" (their expectations literally expand). What runs on 8GB of RAM fine today, won't. What runs in 16GB, barely will. macOS will start hitting that storage more… and more… and more… and more often. The storage, through "aging", will itself begin to slow down. That "half" becomes greater than half. "Quarter", greater than 75% slower. Meanwhile, Apple's devs are designing EVERYTHING for the NEXT Mac Apple is going to release and make another buck on. Developers are buying the fastest thing Apple sells because they can afford the "value proposition" as a business case. And those units aren't single-channel or dual-channel. And they won't be 3 years from now.
And aren't we HOPING that newbie users love their Mac so much they learn new tricks? And that the Mac they bought has an entire previously-untapped amount of performance that magically empowers them to do greater things? Hasn't that been Apple's whole schtick??!?
That user with a single-channel 256GB M2 Air or mini? Who bought that model because it was they can afford? They're screwed. Poor? Haha, screw you. Grandparents went to Best Buy or the Apple Store and bought you the base model, because that's what was on display with the price prominently advertised (because it makes Apple the most profit)? Too bad, so sad. Good luck with 5 browser tabs open on macOS 18… Pap shouldn't have been such a cheapskate. Spent the extra for a 512GB mini M2 Pro? Nice try… should have forked over another $200 for 1TB… you didn't tithe ENOUGH to the Apple gods. Ha-HA. Scraped everything together to get a "Pro" MacBook? Sorry, you're just "Pro-sumer", not "Pro"-ENOUGH.
Eventually, these users will start to think "Wow… Macs aren't so great, mine is slow, just like my friend's PC." "Macs aren't better long run than (garbage) PCs." "Why am I spending a premium for Apple crap?"
And they won't buy a Mac again. Maybe ever. Bye-bye Mac market. (D'OH! And Mac global market share is currently back below 10%, like it was in the 1990s when Apple was "dead"?? You do NOT say!)
Worse, for ALL of us, is that the colleges and businesses that REALLY don't care—again, they've accounted for that "value proposition" and are fine with buying new PCs every 3 or 4 years, so they're not gonna get stung: those units mostly go into landfills. Yay, PLANET! (And, even on the refurb market, who is going to want a 256GB mini in 3 years that has storage slower than a 8 year old 2018 mini?? Landfill. So much for the eco cred.)
And why? Because Apple is saving $5 on a $1200 or $2000 piece of "luxury-brand" hardware, hoping the market is full of ignoramuses. Counting on it. Banking on it. Preying on it.
I'm sorry… #NotMyApple. F this greedy-beyond-belief Exec team. Apple customers deserve better… no matter how much money they have to spend. And this isn't my opinion! It is what Apple SAYS on stage. We should, at least, be holding them to the PR they spew. If you don't, you're just dumb. And I'm not sorry: dumb people don't deserve the Mac (and the corresponding community that I've spent my life improving)… go buy a garbage Windows box and get out of my ecosystem. Please.
We aren't talking a mere 5% or 10% difference in performance here; we're talking half. Or a quarter. Testing shows that users, generally, can only begin to discern performance differences when they are above ~15%. If you sit down to a CPU that's 10% faster, you won't likely notice. 15% slower SSD, probably won't notice. Half? You'll notice. Quarter? Oh, yeah, you're going to notice.
Now… that depends on ONE THING: relativity! The user has to have relative knowledge: using the slower system AND the faster system. Most users don't have that luxury… they have THEIR system. So, yes, for "most" buyers, they're not going to know Apple screwed them. Not for another 4 or 6 years. But, by then, they're already expecting whatever is new is faster, so they don't "feel" it. ("Feel" it as having been jilted in the "value proposition" from their prior purchase.)
But… make no mistake: Apple isn't sitting still. Tech isn't sitting still. Development isn't sitting still. In 3 years, everything is going to be fatter… macOS, apps, what users do as they progress from "newbie" to "advanced" (their expectations literally expand). What runs on 8GB of RAM fine today, won't. What runs in 16GB, barely will. macOS will start hitting that storage more… and more… and more… and more often. The storage, through "aging", will itself begin to slow down. That "half" becomes greater than half. "Quarter", greater than 75% slower. Meanwhile, Apple's devs are designing EVERYTHING for the NEXT Mac Apple is going to release and make another buck on. Developers are buying the fastest thing Apple sells because they can afford the "value proposition" as a business case. And those units aren't single-channel or dual-channel. And they won't be 3 years from now.
And aren't we HOPING that newbie users love their Mac so much they learn new tricks? And that the Mac they bought has an entire previously-untapped amount of performance that magically empowers them to do greater things? Hasn't that been Apple's whole schtick??!?
That user with a single-channel 256GB M2 Air or mini? Who bought that model because it was they can afford? They're screwed. Poor? Haha, screw you. Grandparents went to Best Buy or the Apple Store and bought you the base model, because that's what was on display with the price prominently advertised (because it makes Apple the most profit)? Too bad, so sad. Good luck with 5 browser tabs open on macOS 18… Pap shouldn't have been such a cheapskate. Spent the extra for a 512GB mini M2 Pro? Nice try… should have forked over another $200 for 1TB… you didn't tithe ENOUGH to the Apple gods. Ha-HA. Scraped everything together to get a "Pro" MacBook? Sorry, you're just "Pro-sumer", not "Pro"-ENOUGH.
Eventually, these users will start to think "Wow… Macs aren't so great, mine is slow, just like my friend's PC." "Macs aren't better long run than (garbage) PCs." "Why am I spending a premium for Apple crap?"
And they won't buy a Mac again. Maybe ever. Bye-bye Mac market. (D'OH! And Mac global market share is currently back below 10%, like it was in the 1990s when Apple was "dead"?? You do NOT say!)
Worse, for ALL of us, is that the colleges and businesses that REALLY don't care—again, they've accounted for that "value proposition" and are fine with buying new PCs every 3 or 4 years, so they're not gonna get stung: those units mostly go into landfills. Yay, PLANET! (And, even on the refurb market, who is going to want a 256GB mini in 3 years that has storage slower than a 8 year old 2018 mini?? Landfill. So much for the eco cred.)
And why? Because Apple is saving $5 on a $1200 or $2000 piece of "luxury-brand" hardware, hoping the market is full of ignoramuses. Counting on it. Banking on it. Preying on it.
I'm sorry… #NotMyApple. F this greedy-beyond-belief Exec team. Apple customers deserve better… no matter how much money they have to spend. And this isn't my opinion! It is what Apple SAYS on stage. We should, at least, be holding them to the PR they spew. If you don't, you're just dumb. And I'm not sorry: dumb people don't deserve the Mac (and the corresponding community that I've spent my life improving)… go buy a garbage Windows box and get out of my ecosystem. Please.