M3 MacBook Air Teardown Shows Apple Fixed Base Model's Biggest Flaw

[citysnaps]

No one could argue this is fraud 😂

If you dislike the company so much, take your custom elswhere. Its as simple as that…

Spot-on.

It was due to the worldwide semiconductor parts shortage during the pandemic that affected all computer manufacturers. Apple quickly pivoted from a two chip solution to a one chip solution to keep manufacturing and sales going.

But... that doesn't support the narrative of those here who believe Apple is intrinsically nefarious and evil.

 

[citysnaps]

It wasn't a problem. It was the effect of a manufacturing decision and there is no evidence that Apple reversed course simply to satisfy those complaining about disk speeds when it could just as equally be the case that suppliers had more 128GB chips available to meet all of Apple's needs this year and they didn't have to resort to using single 256GB chips.

Spot-on. It's funny how people reflexively jump to an Apple is nefarious narrative. Year in and year out.

 

[JPack]

Spot-on.

It was due to the worldwide semiconductor parts shortage during the pandemic that affected all computer manufacturers. Apple quickly pivoted from a two chip solution to a one chip solution to keep manufacturing and sales going.

But... that doesn't support the narrative of those here who believe Apple is intrinsically nefarious and evil.

Spot on only for those who are uninformed. 😄

Global NAND Flash Revenue Down 24% in 3Q 2022 - EE Times Asia

Overall NAND ASP fell by 18.3% QoQ amid lower-than-expected shipments of end products including consumer electronics and servers.

www.eetasia.com

 

[Analog Kid]

If this was the biggest flaw, it must be a damned good machine.

 

[newmacxc]

I know it's been beaten to death in the year or so since the M2 came out. But I question just how much this means in the real world. Obviously for the price of these machines you don't want any compromises and I get that. But realistically...I didn't buy into the SSD speed boogeyman.

Will you be able to tell any speed difference between M2 and M3 chip in real world ?

 

[Analog Kid]

Spot on only for those who are uninformed. 😄

Global NAND Flash Revenue Down 24% in 3Q 2022 - EE Times Asia

Overall NAND ASP fell by 18.3% QoQ amid lower-than-expected shipments of end products including consumer electronics and servers.

www.eetasia.com

Please, inform us. Just a random link to 3Q22 supply chain data from an industry rag doesn’t actually say anything about a product that began shipping in 3Q22. When was the design locked? When did Apple sign their supplier agreements?

I don’t know why Apple went to a single chip, and I don’t know why they went back. I’m pretty sure actual performance wasn’t the reason because there is no actual performance difference. They may have gone to one chip because there was no actual performance loss but there was a reliability, availability or cost improvement and then moved back because the market conditions changed or they underestimated the importance of perceived ved performance

In the end though, this is a non-story for anyone except those obsessed with trivia.

 

[JPack]

Please, inform us. Just a random link to 3Q22 supply chain data from an industry rag doesn’t actually say anything about a product that began shipping in 3Q22. When was the design locked? When did Apple sign their supplier agreements?

I don’t know why Apple went to a single chip, and I don’t know why they went back. I’m pretty sure actual performance wasn’t the reason because there is no actual performance difference. They may have gone to one chip because there was no actual performance loss but there was a reliability, availability or cost improvement and then moved back because the market conditions changed or they underestimated the importance of perceived ved performance

In the end though, this is a non-story for anyone except those obsessed with trivia.

News of NAND oversupply was obvious back in late 2021, more six months before M2 MBA began shipping in mid-2022. Anybody in the industry could see clear signs of slowdown happening by mid-2021. Consumers had been buying non-stop for 18 months since COVID started while fabs expanded. The good times were not going to last.

Press Center - NAND Flash ASP Expected to Undergo 10-15% QoQ Decline in 1Q22 as Market Shifts Towards Oversupply, Says TrendForce | TrendForce - Market research, price trend of DRAM, NAND Flash, LEDs, TFT-LCD and green energy, PV

Demand for NAND Flash products will undergo a noticeable and cyclical downward correction in 1Q22 as major smartphone brands wind down their procurement activities for the peak season and ODMs prepare for the New Year holidays, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. As such, the NAND...

www.trendforce.com

There are multiple "random" links if you were following the news or working in the industry. Do you seriously believe poor little Apple didn't have enough clout or buying power and was forced to sign unfair contracts benefiting NAND suppliers?

 

[Abazigal]

Hmm, I could have sworn it’s “biggest flaw” was that it didn’t come with 16 gb ram out the gate. 😏

 

[groove-agent]

Not sure if you’re joking, but it’s the definition of a hardware RAID.

Maybe I'm not wording my question properly. My understanding is you could stripe disks controlled via the OS or via a dedicated hardware raid controller chip:

The key difference between software RAID and hardware RAID is that software in the OS manages the former, while controllers independent from the OS manage the latter. They are also different in cost, performance and access speeds.

Key differences in software RAID vs. hardware RAID | TechTarget

When comparing software RAID vs. hardware RAID, make note of key differences, such as cost and OS compatibility. Here's how the RAID forms are different.

www.techtarget.com

My guess is MacOS is managing the striping.

 

[visualseed]

Please, inform us. Just a random link to 3Q22 supply chain data from an industry rag doesn’t actually say anything about a product that began shipping in 3Q22. When was the design locked? When did Apple sign their supplier agreements?

I don’t know why Apple went to a single chip, and I don’t know why they went back. I’m pretty sure actual performance wasn’t the reason because there is no actual performance difference. They may have gone to one chip because there was no actual performance loss but there was a reliability, availability or cost improvement and then moved back because the market conditions changed or they underestimated the importance of perceived ved performance

In the end though, this is a non-story for anyone except those obsessed with trivia.

Because the simple answer that Apple was going to start selling 10s of millions of phones with 128GB chips that used to use 64GB chips and manufacturing was well underway before 3Q22 based on contracts done months earlier is not controversial enough. If "Mr. Industry Insider" was on top of his game, he would know that by 3Q22, if not much sooner, Apple was already signing contracts for Samsung to be their nearly sole (90%+) NAND supplier and moving away from YMTC to take advantage of their new 176 layer NAND. Which would have resulted in inventory / contract drawdowns with the existing suppliers while Samsung ramped up production at their Xian, China plant to be ready for the iPhone 15 and M3-based Macs and iPad.

And he most certainly would know this:

"However, last month those plans were put on hold when YMTC and 30 other Chinese entities were added to an "Unverified" list of companies that U.S. officials have been unable to inspect, and the supplier is widely expected to be blacklisted in early December for trade restrictions."

Apple Pivots to Samsung for iPhone Memory Chips Following US Trade Ban Against Chinese Suppliers

Apple will turn to Samsung for memory used in iPhones ahead of the imposition of U.S. export controls on one of China's top NAND flash...

www.macrumors.com

Apple Freezes Plan to Buy Memory Chips From China's YMTC After US Imposes Export Controls

Apple has frozen plans to use chips from one of China's top memory chipmakers after tighter U.S. export controls were imposed on the Chinese tech...

www.macrumors.com

 

[profcutter]

Maybe I'm not wording my question properly. My understanding is you could stripe disks controlled via the OS or via a dedicated hardware raid controller chip:

Key differences in software RAID vs. hardware RAID | TechTarget

When comparing software RAID vs. hardware RAID, make note of key differences, such as cost and OS compatibility. Here's how the RAID forms are different.

www.techtarget.com

My guess is MacOS is managing the striping.

It’s a feature built into the M series chips. The previous chips had the T2 chip to manage the encryption and striping, but it’s now a hardware feature of the M chips. In the old days you could use the Mac OS to stripe, and you still can with external drives if you want, but the internal drives are managed through the apple silicon hardware. You can’t use the OS to split the RAID.

 

[Analog Kid]

Hmm, I could have sworn it’s “biggest flaw” was that it didn’t come with 16 gb ram out the gate. 😏

No, no, the biggest flaw was that they changed the design, which itself was fixing its biggest flaw of not having changed the design…

 

[Reason077]

I know it's been beaten to death in the year or so since the M2 came out. But I question just how much this means in the real world. Obviously for the price of these machines you don't want any compromises and I get that. But realistically...I didn't buy into the SSD speed boogeyman.

It makes a significant difference on an 8GB machine because macOS is relying on the SSD as extended system memory, once you have more than a few apps (or browser tabs) open. Flash can go a long way to make up for limited RAM, but it needs to be as fast as possible.

 

[svish]

Good to see the internals of the new MacBook Air. Very happy to hear that Apple is now back to using 2 NAND chips. Wonder whether freshly manufactured models of 256GB M3 iMac will also have the change.

 

[nexusrule]

I'm not sure if 'fix' is the right term here.

The decision to switch to a single module, just like removing HDMI, SD card ports, and MagSafe from notebooks, was unwarranted to begin with.

They've reversed course and we shouldn't be praising this as an upgrade, but a return to the standard.

And that’s exactly what the word fix means, they didn’t say “improve” or “upgrade”.

 

[Motorola68000]

I'm pleased they have addressed the 'perceived' problem with SSD speeds, albeit it was more about the perception of producing equipment with performance in certain aspects less than previous models.

However the SSD situation was more about perception than noticeable performance degradation, but Apple acting on it may also persuade them that the poor 8Gb base needs uplifting.

With SSD, I'm happy to buy machines with 256Gb, as my customers inevitably have other storage systems at their disposal, and customers also have the ability to increase SSD storage using external SSD's where the speeds are none too shabby and the costs very competitive.

Sadly that's not the situation with the poor 8Gb base on many computing devices, where customers don't have the opportunity after the event of increasing the 8Gb, which is why although I'm pleased they addressed the 'perceived' problem with SSD's they really need to address the 8Gb base, which is more important and has far greater ramifications to customers and Apple alike.

 

[biffuz]

Or maybe its biggest flaw was everything being soldered?

 

[hans1972]

It makes a significant difference on an 8GB machine because macOS is relying on the SSD as extended system memory, once you have more than a few apps (or browser tabs) open. Flash can go a long way to make up for limited RAM, but it needs to be as fast as possible.

No, it didn't.

The M2 MacBook Air 256GB SSD had a sequential write speed of 2260 MB/s when writing 1GB blocks (The Verge)
The M2 MacBook Air 512GB SSD had a sequential write speed of 2760 MB/s when writing 1GB blocks (The Verge)

So writing 1GB of swap would take 0.44 seconds vs 0.36 seconds.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

The biggest flaw is still introducing base models with 256gb of storage and 8gb RAM. Fix THAT.

Check out this comedy. Some collegiate students blame capitalism—as they use their products and drink their Starbucks—but capitalism isn't to blame. Greed is to blame. No matter the system they operate in there will always be greedy people, and Apple execs are just that, some of the greediest going. Keep in mind, too, this MBP at this price doesn't even have a "Pro" chip.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Will you be able to tell any speed difference between M2 and M3 chip in real world ?

If your argument is supposed to be that a difference cannot be seen, then why make it faster? Max Tech channel on YouTube has demonstrated before how the lower SSD on M2 did cause slowdowns in normal productivity. You can go back and watch his videos.

 

[mac-rumorist]

Battery replacement looks really promising, but could have done with less sarcasm.

 

[NMBob]

I'm waiting for the next gen Air where I hope they will fix this two chip mistake by using four 64GB chips for the 256GB SSD configuration.

 

[mrmod]

$600 upgrade on a base m3 macbook air to get 1TB ssd and 16GB ram in 2024... ridiculous. It's not even a high end ssd. 3000MB/s read, 2000MB/s

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Please, inform us. Just a random link to 3Q22 supply chain data from an industry rag doesn’t actually say anything about a product that began shipping in 3Q22. When was the design locked? When did Apple sign their supplier agreements?

I don’t know why Apple went to a single chip, and I don’t know why they went back. I’m pretty sure actual performance wasn’t the reason because there is no actual performance difference. They may have gone to one chip because there was no actual performance loss but there was a reliability, availability or cost improvement and then moved back because the market conditions changed or they underestimated the importance of perceived ved performance

In the end though, this is a non-story for anyone except those obsessed with trivia.

You mean except those who actually care what they are (over)paying for. Apple bets that most people won't notice. Doesn't make it ethical or right. And Apple knew...they knew SSD performance was lower in the "new and improved FASTER" M2 model. Where was the "And in this new model, SSD performance is only 30% of last years, but you won't notice"?

If it was any other product in the world, everyone would be calling foul, but Apple people will look the other way whenever Apple is screwing someone. Reminds me of something else that comes to mind that I can't speak of because this isn't the proper forum.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

$600 upgrade on a base m3 macbook air to get 1TB ssd and 16GB ram in 2024... ridiculous. It's not even a high end ssd. 3000MB/s read, 2000MB/s

Right? 8GB extra RAM ($20) and a 1TB SSD ($50 for the crappy speed one) for $600. What a deal. /s