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Having a M1 Air, the SSD speed is extremely important. I noticed this immediately when, after opening up a few apps, the 8GB started limiting at around 7GB and the swap usage became increasingly larger but the performance did not slow down! This meant the SSD speed was fast enough to substitute for RAM without appreciable cost. If the SSD has half the speed then going from base M1 to base M2 will not be an upgrade but a downgrade in performance. Potential purchasers should know this!
100%. I have an 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD M1, and I have never noticed the slightest slowdown when hitting the swap. It's pretty amazing honestly.
 
It's so funny seeing the fanboys defend Apple like this trillion dollar CORPORATION is their family member. ⚰️

The fact is MOST people get base model Macbooks and the new "supercharged" base model should NOT have slower speeds in any aspect than the 2 year old model, especially considering they bumped up the price by $200.

Stop sucking up to a corporation. They care about their shareholders and not you.
People disagreeing with YOU (to the positive) about Apple doesn't make them fanboys...it just means they disagree with you. Grow up, dude.
 
Funny. This forum will destroy any joy someone might have with a new purchase they might be able to afford if they scrounge.

It's like....Evil :D
Agree… they’ll suck the joy out of a new purchase. Carry on, people buy what they need/can.

I lived happily with my MBA 2012 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD, until it recently called it quits on me.
 
Most non-geeks aren't going to regularly right-click or Force Quit an app. They hit the red button. The similar red button in Windows actually quits the app in one step.

That’s because Windows still uses the crappy window-based system for dealing with applications. It’s why people end up opening 100 instances of an application just because it didn’t tell the user it was loading
 
It's so funny seeing the fanboys defend Apple like this trillion dollar CORPORATION is their family member. ⚰️

The fact is MOST people get base model Macbooks and the new "supercharged" base model should NOT have slower speeds in any aspect than the 2 year old model, especially considering they bumped up the price by $200.

Stop sucking up to a corporation. They care about their shareholders and not you.

Cathy Woods, corporations, influencers, politicians, and pop stars are the new gangs.

People treat them as family members precisely because they don't relate to their family members and can't be bothered to make friends in real life.

The street price for 8GB of DDR5 SODIMM is $65, bringing the Apple tax to 200%.
The street price for 256GB of SSD is $25, bringing the Apple tax to 700%.

Apple does love its sycophants, but not as people, only as sources of money.
Likewise, influencers and politicians love their sycophants, but only as sources of narcissistic supply.

For those who really love Apple, you should welcome criticism as a source of wisdom for how to improve, rather than a vicarious attack on your identity.
 
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The street price for 8GB of DDR5 SODIMM is $65, bringing the Apple tax to 200%.
The street price for 256GB of SSD is $25, bringing the Apple tax to 700%.

The cost of production is irrelevant to what you can sell an item for in the market.

Apple does love its sycophants, but not as people, only as sources of money.
Likewise, influencers and politicians love their sycophants, but only as sources of narcissistic supply.

For those who really love Apple, you should welcome criticism as a source of wisdom for how to improve, rather than a vicarious attack on your identity.

Advice both sides should follow; especially those who see everything as some grand conspiracy to ripoff the customer..

Use of a single chip that is slower than 2 separate ones has no impact on normal use for the majority of buyers of tax version of the MBA. The machine, in normal use, is faster than its predecessor. If someone is impacted, then they are better served by a different model or machine.

Apple made business decisions, customers get to decide if the product is worth the money. It's that simple.

Calling someone a sycophant adds nothing to the argument; but merely shows you no longer have any valid points and are reduced to name calling.
 
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Apple does love its sycophants, but not as people, only as sources of money.

I’m confused why you frequent an Apple enthusiast website if this is how you feel. For example, I wouldn’t go to a Microsoft or Google enthusiast website just to spread hate. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing a product or company, but this goes beyond that.
 
It's so funny seeing the fanboys defend Apple like this trillion dollar CORPORATION is their family member. ⚰️

The fact is MOST people get base model Macbooks and the new "supercharged" base model should NOT have slower speeds in any aspect than the 2 year old model, especially considering they bumped up the price by $200.

Stop sucking up to a corporation. They care about their shareholders and not you.
I agree 1,000,000%. No cap.
Also, talk to your therapist about upping your antidepressant. That’s too much vitriol for a Monday morning. <3
 
I’m confused why you frequent an Apple enthusiast website if this is how you feel. For example, I wouldn’t go to a Microsoft or Google enthusiast website just to spread hate. There’s nothing wrong with criticizing a product or company, but this goes beyond that.
Listen, back in the day, we loved the Amiga but we hated Commodore. A person’s relationship with a company and a company’s products can nuanced. Life is a 256 color mode, not 1 bit. Read his reply in context.
 
Listen, back in the day, we loved the Amiga but we hated Commodore. A person’s relationship with a company and a company’s products can nuanced. Life is a 256 color mode, not 1 bit. Read his reply in context.

I agree; just as a new model's performance needs to be assed in the overall context of how well it performs with respect to the market. In that context, the M2 Air is not slower, a downgrade, or what have you. To fixate on one spec overlooks the broader context.

Apple made a simple design decision that ensured the base model would perform to whatever standards they set.

Yes, it would be nice if they used 2 128gb chips, didn't raise the price, etc.; but they made those decisions based on their requirements. Customers now get to decide if they were good ones.

The issue here is people throw around opinions as if they were facts, and then lash out at those who disagree.
 
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<snip>.....

Apple made business decisions, customers get to decide if the product is worth the money. It's that simple.

Calling someone a sycophant adds nothing to the argument; but merely shows you no longer have any valid points and are reduced to name calling.

For the most part I agree with you here. Apple can do anything they want with their product, and since the have not indicated the "why" of their decision, we are all left to speculate as to why. The average user, who most likely will never even see this thread, will have no idea unless they personally are upgrading from a 2020 model (unlikely for this market segment), and hit one of the edge cases that will make an actually difference (also unlikely). However, that is not really the problem here, the problem is in the messaging. Or more specifically, the lack of messaging. Apple should at least make the data available to potential customers, that if they want maximized performance from their SSD, to upgrade to a larger drive. That way, it is "informed buyer beware" vices just "buyer beware." As it stands, customers are getting less potential performance for more money, and many are oblivious to it.

The real issue, which has been mentioned previously, is how this slower SSD seems to be impacting the virtual memory performance. Systems with only 8 GBs of RAM are exhibiting less noticeable performance than the 2020 model in RAM limited scenarios, all presumably because the SSD speed. IF a potential buyer knew that they could mitigate this issue by either upgrading RAM or SSD at time of purchase, then there is no problem Conversely, as the average user is oblivious, and Apple is not informing the customers, they do not have a chance, as you can't upgrade these items later.
 
Except it isn’t slower overall in normal use per benchmarks. Focusing on one component ignores how well they work together. The focus on SSD speed is like saying a car is slower because it has less HP even as it is faster in say 0 - 60 or has a higher top speed. What counts is how well an item performs overall, not any one spec.
well said, I have also read other articles recently that have made me see it from your perspective also. while I have fallen victim to some articles, why correct in their facts, like your comment, they lead me to realize it is a perspective issue. it boils down to what one is doing on the machine that at times shows that the machine is perhaps slower but in reality it is not always slower than the previous version.
 
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