MacBook Neo Has Up to 8× Slower SSD Speeds Compared to New MacBook Pro

[ignatius345]

The Gimpbook

LOL, sure man

 

[tgwaste]

512 with AC+ & Tax is $800+
A lot of compromises for that.

 

[tgwaste]

LOL. 1.6 GByte/sec write speed is still impressive and still 3 times faster than any SATA SSD drive.

EDIT: Seriously. Writing at 1.6 GByte/sec requires also a SOURCE that delivers at least 1.6 GByte/sec. That's a USB3.2 NVMe drive. If you can afford that, you don't buy a Neo.
However, a slower internal SSD can lead to slower swapping times. But then again: People who care about swapping times, do not buy a Neo.

But the fact that it's in the neighborhood of SATA is just crazy.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

Tell us what the Neo is faster than, not what it's slower than. I saw a guy editing 4K video on his Neo and it only started stuttering frames when he got into 3,4,5 layers or effects.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

what’s the point of comparing the base budget macbook to the premium high end macbook? like this is expected

Comparing numbers doesn't have to mean it's a contest, especially when you're comparing laptops as disparate as a Neo and Pro M5. It's numbers. Do with them what you will, but to me, it's nice to see how slow the Neo SSD is, and whether you want to compare it to the M5 Pro is up to you.

Unfortunately, the article referenced is behind a paywall and I cannot read it, but the article headline is NOT that the Neo is 1/8th of the speed of the M5 so I don't think that was the intent.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Tell us what the Neo is faster than, not what it's slower than. I saw a guy editing 4K video on his Neo and it only started stuttering frames when he got into 3,4,5 layers or effects.

Faster than Intel Macbooks.

 

[tonmischa]

But the fact that it's in the neighborhood of SATA is just crazy.

SATA SSD = 0.5 GByte/sec, Neo = 1.6 GByte/sec
That's what you call "neighborhood"?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Comparing numbers doesn't have to mean it's a contest, especially when you're comparing laptops as disparate as a Neo and Pro M5. It's numbers. Do with them what you will, but to me, it's nice to see how slow the Neo SSD is, and whether you want to compare it to the M5 Pro is up to you.

Unfortunately, the article referenced is behind a paywall and I cannot read it, but the article headline is NOT that the Neo is 1/8th of the speed like many of you here think it is.

The rules seem to be:

If it's good news for the Neo, please write articles about it

If it's not so good news, don't talk about it and it's "rage bait".

Interesting.

 

[CWallace]

I presume the Neo uses the on-board storage controller of the A19 Pro so not surprised at the performance (which as others have noted, is still "decent" for such a device) since disk I/O is not that important in an iPhone's daily usage.

 

[Trusteft]

It's higher than the average PCIE gen 3 NVMe drives. It's fine.
The lack of options for RAM and limited for storage is more important. If you are fine with them, the speed of the SSD is not an issue.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Tell us what the Neo is faster than, not what it's slower than. I saw a guy editing 4K video on his Neo and it only started stuttering frames when he got into 3,4,5 layers or effects.

It's marginally faster than an Apple 2 but the keyboard is worse on the neo

 

[lurkkr]

Even with a large 100 GB file, a transfer may take up to a minute with a MacBook Neo, rather than around 30 seconds with the latest MacBook Air, or 7-8 seconds with the latest MacBook Pro

A transfer though what? thunderbolt 6 to another MBP?? A $5000 RAID? Has Apple or annyone anctualy done the “boost mode” thing for current thunderbolt?

Internal SSD metrics aren’t really comparable to transfers are they?

 

[turbineseaplane]

So far the things that "don't matter" include:

- Limited RAM
- Slow SSD
- 12 year old trackpad tech
- Meh display
- No MagSafe
- One port being USB2

 

[SF7]

While the MacBook Neo achieves a breakthrough $599 starting price, that of course comes with some compromises, and one of them is slower SSD speeds.

The Verge today said the MacBook Neo had up to 8× slower sustained SSD read and write speeds in a benchmark test compared to the new MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. The site did not mention which tool it used to measure SSD speeds, but it was likely Blackmagic's Disk Speed Test or AmorphousDiskMark.

Here is a comparison of sustained SSD speeds, according to The Verge.

Mac (Chip/Capacity)	Read Speeds	Write Speeds
MacBook Neo (A18 Pro/256GB)	1,735 MB/s	1,684 MB/s
MacBook Air (M1/512GB)	3,422 MB/s	3,274 MB/s
MacBook Air (M5/1TB)	7,049 MB/s	7,480 MB/s
MacBook Pro (M5 Max/4TB)	13.6 GB/s	17.8 GB/s

The speeds for the M5 Max model came from The Verge's separate MacBook Pro review, and unfortunately storage capacities are not equal across the board.

With slower SSD speeds, transferring files to and from the MacBook Neo will take longer, but this is a non-issue for many customers. Even with a large 100 GB file, a transfer may take up to a minute with a MacBook Neo, rather than around 30 seconds with the latest MacBook Air, or 7-8 seconds with the latest MacBook Pro.

A slower SSD can also impact overall performance, since apps boot from the SSD, and because the MacBook Neo will temporarily use SSD space as virtual memory when the laptop's actual 8GB of RAM is fully used. But, the first MacBook Neo reviews have largely indicated that the laptop's performance is quite good nonetheless.

The average customer purchasing a MacBook Neo is probably not thinking about SSD speeds to begin with, and they will likely never notice any impact, but we have highlighted this information for customers who do care about this sort of thing.

MacBook Neo launches this Wednesday.

Article Link: MacBook Neo Has Up to 8× Slower SSD Speeds Compared to New MacBook Pro

The Verge usually takes unfair shots at Apple products, I’ve noticed. Also, couldn’t they afford the 512GB version to see if it has faster NAND chips? 🙄 It’s only $100 more for double the storage and TouchID.

 

[TechnoMonk]

If you care about specs get a MBP. There are many folks who look at the sticker price and pick a laptop. Those folks had no Apple/Mac choice before, now it gives them a choice to pick up Mac at a low price. It’s hilarious to see folks complaining about low cost Neo, which is in a way close to Chromebooks and netbooks than laptops.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

What's the point of comparing a normal SSD to a preternaturally insane one?

 

[Joe Rossignol]

what’s the point of comparing the base budget macbook to the premium high end macbook? like this is expected

We published information, for reader knowledge, as we always do.

Now you know, the MacBook Neo has up to 8x slower SSD speeds than the highest-end MacBook Pro. It establishes the range.

We then contextualized the information, making sure to clearly state that this is a non-issue for the vast majority of customers.

This is not an indictment on the MacBook Neo. It is not saying the MacBook Neo sucks.

It is just information.

 

[KENESS]

So far the things that "don't matter" include:

- Limited RAM
- Slow SSD
- 12 year old trackpad tech
- Meh display
- No MagSafe
- One port being USB2

Exactly! Those things don't really matter much, or even AT ALL. Finally seems to be getting through to people that this machine is excellent for its target audience.

 

[steve62388]

Are people’s memories that short? We’ve been here before. They need to compare the same drive sizes.

Base 13-Inch MacBook Pro With M2 Chip Has Significantly Slower SSD Speeds

Following the launch of Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip, it has been discovered that the $1,299 base model with 256GB of storage has significantly slower SSD read/write speeds compared to the equivalent previous-generation model.

www.macrumors.com

 

[BeatsByTim]

This is Apple we're talking about. Be thankful it didn't ship with a fusion drive.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

So far the things that "don't matter" include:

- Limited RAM
- Slow SSD
- 12 year old trackpad tech
- Meh display
- No MagSafe
- One port being USB2

People who care about anything are not the target market for this.

 

[Howard2k]

We published information, for reader knowledge, as we always do.

Now you know, the MacBook Neo has up to 8x slower SSD speeds than the highest-end MacBook Pro. It establishes the range.

We then contextualized the information, making sure to clearly state that this is a non-issue for the vast majority of customers.

This is not an indictment on the MacBook Neo. It is not saying the MacBook Neo sucks.

It is just information.

I think that repeating this Verge nonsense does a discredit to the site. I get it - clicks and stuff - but I would much rather see a genuine technical authority (of which there must be many on MR staff) write a proper analysis.

 

[polaris20]

what’s the point of comparing the base budget macbook to the premium high end macbook? like this is expected

To get an indication of what compromises were made in order to reach a price point, and if the target audience will even care.

 

[BeatsByTim]

So far the things that "don't matter" include:

- Limited RAM
- Slow SSD
- 12 year old trackpad tech
- Meh display
- No MagSafe
- One port being USB2

It's like I said before. The target market for this thing are suckers with no spending control. And people who love their mom, but not enough to get her a good computer.

 

[turbineseaplane]

This is Apple we're talking about. Be thankful it didn't ship with a fusion drive.

It would have been HILARIOUS had they done that ... because you know someone would have tried to justify it based on the price point and EDU targeting of the Neo