Stupid question, but do new M1 MacBook Airs have 1 NAND Chip?

[WilliApple]

I am really disappointed in Apple's M2 MacBook lineup because of the fact that they added 1 NAND Chip... to a $2000 laptop.

I was expecting more from this company, especially since I was considering upgrading to this new MacBook.

Now that brings us to this post.
I am just wondering if you bought a MacBook Air M1 off of Apple's website today, would it have 1 single NAND Chip? I bet it wouldn't be hard to just swap the dual NAND Chip after the M2 MacBook Air's release just so you can "cheap out" and get more people to upgrade to the M2 one. Obviously, models made in late 2020-mid-2022 would have 2 NAND Chips, but would any ones made after mid-2022 have 1 NAND Chip?

Sorry for my dumb question.
Sincerely, Will

Fun fact, it cost $1-2 to make 1 NAND Chip.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Another fun fact - you’ll never notice the difference.

 

[WilliApple]

Another fun fact - you’ll never notice the difference.

Oh, people have noticed the difference. As a pro user on an Air, I definitely could notice the difference, (And I did when I compared my personal MacBook to a base M2 at the Apple Store)

 

[Shirasaki]

Depending on the manufacture date, your new M1 MacBook Air may or may not have dual NAND chip onboard For the basic 256 GB config. For 512GB and above, we should always have a machine with Multiple NAND chips.
And a quality NAND chip might not cost just $1-2.
Something also worth noticing: sometimes producing lower capacity chip might not worth the hassle compared to higher capacity ones. Economy of scale.
With that being said, I am half expecting Apple using QLC for all Macs Across the board. No proof tho.

 

[jdb8167]

I am really disappointed in Apple's M2 MacBook lineup because of the fact that they added 1 NAND Chip... to a $2000 laptop.

You can get a 512 GB M2 MacBook Air for $1399 US. So I'm not sure what you are talking about. The 512 GB MBA uses 2 NAND chips.

 

[Technerd108]

You can get a 512 GB M2 MacBook Air for $1399 US. So I'm not sure what you are talking about. The 512 GB MBA uses 2 NAND chips.

He is talking about the M2 MacBook Pro base model which uses a single high density 512gb nand chip. Apple claims it is still faster than previous gen but they don't give any specific specs.

I would say on the Pro models if the single nand is actually demonstrably slower it is a non issue but if it is slower than that is an issue since Pro users are much more likely to do large file transfers. My only guess is Apple probably thinks that people who are Pros and do large file transfers will probably get a 1 tb or larger drive.

On the M2 air it is a mute point since it doesn't slow anything down and those users are not likely to do large file transfers often.

For $1999 though I tend to agree any slower speeds than the M1 base 14" MBP is not good. The only thing is Apple didn't raise the price and maybe to use a dual nand chip they would have had to raise the price of the base model and they went with a slower drive instead??

 

[Haribokart]

I am really disappointed in Apple's M2 MacBook lineup because of the fact that they added 1 NAND Chip... to a $2000 laptop.

I was expecting more from this company, especially since I was considering upgrading to this new MacBook.

Now that brings us to this post.
I am just wondering if you bought a MacBook Air M1 off of Apple's website today, would it have 1 single NAND Chip? I bet it wouldn't be hard to just swap the dual NAND Chip after the M2 MacBook Air's release just so you can "cheap out" and get more people to upgrade to the M2 one. Obviously, models made in late 2020-mid-2022 would have 2 NAND Chips, but would any ones made after mid-2022 have 1 NAND Chip?

Sorry for my dumb question.
Sincerely, Will

Fun fact, it cost $1-2 to make 1 NAND Chip.

Unless you are regularly transferring huge files to and from your Mac you won't notice the difference because it's imperceptible.

 

[MajorFubar]

No is the TLDR answer to your question. It still has two NANDs in minimum configuration.
As you've so far discovered, expect the majority of responses to tell you 'you'll not notice the difference' or 'why does it matter', and so on. Apple could literally sell you a steaming pile of Tim Cook's sh*t and the fanbois round here would say how great it is that Apple has branched into biosolids.

 

[Chancha]

Yes, it is an urban legend that any M1 Airs manufactured after a certain date has switched to a single NAND setup. Have never seen a single piece of proof like speed test let alone tear down.

 

[WilliApple]

Yes, it is an urban legend that any M1 Airs manufactured after a certain date has switched to a single NAND setup. Have never seen a single piece of proof like speed test let alone tear down.

My cousin recently bought an M1 MacBook Air, so if they are ok with it, I want to do an SSD test vs my Sisters bought before the M2.

 

[maflynn]

Another fun fact - you’ll never notice the difference.

If nothing was made of this issue, I'd probably say many if not most non-pros wouldn't notice. However since this is now out there and many people are talking about it. Any possible blip in performance for I/O will be attributed to this issue.

I think the OP is right to question this and be concerned. Apple chose to put in slower SSDs and I think that's horrible move by a company that has long prided itself in producing the best computers.

 

[antiprotest]

Another fun fact - you’ll never notice the difference.

"You'll never notice the difference" -- the essence of fraud. Every scammer counts on it.

 

[MBAir2010]

my MacBook Air M1 8GB.... "silver"....2020, shipped in Oct '22
is too fast and productive to reveal if any NAND chip is on board.

 

[Technerd108]

If nothing was made of this issue, I'd probably say many if not most non-pros wouldn't notice. However since this is now out there and many people are talking about it. Any possible blip in performance for I/O will be attributed to this issue.

I think the OP is right to question this and be concerned. Apple chose to put in slower SSDs and I think that's horrible move by a company that has long prided itself in producing the best computers.

Spot on.

You don't put in a faster chip and then shoot yourself in the foot with slower IO. In the case of the base model M2 MBP this is especially egregious. In the case of the M2 air it is just greed specially when the base model MSRP was $200 higher.

 

[JPack]

No, it still has 2 chips. This is partly due to marketing and legal reasons.

 

[kschendel]

Those of us saying "You won't notice the difference" are speaking from experience; at least, I am. Those paper benchmark numbers don't translate to reality, mostly because most transfers aren't sequential and the big numbers you see only refer to sequential reads and writes. The other reason most won't notice is that you have to be transferring a few gigabytes (sequentially!) at a minimum before the time differential hits as much as one second.

People doing lots of multi-gigabyte sequential I/O will notice. Those people are in a small minority.

I have a 10X spread in sequential I/O speeds in my primary computer, from SATA to PCIe 4.0. Outside of a few multi-hour jobs that I run fairly rarely, the difference is subjectively imperceptible.

By the way, I don't have proof of this, but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the older, smaller NAND flash chips are now actually more expensive than the larger ones, because the market for the old small ones is vanishing and low volume is more expensive.

 

[sorgo †]

Apple could literally sell you a steaming pile of Tim Cook's sh*t and the fanbois round here would say how great it is that Apple has branched into biosolids.

A preview from the iPoo launch event: