A new report about the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 now suggests that the base model of the laptop will come with significantly slower SSD transfer speeds compared to the M1 model. The alleged discovery regarding the speeds were noted by YouTube channels Max Tech and Created Tech, who compared the M2 MacBook Pro and the M1 version, complete with results.
According to said results, the M1 MacBook Pro has a 2900MB/s sequential read and 2215MB/s sequential write speeds, while its successor has a 1446MB/s and 1463MB/s read speed and write speeds, respectively.
In spite of the supposed downgrade, the lower SSD performance doesn’t seem to affect the M2 MacBook Pro models with additional internal storage, as claimed within the MacRumors forums where YouTuber Aaron Zollo of Zollotech found that the 512GB M2 MacBook Pro has similar SSD speeds as the M1 variant. Simply put, this means that the 512GB model is equipped with two 256GB flash storage drives.
In the video by Max Tech, YouTuber Vadim Yurvey disassembled the brand-new 13-inch MacBook Pro and found that the 256GB model is installed with only a single NAND flash storage chip. Its predecessor, on the other hand, has two NAND chips that are likely 128GB each, which could explain why the upgraded variant has a much slower SSD.
Additionally, Created Tech’s video displays that the lack of double 256GB NAND chips is the reason why the base model of the laptop is slower than the 512GB SKU. In short, there really is no clear explanation as to why the new base model 13-inch MacBook Pro has but only one NAND chip, though, reduction of costs is quite possibly the likeliest answer.
The M2 MacBook Pro has since been shipped out a few days ago, local consumers may acquire the M2 MacBook Pro with the pricelist starting at US$1299 (~RM5723).
Irfan Iskandar contributed to this article.
