Apple’s 13-inch, 256GB MacBook Pro M2 may have worse SSD performance than the equivalent M1 model, according to tests from YouTube sites Max Tech and Created Tech seen by MacRumors. The $ 1,300 base model showed about 50 percent slower read speeds (1,446 MB / s compared to 2,900 MB / s) with 30 percent lower write speeds.
Max Tech opened the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 and found that it only had a single 256GB NAND flash storage chip instead of two 128GB chips like the previous M1 model. This would mean that the unit can only use two lanes in parallel, so performance is limited to the speed of a single lane.
The high-end 512GB and 1TB models don’t seem to suffer from the problem, and many revision units (like ours) are shipped in a 1TB configuration. The slower disk speeds of the 256GB model can affect application load times, file transfers, and data retrieval. Overall performance could also be successful, as virtual memory (used when RAM is full) will be slower and the base model only has 8GB of RAM.
It is unclear why Apple changed the configuration of this model, although the global shortage of chips may be a factor. In any case, it’s something to keep in mind if you want to buy the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2.