The Verge has confirmed to shoppingmode Apple that the base M2 MacBook Air has the same SSD issues as the Pro.
512GB and 256GB M2 MacBook Air 5GB Tests
The Verge also used Blackmagic’s Disk Speed Test app to test the M2 MacBook Air base model (8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage) with SSD write speeds 15-30% slower than the 512GB model (which Apple sent for review); read speeds were 40-50% slower.
512GB M1 MacBook Air 5GB Test
256GB Intel MacBook Pro 5GB Test
The results aren’t surprising, as the base M2 MacBook Air features a single NAND chip, while the M1 model and 512GB M2 model both have two NAND chips, doubling performance.
Dan Seifert, the editor of The Verge, then took a closer look at the M2 MacBook Air and found that the slower SSD speeds affected a range of everyday tasks, including file transfers, and that using the SSD as temporary memory (Swap memory) also reduced overall performance.
