The new 15-inch MacBook Air comes with some noticeable upgrades and most of them are associated with the bigger size. While the device features a higher GPU core count on the base model, the 15-inch and 13.6-inch model of the M2 MacBook Air features the same slower download speeds. We covered last year that the base model of the M2 MacBook Air houses a single NAND chip that delivers slower SSD speeds compared to the M1 MacBook Air with a dual NAND chip.
If you want faster SSD speeds on your new 15-inch MacBook Air, you would have to spend an additional $200
The new 15-inch M2 MacBook Air is available for $1,299 in four different color options. What this means is that the machine is $200 more than the 13.6-inch variant. While both platforms deliver the same performance, the bigger sibling features better speakers and a larger display. Furthermore, both models start at 256GB of storage capacity. YouTube channel Max Tech discovered that similar to last year, the 15-inch MacBook Air comes with a single NAND chip.
In contrast, the base M1 MacBook Air came with dual NAND chips - 128GB each. This allowed the machine to perform significantly better in terms of the SSD read and write speeds. With the latest model, you will adhere to the same comprise that you made with the 13-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip. However, if you wish to enjoy faster SSD speeds on your new machine, you would spend $200 extra to upgrade to the 512GB storage capacity. The higher capacity model would come with dual NAND chips which would make room for better SSD speeds on the 15-inch MacBook Air.
In previous tests, we have noticed that the single NAND chip in the M2 MacBook Air models would allow the SSD speeds to drop by 30 to 50 percent. There is no word why Apple implemented the change but it could be to save cost. The slower SSD speeds are quite noticeable when it comes to file transfer and the overall performance of the device. If you think SSD speeds are necessary for your work, we would recommend you upgrade to 512GB of storage capacity.
The 15-inch MacBook Air features the same 8-core CPU but 2 additional GPU cores for the base model compared to the 13.6-inch model. Even though the device comes with a bigger battery, the usage ratio per hour is more or less similar to the smaller variant. The machines are now available from Apple's online store and Apple Stores.
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