Apple fans gushed when Apple announced a new cheaper MacBook Air model. However, those fans should think twice about buying the new laptop if they care about SSD speed.
This new MacBook Air model, which comes with a TrueTone Display, the same CPU as the 2018 model, but is $100 cheaper, has an unfortunate drawback. Different publications are now reporting that its SSD is slower than the previous-generation model.
2019 MacBook Air Slower Than Previous Model
As tested by Consomac, using a test called Blackmagic Disk Speed, the 2019 MacBook Air can attain a read speed of 1.3 GB per second and a write speed of 1 GB per second. The equivalent model from 2018, with a 256 GB SSD, tops out to 2 GB per second and around 0.9 GB in read and write speeds respectively.
Therefore, the 2019 MacBook Air's SSD features a marginally superior write speed but also a read speed that's 35 percent slower than last generation's. The current presumption is that the SSD is one of the areas Apple adjusted to slash the price.
Why You Probably Shouldn't Worry
But 9to5Mac argues this was the right course of action to take. The lower price will make the new MacBook Air to a lot more people, not to mention new users might not even see a noticeable difference between the two in terms of read and write speeds. More importantly, a 35 percent slower SSD doesn't necessarily translate to an overall performance loss of 35 percent.
2019 MacBook Air
As mentioned, the latest MacBook Air model features a TrueTone Display and a lower starting price, at just $1,099. Students can get it for even cheaper, however, at just $999 thanks to Apple's special educational pricing. Aside from those minor changes, the laptop also features what Apple calls the "material" keyboard that's meant to reduce the widespread issues associated with Apple's butterfly keyboard.
Other notable features of the 2019 MacBook Air include a 1.6 GHz dual-core eighth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, an Intel UHD Graphics 617 chip, up to 8 GB of RAM, and Touch ID. It doesn't have a Touch Bar, though, and features only two Thunderbolt 3 ports. It is, of course, much cheaper than what the baseline MacBook Air used to cost.
Thoughts on the 2019 MacBook Air being 35 percent slower in terms of read speed? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
