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New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

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Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#41
post #32

1.3 GB/s vs 2 GB/s read. I think it's perfectly reasonable given most users aren't going to be doing high I/O, and if they did, they'd just get a MBP.

I think the most common pain point with this is going to be an initial iCloud sync if your drive is full of stuff.

Unless you have a datalink over 1Gbps (and iCloud can actually saturate that link) the SSD isn't going to bottleneck it either way.

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#42
post #32

1.3 GB/s vs 2 GB/s read. I think it's perfectly reasonable given most users aren't going to be doing high I/O, and if they did, they'd just get a MBP.

I think the most common pain point with this is going to be an initial iCloud sync if your drive is full of stuff.

Only if you're an iCloud network administrator that plugged a 10gbps network cable at the data center.

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#43
post #32

1.3 GB/s vs 2 GB/s read. I think it's perfectly reasonable given most users aren't going to be doing high I/O, and if they did, they'd just get a MBP.

I think the most common pain point with this is going to be an initial iCloud sync if your drive is full of stuff.

[deleted]

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#44

1.3 GB/s vs 2 GB/s read. I think it's perfectly reasonable given most users aren't going to be doing high I/O, and if they did, they'd just get a MBP.

At least next time Jony Ive will not say "fastest disk read ever"

Ive never talked about specs

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Touch Bar, no... but Touch ID?

Like I said, I'm not sure. The vast majority of people I know who have an Air or MBP have an older model without Touch ID. They might appreciate it if it is there, but they won't miss it in its absence. The only two people I know who've ever owned one that had it both returned it because they otherwise hated the device. For me personally, Touch ID makes sense on a phone, because I can do it with a single hand. For a…

I'm on a 2018 MacBook Air, the only model has F-keys and Touch ID, and I love it. Once you get used to sudo using your fingerprint, it's hard to go back. :)

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#46
post #29
post #4

Apple might have chosen cheeper SSDs to lower prices - which in principle think is a good idea on the entry level laptop, even cheap SSDs are plenty fast - why are they still charging insane prices for their SSD upgrades? Current market prices for SSD are between 150 and 300€/tb. For SSD upgrades in the MB Air, Apple is charging 240€ for each upgrade step. That means prices between 1920€/tb (128->256g) and 480€/tb (5…

Apple's prices used to be non-insane. Marked up, yes, but not nuts. Wasn't even that long ago. You'd have people post stuff about "look I can get a PC that's just as good for 40% as much, what a ripoff!" but it'd always turn out they were choosing worse parts. These days, though, between price hikes, mediocre to poor base memory amounts and disc sizes, and massive markup on upgrades, it's not true anymore. Their pric…

Also interesting is that the SSD in the base model is still the same size as the SSD in the base model of the MacBook Air Mid 2013. Sure, the SSDs became faster, but it is quite insane that a model that is six years newer still comes with the same capacity (at roughly the same price).

Other than that, it seems like a great laptop for its price. It's nice that the 'budget' models now have retina as well.

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#47

> Before you go and start casting aspersions at Apple, the move makes a lot of sense. It'd be one thing if it did this and raised the price, but it actually lowered the price by $100, and the education discount brings it down to $999, making it the most affordable modern MacBook laptop ever (the outdated MacBook Air does not count). Which is fine for the entry-level model. Is it true for the more expensive model? The…

Actually lowered the price... it's not like hardware ever becomes cheaper with time?

I guess apple have improved recent years but previously this was quite apparent. "Wow, new much faster model costs the same as the old one!" Yeah, that's because the old one is insanely overpriced - unless you bought it on launch day. Conveniently that's the only day of the lifetime it is ever compared to the competition.

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#48

I like fast SSD's as much as everyone else, but it's not like those disks are a slouch. 1.3 GB/s is still plenty fast, especially for those who are in the market for the Macbook Air. It's probably however the first time, I can remember at least, where Apple downgraded a newer model in such an unequivocal way. I mean newer CPU's have had different multicore/single core tradeoffs, the inclusion of a dedicated GPU have…

> where Apple downgraded a newer model in such an unequivocal way

Also of note: the maximum SSD capacity dropped as well. Formerly the Air could be spec'd up to 1.5 TB, now 1 TB is the max.

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#49

It’s been real. After owning 6+ Mac laptops for the past 15 years I’m out.

Same. Just bought first Windows laptop in 11 years: Thinkpad Carbon.

:/ Thinkpad T480 (T490 doesn't) has the ports, is light, durable, is user-serviceable and 10 hours of battery life with the bigger extended battery (which isn't very big). Great as a hackintosh. When other manufacturers blindly copy Apple (like removing the dual batteries of the T series), they lose future customers.

Re: New 2019 MacBook Air features a slower SSD than 2018 model

#50

1.3 GB/s vs 2 GB/s read. I think it's perfectly reasonable given most users aren't going to be doing high I/O, and if they did, they'd just get a MBP.

I just upgraded my workstation from a SATA SSD (~500MB/s) to an M.2 NVMe (~3GB/s). For standard usage, there's really no noticeable difference. The extra IO and lower latency is amazing though for heavy tasks.
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