MacBook Air M3: Apple finally fixed SSD problem, according to iFixit teardown

2024-03-13 14:53:00

Apple has launched a new generation of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air with a big emphasis on the new Apple M3 processor. However, the manufacturer failed to comment on an important change in hardware that could boost notebook performance, as revealed by an iFixit teardown video this Wednesday (13).

The electronic device repair company published a video that shows the disassembly process of the MacBook Air with M3 in its version with 256 GB storage, and a detail that can be observed is the presence of two SSD chips — fixing one of the worst disadvantages of the MacBook Air with M2.

To understand the problem, let’s go back to June 2022, the month in which the MacBook Air with M2 was launched. There was a lot of expectation surrounding this notebook as it featured the second generation of Apple’s Arm-based processor, however, many users ended up disappointed with the entry-level version (with 256 GB storage).

The problem was in the storage system itself. In the cheapest version of the notebook, the manufacturer chose to use a single 256 GB memory chip instead of two 128 GB chips — as it did in the MacBook Air with M1, launched in 2020. This caused a major limitation in its reading speed. and device recording.

The 512 GB version of the MacBook Air with M2 had two SSD drives — each with 256 GB — which allowed the notebook to have significantly faster reading and writing speeds.

For this reason, the performance problem was limited to the cheapest version of the notebook, which generated a wave of criticism. Apple argued that the M2 processor’s performance jump would “compensate” for the SSD’s bottleneck, but this was not enough to alleviate the criticism, and it seems that the company finally accepted the users’ wishes.

As seen in the iFixit video with the MacBook Air with M3, the entry-level version has two 128 GB SSD drives. Tests carried out by the Max Tech YouTube channel indicate that, when transferring a 5 GB file, the model with M3 with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD has recording 33% faster than its M2 counterpart.

Despite the change in the storage system, the MacBook Air with M3 has an identical construction to the M2 versions. This means that repair technicians accustomed to previous models will have no problems servicing these devices — that is, as long as they are authorized by Apple.

The MacBook Air with M3 is now available in its 13 and 15 inch versions with suggested prices starting at R$12,499 in Brazil.

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