Here’s Why You Should Skip Apple's Latest M2 Pro Macbook Pro

One thing Mac users will never complain about is the snappy performance of their machines. However, the latest M2 Pro MacBook Pro and M2 Mac mini might change things in that regard. That’s due to several outlets confirming that new Macs with entry-level M2 chips offer slower read and write speeds in contrast to their precursors.

Recently, 9to5Mac put the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro through their benchmarking tests and learned that the laptop’s read and write speeds have dropped 40% and 20% respectively. Even, MacRumors’ benchmark results showed the M2 mini’s read and write speeds dropping by 50% and 30% respectively, compared to their predecessor.

Bad News For Potential MacBook Buyers

Apple devices come at a hefty cost but also offer great quality and performance in return. That might not be completely true with the latest generation of laptops. But what’s the reason behind the slow SSD performance? Well, it’s due to the way the SSD storage has been distributed among chips on the device’s logic board.

Earlier, Apple used to split storage into two or more chips -- the 256GB M1 Mac mini leveraged two 128GB NAND modules. Now, the M2 Mac mini puts all of it on a single chip. Doing so might have impacted the performance, causing the new machines to slow down.

For the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the company previously arranged its 512GB storage onto four chips. As per 9to5Mac’s teardown, the load is now being split between only two chips, which is hampering the speed. It means for users who are seeking the best SSD output, it would be worth upgrading from the minimum amount of storage.

Issues Limited To Low Storage Devices?

This isn’t the first instance where an M2 Mac is offering slower-than-expected speeds than its predecessor. Both the M2 MacBook Pro and M2 MacBook Air with 256GB storage have been called out for the same reasons.

However, the problem doesn’t seem to affect any M2 MacBook with over 256GB storage, as those models leverage multiple NAND chips. While the MacBook Pro and Mac mini are still snappy with 3154.5Mbps, it’s disappointing for potential buyers to see a performance that’s unable to match the previous models.

It’s believed that Apple could have taken this route to cut down costs. During its October 2022 earnings call, the company said that it expected Mac revenue to significantly drop year-over-year in Q1 of 2023. Perhaps that could be the reason why Apple took cost-cutting measures for these new machines.