Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Air SSD Really Is Twice as Fast as Previous Model

As customers are receiving their new Apple Silicon Macs, we're starting to see more benchmarks and testing being posted in our Apple Silicon forum. One forum user (abbotsford1980) shared SSD Benchmarks for their new M1 MacBook Air with 256GB storage:

apple silicon macbook air ssd benchmarks

The benchmarks confirm that the new ‌MacBook Air‌ SSD is approximately twice as fast as the previous model with 2190 MB/s writes and 2675 MB/s reads. Apple did announce this performance boost when launching the new machine, and attributed the improved speed to the ‌M1‌'s storage controller as well as new flash technology:

The M1 chip’s storage controller and latest flash technology deliver up to 2x faster SSD performance, so previewing massive images or importing large files is faster than ever.

The 2019/2020 Intel ‌MacBook Air‌ was criticized for actually offering a slower SSD than the 2018 model. The 2019/2020 ‌MacBook Air‌ SSD speeds were 1319 MB/s reads and 1007 MB/s writes.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Caution)
Related Forum: MacBook Air

Top Rated Comments

eric89074 Avatar
33 months ago
The switch to Apple silicon has been a home run, and this is just the beginning.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ersan191 Avatar
33 months ago
Apple really undersold this thing, imo.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zoom25 Avatar
33 months ago
The new iMac can't come soon enough.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FactVsOpinion Avatar
33 months ago
Apple has proven to be unusually honest with claims like this.

The all around performance of these new models is surprising, but to find out that Apple’s claims weren’t bogus is not surprising—not to me anyway.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dragoon2745 Avatar
33 months ago
So it's twice as fast today because the cut the speed in half in the previous models? Why did they have to move to slower SSDs in the MacBook Air to begin with?
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
UndefinedxJoker Avatar
33 months ago
First time in a long time that an Apple product gets nothing but positive news.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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