MacBook Air Teardown Reveals M2 Chip and Single Storage Chip for 256GB Model

YouTube channel Max Tech recently shared a video teardown of the new MacBook Air, providing a look inside the redesigned notebook.

M2 MacBook Air Internals
Overall, the internal design of the new MacBook Air looks similar to the previous model, but the flatter shell allowed for Apple to fit larger battery cells inside the notebook. The new MacBook Air is equipped with a 52.6-watt‑hour battery, compared to a 49.9‑watt‑hour battery in the previous model, according to Apple's tech specs. However, Apple says both the 2020 and 2022 models of the MacBook Air achieve up to 18 hours of battery life per charge.

The teardown reveals the new MacBook Air's logic board, which includes Apple's new M2 chip. As confirmed by Apple last week, the teardown also shows that the 256GB model of the new MacBook Air is equipped with only a single NAND storage chip, resulting in up to 30% to 50% slower SSD speeds in benchmark testing compared to both higher-capacity MacBook Air models and the previous model with 256GB of storage.

M2 MacBook Air Logic Board

M2 chip (outlined in blue) and empty NAND storage flash chip pad (outlined in red)

As usual, storage and RAM chips are soldered to the logic board in the new MacBook Air, making it very difficult/unfeasible to upgrade these components after purchase.

Repair website iFixit will likely share a more in-depth teardown of the new MacBook Air eventually.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Related Forum: MacBook Air

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Top Rated Comments

IsaacM Avatar
27 months ago
It's so funny seeing the fanboys defend Apple like this trillion dollar CORPORATION is their family member. ⚰️

The fact is MOST people get base model Macbooks and the new "supercharged" base model should NOT have slower speeds in any aspect than the 2 year old model, especially considering they bumped up the price by $200.

Stop sucking up to a corporation. They care about their shareholders and not you.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lounge vibes 05 Avatar
27 months ago
Here we go again.
Low end SSD sucks, there’s no way around it.
But this is like thread 6000 on it, it’s old news at this point.
Why did Apple do it? I still say that it’s because of supply constraints.
If it was truly nothing but penny pinching, it’s a bizarre thing to cheap out on.
I’d think the color matched braided cables that don’t even come with the pro, or the high impedance headphone jack or something like that would’ve been the first thing to go before the fast SSD.
Anyway, I look forward to another 26 page thread about this
?
Score: 34 Votes (Like | Disagree)
antiprotest Avatar
27 months ago
"Shhh. It's OK. Most people will never notice."



Attachment Image
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ChristianSelig Avatar
27 months ago
Hold up Joe you're telling me this thing has an M2 in it??
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Account25476 Avatar
27 months ago
Having a M1 Air, the SSD speed is extremely important. I noticed this immediately when, after opening up a few apps, the 8GB started limiting at around 7GB and the swap usage became increasingly larger but the performance did not slow down! This meant the SSD speed was fast enough to substitute for RAM without appreciable cost. If the SSD has half the speed then going from base M1 to base M2 will not be an upgrade but a downgrade in performance. Potential purchasers should know this!
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
27 months ago
Sheeeesh! It’s so compact! Impressed by the finest engineering. The internals looks well aligned and beautiful. Talk about attention to detail. Only Apple can do it. ??
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)