Macbook Air 128 Vs 256 Gb
The most obvious difference between the 128 GB and 256 GB versions of the MacBook Air. is storage capacity, with the 128 GB model offering half the storage of the 256 GB model. Another key difference is processor speed, with the 128 GB model being slightly slower than the 256 GB model.
The Verge has tested flash storage performance on both the 256GB base model and 512GB version of the new MacBook Air M2 using the Blackmagics Disk Speed Test application. The results confirmed the base model Air has slower flash storage, with writes being 15-20% slower than the 40-50% slower reads in the 512GB model. YouTube channel Max Tech confirmed that the base Air model has the exact same storage setup as the M2-powered 13-inch MacBook Pro, the base model, which is also plagued by slower storage. It remains to be seen if the new M2-equipped MacBook Air has the same issues with 256GB, although it is difficult to envision Apple shipping a laptop with 256GB of storage under the Air name performing any better than the laptop with the similarly configured Pro.
Apples latest MacBook Air and the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro both start at 256GB base SSD storage–twice the amount found in some older generations–and they are still priced similarly. A MacBook Pro or 1TB MacBook Air costs more, obviously, but if you are planning to use a machine for an extended period of time — five to eight years, at most — then paying extra money and getting a 1TB SSD is worth it. If you are buying any MacBook model (whether a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro) and you are planning to use it as your primary machine, you should get the one that has over 256GB of storage. Yet, if you were to go on Apples website today and attempt to purchase either the MacBook Air or MacBook, the base models still only come with 256GB of storage — that is the same amount as in 2012.
The 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro with 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM is the base model that is available for purchase right now. The 128GB MacBook Air starts at $1,149, while the 256GB model starts at $1,299, so you save a bit if 128GB is enough for your needs. If you do not need to keep many files on the computer, and 128 is sufficient, then buying the higher-end models with twice as much storage is likely to not make sense. If you wanted my take on the MacBooks storage for programming, I would say 128GB is certainly going to be a bit on the restrictive side.
One has to decide between 128GB and 256GB before making the decision of buying new MacBook. If you have just 256GB of storage space to play with, then the MacBook is going to get full really fast. Otherwise, you will need to augment the MacOS space with reliance on external drives, cloud, and network storage. You could save some cash by going for the MacBook, which has only 256GB, and still depend on the primary machine for storage-intensive tasks.
If you are buying a MacBook today, we would suggest getting at least 512GB of storage. With this in mind, we would usually recommend upgrading to 256GB in order to give you some breathing room, although 512GB of storage is likely to be excessive in regular use cases. You see, at that same price, you could either move up from 8GB to 16GB of combined memory, or go from 256GB to 512GB of SSD storage. Apples latest MacBook Air, for example, can be configured either with 256GB or 512GB of storage, and getting the higher-capacity model will set you back another $200–that is a lot.
| MacBook Air Models | Price |
| 128GB MacBook Air | $1,149 |
| 256GB MacBook Air Model | $1,299 |
An extra $200 is not much money in the grand scheme of buying a new MacBook, so I would recommend you ALWAYS steer clear of the base model 256GB, and opt for the 512GB model, or, if finances permit, the 1TB model. Since I NEVER advise going for Apples least expensive device model, the 256GB option is off. That is because Apple has chosen to go with only a single 256GB NAND flash memory chip, rather than using two 128GB chips like you see in the M1 models too. Both YouTubers took the bottoms of the new 13-inch MacBook Pros, and found the 256GB version uses only a single 256GB NAND flash chip, while the MacBook Pro M1 uses a couple 128GB flash chips.
The secret is that the 256GB base model comes with just a single NAND flash chip for storage, not the two 128GB parts which would provide better performance. While it is true the M2 chip is faster than the beefier M1 chip, it is also true storage on previous generations was faster than on these new systems, at least on the base 256GB model. When you combine the 8GB RAM with sluggish 256GB single-NAND storage, you end up with a laptop regularly performing tasks half as fast as its higher-end siblings using exactly the same CPU.
This is probably why we are seeing only slight increases in the storage baseline of the iPhone 5 (moving from 16GB to 32GB, then a slow ramp up to 64GB, and now up to 128), not major jumps in base storage of MacBooks (like moving up to 512GB, and up to even 1TB, minimum). Fast forward ten years, and Apples base storage on its iPhone 13 is now 128GB, with a range that maxes out at 1TB for Apples Pro models. Nearly ten years later, in 2021, the entry-level MacBook Pro (as well as the MacBook Air) is still just 256GB storage, unless you bump up.
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When Apple introduced the first Retina Display MacBook Pro back in 2012, it shipped with 256GB of flash storage, minimum. While Apples new MacBook Air offers as much storage space as the M1 MacBook Airs 256GB model, Apple has condensed storage to a single NAND chip on the M2 Air, as opposed to twin 128GB NAND chips on the M1 Air. MacBook Airs use higher-end SSD drives rather than the hard drives found in MacBook Pros, which offer greater storage space but are slower and heavier.
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If you are planning on keeping data locally, but you do not need much storage, you will want to stick to Apples 128GB models, since the difference in price points is not that large between the 128GB versus the 256GB. Thanks to the Apple silicon that is powered by the above-mentioned ARM, the battery life of Apples new MacBook Air is almost best-in-class; the lower power demands that ARM offers over similar tasks on Intel-based machines are complemented by the efficiency that can be found when an operating system has just a very narrow set of hardware configurations to work with (unlike Windows, which has to work with everything under the sun).
How many GB do I need on my MacBook Air?
Apple offers flash storage options of 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB for the 13-inch MacBook Air (M1, 2020). The 256GB model is not a choice since I never advise choosing the least costly Apple gadget model. Therefore, I would advise most people to choose a 512GB MacBook Air (M1, 2020) version.
Is it worth getting the 256GB MacBook Air?
Apple provides data storage options of 256 Gigabytes, 512 Gigabytes, 1 Terabyte, or 2TB for the 13-inch MacBook Air (M1, 2020). The 256GB version is not a choice since I never advise choosing the cheapest possible Apple gadget version. Therefore, I would advise most folks to get a 512 Gigabyte MacBook Air (M1, 2020) edition.
Should I get a 128 or 256 MacBook Air?
If you’re purchasing a MacBook (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, etc.) and want to utilize it as your primary computer, you should choose a version with greater capacity than 256 gigabytes. Within a few years, you’ll be grateful that you even doubled the internal capacity to 512GB.