According to theappleblog.com, there is some indication that Apple has downgraded the SATA disk interface found in the latest generation of MacBooks relative to the previous generation. The new interfaces reportedly top out at 1.5 Gbit/sec versus the 3.0 Gbit/sec of the previous generation machines. To be fair, it would be hard to tell the difference in speed using today’s mechanical laptop hard drives or low-end solid-state disks (SSDs), but if you are the type of user who typically likes to upgrade to the latest and fastest technology, this may concern you. The highest-end SSDs today deliver better performance than these MacBooks would appear to support.
For many users, this alleged downgrade won’t be noticeable and probably saves Apple some money. Those who use their laptops for activities that are highly dependent on disk speed (such as video editing and photographic manipulation) may notice the decrease. Those who have had an eye toward replacing their physical hard disks with SSDs when the prices decline may also have a reason to be concerned (as this won’t allow those devices to deliver their best possible performance).
As theappleeblog’s Charles Jade reports, “Those considering a long-term purchase of a MacBook Pro, with the intent of upgrading to an SSD in the future, would do well to wait until more is known. As for those like myself who own unibody MacBooks bought before last week, this news puts a little salve on the burn of being without FireWire.”