How come my MacBook Pro 16″ has internal SSD speeds of 2800 MB/s Read/Write while my external Samsung T5 SSD only goes up to about 500 MB/s?

Question

How come the difference is so huge? And are there any faster alternatives?

In: Technology

Answer 1

It sounds like the MacBook has an M.2 drive. Basically, the memory chips aren’t significantly faster, but the interface is. M.2 drives plug directly into the motherboard, so there is significantly greater bandwidth than USB 3 or even SATA, which connect via cables. PCIe drives can be even faster, but typically, you don’t see those on laptops. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though, as despite the huge difference in numbers, the practical difference isn’t super noticeable in daily use.