MATLAB: Does MATFILE function creates files larger in size compared to SAVE function

Question

Why does MATFILE function creates files larger in size compared to SAVE function?

Answer 1

The size of the file created by the “save” function is smaller when compared to the size of the file from the “matfile” function. This is because of the fact the files created using the “matfile” function are saved as version 7.3 MAT-files. These 7.3 MAT-files use an HDF5 based format that requires some storage overhead that has some meta information about the file. Hence, the size of the file is larger when compared to the file created with the “save” command.

More information can be found in the documentation page linked below:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/import_export/mat-file-versions.html