Macbook Pro M1 disappointment.. Is it really fast ?!?

[reasonrulaz]

I have MBP Pro M1 8G, 512 for two months. Before that, I used a lot of different types of macbooks.

I want to talk about my experiences about M1 MBP performance for "daily work" for most people, because I think there is some misinformation in many channels on this subject.

Is that machine (M1) really that fast ? Instantly, blazing fast, incredible speed ?!? Definitely NO !!!

Let me explain.

M1 SOC power is real. But please consider another reality, Macbook M1 series not just that. When CPU power is only become most important thing your entire work day ? How many times you wait rendering or compiling process in daily routine ? Of course there is some professional who’s demanding as much as possible cpu power but how many of us are they ?

I think most of users daily computing routine consist of office apps, coding, drawing etc. Macbook M1 major disappointment for me is app launching time (I'm talking about "cold start - first launch" of course). When you click any apps icon on bottom bar, waiting is intolerable. Major apps not start until at least 5-6 bouncing. Sometimes,even bouncing not start instantly. Even iwork apps like keynote or pages not start instantly (4 bounces). For example, i need alternative browser, click to start edge, waiting 7 bounces for cold start, after that, need pdf editing, click pdf editor, wait 8 bounces for cold start (foxit), fastest browser alternative brave need 7 bounces for cold start. Instantly starting apps is JUST safari. If you count apps add notes, calendar to that list.

So, when in my rush hour at computing work daily routine, Macbook M1 series is NOT snappy, instantly or ligtning fast..

Maybe hypes after launching M1 macs cause this but reality is (IMHO) Macbook M1 series is really good for battery life (low power consumption, cool running) and cpu demanding tasks. Apart from that, there is no other performance difference with the old mac series. Even considering what you have lost (x86 compability), you wonder if it is worth the innovations.

Apple, thanks for the M1, but there is a lot more to do for the iPad-like Macbook experience. (which is expectation created by most of reviewers for Macbook m1 series)

I am very curious about your experiences in this matter.

 

[Pmaddocks86]

I definitely have the opposite experience to you with my M1 Macbook Air. I have MS Office which I use a lot, Capture One and Affinity Photo and everything launches quickly (much quicker than my i5 MBP). All of those apps are native bar Capture One.

Maybe you were expecting a night and day difference in app opening times? I'm sat here on a Windows Computer with a decent processor and SSD and it is painfully slow in comparison to my Mac.

 

[reasonrulaz]

I'm talking about "first launch - cold start". Of course it's near instantly after loading RAM.. Please try restart your machine, and count office apps bouncing or how many secs need to launch. If your work consists of just a few applications, of course you shouldn't have any problems after loading first time.

But, if you restart your machine daily and need a lot of apps to work done, it's getting problem.

 

[Puonti]

A solution for right now, with what you have and need right now, is to start all of the apps you need in a rush situation before you get to the rush situation.

It doesn't matter how long that takes while you're taking a shower or making breakfast.

 

[adrianlondon]

Just rebooted my i5 2020 Air.

6 bounces before Numbers opened; 15 for Excel.

So you're doing ok.

Second start was pretty much instant, so just set the apps you need to autostart on login.

 

[foxs]

Even after a cold start most apps open almost instantly for me on MBP m1 16gb. Fresh computer, no data transferred form old system. Using it since 4 months now, still quicker than anything I've ever used.

 

[Clausewitz]

As someone who doesn't push the MBP M1 to its boundaries and is limited mostly to menial activities, such as word processing and browsing, the only advantages that I see with my new MBP is longer battery duration, more storage space, and relatively faster boot time compared to my previous E-2015 MBP. Of these, the battery duration has been the most crucial one. However, having upgraded my MBP through all those successive updates provided by Apple I see that the battery performance is declining. Nevertheless, it continues to provide a relatively long duration.

If I take away the battery and boot time comparison, I really don't see any groundbreaking difference between M1 & E2015 MBPs in terms of application processing speed.

 

[casperes1996]

Maybe it's just because I basically never ever reboot, but even on my 2014 and 2011 machines I don't think I've ever had more than 3-4 bounces before something started happening

 

[Sysmet]

I'm using Mac mini M1 16/256 only for one week as my main work machine and extremely pleased with its daily work routine performance. It's much snappier than my previous workhorse 15-inch MacBook Pro, absolutely quiet (I still haven't heard a fan even once), and cold. Browsing in Safari is the fastest I've ever experienced, MS Office work is faster (especially Excel), overall feel from the machine is fantastic. Considering its price, quietness, operating temperature, and OS, it's the best office work computer market currently can offer.

I'm far away from the hype you are writing about. But for now, I would never consider any Intel laptop after I experienced M1.

PS: I've bought a new base MacBook Air (with Core i3) for my wife this summer, and I can't even describe how slow, loud and hot this machine is compared to M1 for the same money. It feels like x5 slower in simple office tasks.

 

[zpafis]

I'm talking about "first launch - cold start". Of course it's near instantly after loading RAM.. Please try restart your machine, and count office apps bouncing or how many secs need to launch. If your work consists of just a few applications, of course you shouldn't have any problems after loading first time.

But, if you restart your machine daily and need a lot of apps to work done, it's getting problem.

I have M1 Air and this is problem. It needs 7-8 bounces to open Office 365 apps.

 

[The_Interloper]

Just tested on M1 Mac Mini:

Outlook - 9 bounces
Word - 9 bounces
OneNote - 8 bounces

For comparison:

Pages - 5 bounces
Numbers - 5 bounces
Mail - 1 bounce

 

[Pmaddocks86]

I'm talking about "first launch - cold start". Of course it's near instantly after loading RAM.. Please try restart your machine, and count office apps bouncing or how many secs need to launch. If your work consists of just a few applications, of course you shouldn't have any problems after loading first time.

But, if you restart your machine daily and need a lot of apps to work done, it's getting problem.

I shut down and reboot my Mac daily (I've been a windows user for too long....) and I do notice it is faster second reload onwards, but even from a cold start I get office apps opening within 1-2 seconds a few bounces..even Capture One which is a pretty heavy photo editor opens quickly that is a Rosetta app currently.

 

[Admiral]

If your MS Office apps are that slow loading, you've got the Intel versions under Rosetta.

 

[Machspeed007]

As someone who doesn't push the MBP M1 to its boundaries and is limited mostly to menial activities, such as word processing and browsing, the only advantages that I see with my new MBP is longer battery duration, more storage space, and relatively faster boot time compared to my previous E-2015 MBP. Of these, the battery duration has been the most crucial one. However, having upgraded my MBP through all those successive updates provided by Apple I see that the battery performance is declining. Nevertheless, it continues to provide a relatively long duration.

If I take away the battery and boot time comparison, I really don't see any groundbreaking difference between M1 & E2015 MBPs in terms of application processing speed.

What about low temperatures and silent operation?

When I'm using a graphical intensive application or playing a game it still amazes me not having to hear the fans on the machine and how cool it runs. It's like having an ipad running macos, something unique in the personal computing hardware space I must say.

 

[Machspeed007]

I have M1 Air and this is problem. It needs 7-8 bounces to open Office 365 apps.

Non-navtie M1 apps have to be translated to M1 code on the 1st run, so that's what makes it slower to launch. However, when doing actual work, the M1 is fast.
So, if launching applications is a measure of how fast the M1 is, than yes you have a point, for non-native applications.

 

[reasonrulaz]

If your MS Office apps are that slow loading, you've got the Intel versions under Rosetta.

Nope, all of them native M1 silicon since MS update.

 

[Clausewitz]

What about low temperatures and silent operation?

When I'm using a graphical intensive application or playing a game it still amazes me not having to hear the fans on the machine and how cool it runs. It's like having an ipad running macos, something unique in the personal computing hardware space I must say.

Yes, they skipped my mind. Although, my E2015 did not make too much noise, not enough to bother me.

My M1 mostly runs cold but sometimes I can feel warmth underneath it, even though my activities remain menial. I also feel warmth sometimes during charging.

 

[AAPLGeek]

I have MBP Pro M1 8G, 512 for two months. Before that, I used a lot of different types of macbooks.

I want to talk about my experiences about M1 MBP performance for "daily work" for most people, because I think there is some misinformation in many channels on this subject.

Is that machine (M1) really that fast ? Instantly, blazing fast, incredible speed ?!? Definitely NO !!!

Let me explain.

M1 SOC power is real. But please consider another reality, Macbook M1 series not just that. When CPU power is only become most important thing your entire work day ? How many times you wait rendering or compiling process in daily routine ? Of course there is some professional who’s demanding as much as possible cpu power but how many of us are they ?

I think most of users daily computing routine consist of office apps, coding, drawing etc. Macbook M1 major disappointment for me is app launching time (I'm talking about "cold start - first launch" of course). When you click any apps icon on bottom bar, waiting is intolerable. Major apps not start until at least 5-6 bouncing. Sometimes,even bouncing not start instantly. Even iwork apps like keynote or pages not start instantly (4 bounces). For example, i need alternative browser, click to start edge, waiting 7 bounces for cold start, after that, need pdf editing, click pdf editor, wait 8 bounces for cold start (foxit), fastest browser alternative brave need 7 bounces for cold start. Instantly starting apps is JUST safari. If you count apps add notes, calendar to that list.

So, when in my rush hour at computing work daily routine, Macbook M1 series is NOT snappy, instantly or ligtning fast..

Maybe hypes after launching M1 macs cause this but reality is (IMHO) Macbook M1 series is really good for battery life (low power consumption, cool running) and cpu demanding tasks. Apart from that, there is no other performance difference with the old mac series. Even considering what you have lost (x86 compability), you wonder if it is worth the innovations.

Apple, thanks for the M1, but there is a lot more to do for the iPad-like Macbook experience. (which is expectation created by most of reviewers for Macbook m1 series)

I am very curious about your experiences in this matter.

I've had my M1 MBA for just over a month and my experience is similar to yours.

The only apps that launch instantly after a cold boot are Safari, notes and reminders. Firefox was initially launching after a single bounce, but after I installed XCode command line tools, it somehow started taking THREE bounces to launch. They're both related because I've tested the same thing twice after a fresh OS install.

iWork apps are take at least 3 bounces whereas my ancient 2012 cMBP launches iWork '09 apps after a SINGLE bounce.

 

[lattepompom2016]

Oh no, this is very alarming. I am just considering to upgrade to an M1 Mac cuz I thought opening apps and safari etc would be a lot snappier? I use my Mac for lesisure purpose not for work, could someone please share his experience whether the system would feel snappier? I pretty much only use safari, Spotify, discord and other Mac utility apps. I am currently using the 2018 MacBook Pro with i9, it always stutter like hell, I think it is some throttle issue.

 

[B.Bain]

On my MBA M1 (base model) all native apps (including FCPX, Compressor, Motion, Photoshop, and MS Word) load with 1 to 2 bounces from a cold start after rebooting; instantaneous afterward. The only apps that take longer are those requiring the emulator.

 

[EugW]

I have M1 Air and this is problem. It needs 7-8 bounces to open Office 365 apps.

I have the same problem with MS Office 2016 on my 2017 Core i5-7600 iMac, for cold launches. I do not have an M1 Mac.

It should be noted though that after a completely fresh re-install with re-installation of Office, it was much, much faster. Still not uber fast, but just a few bounces. But then I restored all my other applications and data, and it went back to 8-12 bounces.

Interestingly, I recently moved a whole bunch of data (Photos library and some other stuff) off my internal SSD and onto an external Samsung T7 SSD. I also deleted some junk on the drive, and then moved other stuff like my iTunes library back onto the internal drive but overall I freed up a ton of space, roughly 400 GB out of the 1 TB SSD. The internal SSD is now about 40% full. The interesting part is although I didn't change much else like the application installs, Office app launching now is down to about 6-8 bounces. Still not great, but a noticeable improvement.

The good news though is since I have 24 GB in this iMac, and my memory usage is not too demanding these days, once I close Office apps they are cached in memory for a long time so that the next time I launch them they are just 1-2 bounces.

Generally native Apple applications launch much, much faster, like 1-3 bounces.

 

[bobcomer]

I agree, the current M1 MBA isn't all that special speed-wise. It does have better battery life and wake from sleep is so much better than a Windows anything laptop. Ethernet with a USB3 dongle is *slow*. Not as slow as wireless, but definitely slower than it should be. If you push it to the edge with a VM and multiple apps, it doesn't fair any better than a Windows machine. It felt faster when I got it late last year, but not so much anymore. (M1, 16G RAM, 1TB SSD)

I'm not even running my MBA right now, I'm waiting for better software and using my Intel Mac Mini instead.

 

[lattepompom2016]

I just tested my 2018 i9 MacBook Pro. After a cold fresh start, safari took 3 bounces to open, spark took 8, all other Mac native apps took 1, pages took 5, number took 5, WhatsApp took 3.

 

[leman]

I think most of users daily computing routine consist of office apps, coding, drawing etc. Macbook M1 major disappointment for me is app launching time (I'm talking about "cold start - first launch" of course). When you click any apps icon on bottom bar, waiting is intolerable. Major apps not start until at least 5-6 bouncing. Sometimes,even bouncing not start instantly. Even iwork apps like keynote or pages not start instantly (4 bounces). For example, i need alternative browser, click to start edge, waiting 7 bounces for cold start, after that, need pdf editing, click pdf editor, wait 8 bounces for cold start (foxit), fastest browser alternative brave need 7 bounces for cold start. Instantly starting apps is JUST safari. If you count apps add notes, calendar to that list.

I have trouble understanding why app launch performance after cold start is relevant in this age and day. Surely you are not shutting down your machine after every use? Reboots and shutdown with these laptops should be the exception, they are designed to hibernate. You are not shutting down your iPhone or iPad when are yo not using them, right?

Bottomline is: fast app launch after cold start is not something Apple optimizes for because it's not a typical use case.

 

[Feyl]

My M1 Mac mini is definitely very very fast and runs totally cold 99,9% of the time, but some apps do take longer to launch than I'd expect. I said it many times on this forum that macOS needs a major optimization in terms of performance regardless of CPU. My Mac mini can't compare even with my other Windows PC in some performance aspects. It's kinda funny how a cheap SATA SSD in my gaming PC performs better than a far superior SSD in my Mac with read/write speeds around gigabytes per second. I think Apple's filesystem APFS is not that good with handling files, so there I think comes the problem with slower app launch. When I started with Mac on Snow Leopard the experience was totally opposite and even years after the OS X ran noticeably better than Windows. So, I'm pretty sure it's not the SOC's fault.