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

[leman]

You don't have to wait to close the lid, you can close it right away, but anyway, why close the lid? I don't normally do that if it's sitting on a desk. As for shutting down every night on laptops, people that use a desktop too, or came from a desktop, they do tend to do a full shutdown every night. And desktop users, a lot of them do even though I tell them not to. Enough hardware has trouble with sleep states, especially USB connected hardware -- even on the M1, that it's not such a bad thing to just do a shutdown rather than discovering something didn't come out of sleep right. My USB Nic sometimes doesn't wake up properly on my MBA.

The USB sleep issues are definitely a problem and Apple should fix them. I can also understand that folks using desktops tend to turn them off more frequently. To clarify: I definitely have nothing agains improving the performance of application launches after cold boot, I just disagree that this issue ranks as high on the severity list as some in this thread appear to suggest.

Does anyone know how is it on Monterey? If Apple intended to change the behavior, they would have done it on macOS 12. If there are no changes in regards to cold app launch there, then I wouldn't get my hopes up.

 

[Vandeuren Glenn]

It is not that simple. Check out the baseline specs—not the high end specs. Also check out razer’s qc issues. But hey roll the dice. Like I said, I would go with Lenovo honestly if I was going to go with a gaming laptop. The ports thing is legitimate. I definitely agree, but Lenovo has those as well and they don’t get as hot.
The display also sucks by comparison at only 1080p…

Every Lenovo I had died or I returned, my cousin has a Lenovo and is really not happy.
Acer also tends to die quicker then others.
I'll stick with Asus laptops and custom desktop with MSI or Asus for the motherboard.

 

[UBS28]

It is not that simple. Check out the baseline specs—not the high end specs. Also check out razer’s qc issues. But hey roll the dice. Like I said, I would go with Lenovo honestly if I was going to go with a gaming laptop. The ports thing is legitimate. I definitely agree, but Lenovo has those as well and they don’t get as hot.
The display also sucks by comparison at only 1080p…

What QC issues have read about the Blade Razer 14? Nobody has it yet and none of the reviewers have reported any QC issues. So you are making it up.

The high-end spec of the 13” M1 MBP is closest to the Razer Blade 14 base spec, so you should compare it against that if you want to judge how “expensive” the laptops are.

And this “bad“ 1080p display just happens to be a low latency 144hz display. Some would say 60hz still sucks. Even the iPad Pro’s have had 120hz displays for years.

Calling the Razer Blade 14” more expensive is not true, and you know it if you actually compare similarly spec’ed models

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

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.

Or how about set them to automatically open up when he starts his machine, so they are there waiting for him for when he needs them?

 

[Puonti]

Or how about set them to automatically open up when he starts his machine, so they are there waiting for him for when he needs them?

Sure - the one distinction there is that if you just want to start the computer for a quick email or something, then you'll have to deal with applications starting up automatically when you really don't want them to.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

What QC issues have read about the Blade Razer 14? Nobody has it yet and none of the reviewers have reported any QC issues. So you are making it up.

The high-end spec of the 13” M1 MBP is closest to the Razer Blade 14 base spec, so you should compare it against that if you want to judge how “expensive” the laptops are.

And this “bad“ 1080p display just happens to be a low latency 144hz display. Some would say 60hz still sucks. Even the iPad Pro’s have had 120hz displays for years.

Calling the Razer Blade 14” more expensive is not true, and you know it if you actually compare similarly spec’ed models

See, you say that, but track records matter. Did we have to gete a pre-M1 Macbook with the crappy keyboard to know it was going to be crappy? No, based on the past laptops, we knew. Same thing here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/oimzdo
That is just one of hundreds. QC is an issue even if you want to ignore it. Just like it was for the mac and that crappy keyboard.

Also, THIS IS A HIGH END laptop--IT HAS A 3060. Sorry you don't like it, but Apple hasn't filled that niche with an M1 product yet.

Again, check out the Lenovo Legion line, it is much better. (I am helping you with your argument--it is far easier to defend.)

Edited to add, look if I had to get just one computer for all my needs (gaming, coding, writing, blogging, basic graphics and video editing) it would be a gaming laptop like you describe (but instead I would get a lenovo legion 5 or 7 with a 3070). This is still Apples to Oranges. I bought an M1 MBA 8GB 256GB for less than $1000. Period. So I SAVED money and got a better display for coding and writing (retina)--I don't care about 144Hz for that stuff. I have a gaming monitor that goes 165Hz with my desktop.

So have at! Get that bad boy. Some people really love Razers. That is until there is an issue. Apple Stores and Best Buys (Apple Authorized Repair Sites) are everywhere. Razer stores? Not so much. But seriously, it isn't like the thing is crap, go for it!

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Every Lenovo I had died or I returned, my cousin has a Lenovo and is really not happy.
Acer also tends to die quicker then others.
I'll stick with Asus laptops and custom desktop with MSI or Asus for the motherboard.

I get that...I am just going by reddit.com/r/gaminglaptops.

The Legions are really well thought of and that group is hard to please.

I am just going to stick with my former hackintosh-turned-gaming-PC that has a Radeon 580 for now until prices come down...the wattage and performance is so much better in the desktops.

 

[bobcomer]

I just disagree that this issue ranks as high on the severity list as some in this thread appear to suggest.

It's not really a problem for me either. I'm always pushing my RAM limits anyway and that can increase load times anyway, not to mention spinning up VM's

Does anyone know how is it on Monterey? If Apple intended to change the behavior, they would have done it on macOS 12. If there are no changes in regards to cold app launch there, then I wouldn't get my hopes up.

I wouldn't know, I haven't tried it yet, but nobody does sleep well. Windows is even worse and brand/model of PC makes a lot of difference too.
.

 

[PsykX]

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

I mean, Office apps on the Mac have never really been optimized.
Since my 2006 iMac, Office has always been slower on the Mac.

But 9 bounces in the Dock, seems a lot. I mean, a lot.
Even my old 2013 iMac is faster than this, CPU is 2.5X slower and SSD is 5X slower than your M1.

 

[robco74]

The Razer 14 is a nice laptop, but it doesn't really compete with anything Apple offers. For the M1 laptops, I would say their closest competitor is the Razer Book, which is a nice laptop. Still, no AMD, and even if there was, AMD opted not to update the GPU cores for the 5000 series, so I'm not sure how their iGPUs compare to M1. Intel's Iris Xe is better than previous offerings.

In any case, I don't really see how the number of app icon bounces is a good indicator of overall system performance. As long as the app performs well once it's up and running, I don't see the big deal. Every use case is different, and Apple doesn't try to be all things to every user. For gamers, Windows is obviously a better choice. The iGPU in M1 is impressive, but they are not gaming machines. Razer has done pretty well by mimicking Apple's hardware design ethos and bringing it to the gamer community. But Apple's focus will always be elsewhere.

 

[HEK]

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 restart my M1 Mac Book Pro perhaps once per week or two, if then. Otherwise I just close lid let it sleep. Next day everything is still up and loaded. in last six months I can count on fingers of one hand where I found a need to reboot the Mac. That has always been when hung up in a game I regularly play daily. Hardly ever seem to have any problems. I do the same with my iPhone and iPad Pro M1.

Am curious why you shut down each day? Is there an actual reason, or is it habit.

 

[ian87w]

Regarding Office apps start time, yes, I do notice them taking a bit longer time to start now. I'm on mac mini 2012 with catalina. I feel it's one of the recent updates to Office, as they were loading up fairly briskly before.

 

[ctjack]

I was very sceptic at first about the power of M1 Macs, so i didn't believe in them right away. In fact i hold on to my regular 17 inch gaming monster laptop from Lenovo. Did the side-by-side comparison.
I will not lie and tell you that subjectively 6-core gaming laptop felt faster. That is because Windows starts doing something right away while Mac annoys you with this empty bouncing.
Then i took the timer and Davinci was opening the same 15 seconds on both machines, while Lightroom took 8 seconds also equally. Then i started editing photo - no real difference. Started editing video - actually M1 was quite better: nvidia 1660Ti was stuttering at 4k60 video from Iphone, while M1 didn't even notice it.
So the conclusion for me was the fact that M1 is indeed faster at some point and equal to a huge bulky 17 inch gaming laptop while being quiet. That was enough of evidence for me to return 8lbs Lenovo laptop and switch to Mac Air completely.
Subjectively Win animations feel faster, while in reality everything is the same or better.