My first Mac (M1 MBP) and...

[richaxes]

... honestly, I'm kind of disappointed considering the money I've spent and what it would've got me in the Windows world.
Being an all-time Windows user (except for phones because I've always preferred iPhones) and always hearing about the finesse and quality of Apple computers I decided to go with the M1 MacBook Pro 16 Gb RAM / 512 Gb storage model. I expected a kind of revelation or something exciting and new, or at least something that's polished and just works.
Well, sadly, my MBP is neither of those. Overall I feel my MBP to be sluggish and laggy. Even the most basic tasks (scrolling, opening apps, browsing the web) feel too demanding, actually straining (I don't know if this is the right word but that's how I feel) which is surprising because I came from a mid-tier Windows laptop and really expected to be blown away by at least the native M1 apps.
I'm also having similar issues to what others are having with Big Sur / M1 such as external display problems and quirky behavior in general, not the kind of super reliability I would have expected. Even the Magic Mouse feels bad and not because I don't think it's a good design, I just feel like the sync between the mouse and the Mac is not really polished and kind of accidental in a way.
Did I expect too much? Maybe my expectations were too high with Macs? I'd consider myself a power user in Windows with a good understanding of what makes a PC quick and how you can preserve that for years living on the same OS. My brand new Mac feels like a 4-5 years old PC with the same Windows that wasn't cared for running for these years. Or is there something I'm missing out on which I should know and understand? I'm really looking for some words of encouragement here because I'm not going to sell this computer anytime soon and I'd like to bring the most out of it.
Thanks in advance.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

Very strange.
My new M1 is lightning fast compared to my Windows Lenovo business laptop. In fact, it is the opposite of "sluggish and laggy", beginning with App opening, browsing, scrolling. Very many here report the same.
Your expectations are absolutely right and should be fulfilled but are not. As the machine is pristine out of the box, a hardware problem is to be suspected.
You could try the Apple Diagnostics (German link but should open in your language): https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT202731
But this is more out of curiosity as you are a Win power user; I think you should contact your point of sale.
I am sorry for you that you did not get so far what you expected.

 

[freshe]

That's a bit of an absurd description. I have ryzen 5600x, super fast m2 ssd, rtx 3090 in my gaming PC and I am now using macbook air m1 for my daily stuff. It's as fast as my PC in daily tasks - like web, scrolling etc. Nothing feels sluggish, slow or 4-5 years old pc-like. Everything is polished. I really like the MAC OS looks and I've been using iPhones since 4s and this is my first mac since in 6 years.

Mouse, keyboard, trackpad, integration with iphone and earphones it works like a breeze. You really don't give any specifics, rather some kind of emotional experience of what you thought it will be like.

 

[leman]

Mac and Windows use different animations and design principles, so what you perceive as lag might very well be just a different animation timing. The M1 chip is currently one of the fastest things for general computing on the planet, so it definitely shouldn’t be sluggish. Anyway, if you are not happy, you should return the machine. What matters most is your experience.

P.S. Are you using google chrome per chance? It’s known to be... not good.

P.P.S. Yes, Magic Mouse is crap. There is no reason to use it over the built in trackpad.

 

[JohnnyGo]

My suggestion would be for you to review which apps are you using. For example: are you using the default Mail/Safari or using Outlook/Chrome ?

Office 365, including Outlook, have a brand new version that is M1-native. Chrome has been noted to still be a resource hog even in the new native version.

You should also install some sort of Ad Block on your browser. Sometimes, slow browsing is just a result of crappy web pages full of ads, not a problem with your computer per se.

If you have the time, and nothing else works, take your new MBP to an Apple store and try to compare your performance to one of the display units while waiting for a Genius appointment.

 

[richaxes]

Thank you all for chiming in.
As for apps, I'm using Safari (Chrome was deleted completely after discovering https://chromeisbad.com) for web browsing, Spark for mail, Messenger for my chats.
What's interesting is that I'm definitely getting some beachballing sometimes even when opening apps - not sure that should be happening. I could definitely go and get my computer checked since I have AppleCare but for some reason I doubt it's a hardware issue.
An adblocker is a great idea though, I'll definitely try that. What should I go for in Safari? I used to use Adblock Plus on my PC in Chrome.

 

[matrix07]

Well, when I first converted to Mac almost 10 years ago I needed a few weeks to adjust to life with Mac as well. Everything didn’t just click. But even then I found Mac hardware much more superior to Windows laptop, especially trackpad that now I can’t live without so I fail to understand why you bought Apple laptop and use a mouse with it?..

 

[richaxes]

Well, when I first converted to Mac almost 10 years ago I needed a few weeks to adjust to life with Mac as well. Everything didn’t just click. But even then I found Mac hardware much more superior to Windows laptop, especially trackpad that now I can’t live without so I fail to understand why you bought Apple laptop and use a mouse with it?..

It's because I mostly use an external display, but I didn't want to miss out on the portability. If portability wouldn't matter at all then I would have gone for the Mac mini.

 

[Violet_Antelope]

To be honest it sounds like you probably got a faulty unit. How long have you been trying it? When they are first set up they can take a while to index etc which can make them feel slower for a bit, but none of my macs when new have ever been laggy, sluggish, or anything like as slow as any Windows system I've ever tried, and I expect the M1s to be far faster.

On the other hand I have never been a fan of the mouse; I find the trackpad far better - internal or external.

 

[richaxes]

To be honest it sounds like you probably got a faulty unit. How long have you been trying it? When they are first set up they can take a while to index etc which can make them feel slower for a bit, but none of my macs when new have ever been laggy, sluggish, or anything like as slow as any Windows system I've ever tried, and I expect the M1s to be far faster.

On the other hand I have never been a fan of the mouse; I find the trackpad far better - internal or external.

I have it for about a week now, I haven't migrated any data though.
On the other hand, I've just plugged in my Logitech G502 Lightspeed and oh my god, seriously. I think at least half of my disappointment came from the Magic Mouse. What a junk.

 

[CheesePuff]

I have it for about a week now, I haven't migrated any data though.
On the other hand, I've just plugged in my Logitech G502 Lightspeed and oh my god, seriously. I think at least half of my disappointment came from the Magic Mouse. What a junk.

It's definitely a love it or hate it response to the Magic Mouse.. for me, I love it and dislike using any "normal" mouse, but I can easily see why others may hate it.

As for the slowness, it may be due to an external display issue - what resolution are you running at, and are you using the built-in display as well or in clamshell mode? Does Activity Monitor show high CPU/GPU usage?

 

[bsmr]

Mac and Windows use different animations and design principles, so what you perceive as lag might very well be just a different animation timing. The M1 chip is currently one of the fastest things for general computing on the planet, so it definitely shouldn’t be sluggish. Anyway, if you are not happy, you should return the machine. What matters most is your experience.

That's it. Windows is more direct and snappy - macOS is all about being nice and design (and more elegant with effects etc.). So macOS feels slower at all.

 

[1240766]

I will have to agree on the performance experience. I too come from a life of Linux and Windows computers, M1 is my first ever Mac.

The performance experience is much as described by the OP - my Windows PC and Linux PC open apps way much faster than my M1, much faster....Coding editors, business productivity apps, etc.

However; one thing that I really like on the Mac is the user experience, that alone justifies my move. The ecosystem integration is amazing, hand gestures, user interface, etc.

Yes, I will keep my Mac, love the experience...but I do miss the speed from other systems.

 

[richaxes]

It's definitely a love it or hate it response to the Magic Mouse.. for me, I love it and dislike using any "normal" mouse, but I can easily see why others may hate it.

As for the slowness, it may be due to an external display issue - what resolution are you running at, and are you using the built-in display as well or in clamshell mode? Does Activity Monitor show high CPU/GPU usage?

I'm running at 1440p 144Hz via a Displayport adapter. I'm using the built-in display too for having True Tone on my external display as well. WindowServer is using quite some CPU (between 20-40%) compared to other apps but this is a known issue with using an external mouse and I guess the external display also has something to do with it.

 

[bsmr]

The performance experience is much as described by the OP - my Windows PC and Linux PC open apps way much faster than my M1, much faster....Coding editors, business productivity apps, etc.

Yes even with M1 it's slower than Windows and Linux systems when opening apps (one big downside for me) - but everything is fine with macOS (for me).

 

[richaxes]

So it pretty much feels like the elephant in the room is the lack of snappiness/more animated feel that manifests like a kind of performance issue but is actually planned and normal. It just seems strange coming from Windows.

 

[Jochheim]

Yes external monitor support is at least subpar in macOS. If you are lucky it just works but there are plenty of problems with the m1 and external displays. BUT the performance should be excellent and I also think you got a faulty unit. Maybe there is a programme running rogue - check activity monitor!

 

[richaxes]

Yes external monitor support is at least subpar in macOS. If you are lucky it just works but there are plenty of problems with the m1 and external displays. BUT the performance should be excellent and I also think you got a faulty unit. Maybe there is a programme running rogue - check activity monitor!

Other than WindowServer which honestly feels like a rogue program with its 20-40% CPU usage, there is nothing special going on in activity monitor.

 

[KShopper]

Likely Chrome running amok. Get rid of it and you'll recover 20-30% of a cpu core.

 

[richaxes]

Likely Chrome running amok. Get rid of it and you'll recover 20-30% of a cpu core.

Like I've mentioned before, I've deleted Chrome from existence after reading up on Keystone.

 

[CheesePuff]

Likely Chrome running amok. Get rid of it and you'll recover 20-30% of a cpu core.

OP already said they deleted Chrome..

 

[1240766]

Yes even with M1 it's slower than Windows and Linux systems when opening apps (one big downside for me) - but everything is fine with macOS (for me).

With proper quotations from my post it is clear I am saying the same as you, actually more towards my appreciation for Mac.

 

[leman]

The performance experience is much as described by the OP - my Windows PC and Linux PC open apps way much faster than my M1, much faster....Coding editors, business productivity apps, etc.

Can't really confirm this experience. One thing that might be relevant is that macOS apps will usually show a splash screen (or at least indicate loading by bouncing in the dock) while on Windows it's usually you click at an app's icon and the app then launches some time later. It's similar to the OS boot speed — if you measure the time from the moment the OS starts booting until the moment you get to a (useable) desktop, Windows is faster than macOS. But: macOS will start all the autostart apps and restore the previous app state before presenting you the desktop, while Windows is still loading all the background stuff when you can see the desktop.

Linux is generally faster than either, because Linux is designed from the ground for very fast process launch (it's primary use is as a server platform after all, where launching a new process for each request is a standard practice), but it also generally does much less work (no app signature checking, no sandboxing, limited filesystem monitoring etc.). If I remember correctly, system dynamic libraries on macOS are also extremely fast as macOS maintains a dedicated library cache that just loads all the core dylibs at once.

 

[nothingtoseehere]

I am rather surprised to hear that many judge the Mac experience as slower. My 13" MBP early 2015, Intel Core i5 w/ 2.9 GHz, was (and is) as fast as my Lenovo T470s i7 quad-core (in Apple jargon that would be late 2016, I suppose ;-).

My MBP was mostly in clamshell mode with an external 4K monitor.

M1 mini: Much faster than everything.

How about reducing screen motion? https://support.apple.com/de-de/guide/mac-help/mchlc03f57a1/mac

 

[FNH15]

I'm running at 1440p 144Hz via a Displayport adapter. I'm using the built-in display too for having True Tone on my external display as well. WindowServer is using quite some CPU (between 20-40%) compared to other apps but this is a known issue with using an external mouse and I guess the external display also has something to do with it.

Are you sure you’re actually running @ 144Hz? Could be the sluggishness you’re perceiving is the monitor running @ a low refresh rate…