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The M5 MacBook Pro still gets the Broadcom WiFi chip but the M5 iPad Pros get the N1 and C1X (Sweet). All in all, apple is doing some incredible things with ha

The M5 MacBook Pro still gets the Broadcom WiFi chip but the M5 iPad Pros get the N1 and C1X (Sweet). All in all, apple is doing some incredible things with hardware. Software teams at apple really need to get their act together. The M1 itself is so powerful that nobody really needs to upgrade that for most things most people do on their computers. Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish doing the exact same tasks ive been last couple of years. I really hope this is not intentional from Apple to make me upgrade. That would be a big let down.

imcritic 1y ago
[flagged]
- alimbada 1y ago
  I've been using an iPhone 11 for 4 years now (also, reminder: the 11 was launched 2 years prior to when I bought mine). I replaced the battery earlier this year as it wouldn't last to the end of the day any more but besides that it's showing no slowdowns or any other issues.
  - bombcar 1y ago
    Do you have iOS 26 on it? That pigdog is making my 15 Pro Max sweat and cry.
    - alimbada 1y ago
      I only just upgraded to iOS 18 recently. I'm unlikely to go to 26 unless there's a good reason to do so.
    - icedchai 1y ago
      I have an iPhone 13 and haven't upgraded yet. Sounds like I should hold off.
      - bombcar 1y ago
        I haven't really found anything that blew my socks off, and the number of "strange bugs" (not even talking about the UI complaints, just things like "touch stops working suddenly" and other weird things) is too damn high.
        icedchai 1y ago
        I'll probably wait for 26.1 then!
      - tonyedgecombe 1y ago
        My SE has been fine with iOS 26.
      - criddell 1y ago
        I have an iPhone 13 Mini and upgraded is iOS 26 and it seems fine to me. I also have a 2018 iPad Pro and put iPadOS 26 on it and I haven't had any issues on it either except sometimes my keyboard is slow to connect. I'm not sure if it's the software or hardware though.
    - chasd00 1y ago
      i don't see what the big deal is with iOS 26. it looks a little bit different, everything now seems to have some degree of transparency but everything works the same.
    - rsynnott 1y ago
      Never, ever, upgrade to any Apple OS until at least .1. .0 is _always_ broken.
- mumber_typhoon 1y ago
  What I have seen with iPhones is that the ram has gone from 4gb to 12gb very quickly compared to how it went from 1gb to 3gb. Apps used to use less ram but over the years apps have become big and more complicated. This is probably why iPhones feel sluggish because new iPhones have more memory and apps snap back faster as newer iPhones which also have faster storage and memory bandwidth to reduce latency of reading more data from the flash. Batteries are also a problem as maintaining voltage is difficult for a 2-3 year old battery. An official battery swap at apple service for a 3 year old iPhone will make it run much better. I used to believe (and sometimes I still do) that apple intentionally makes everything heavier to make old phones and devices feel slower but I don't think thats the case. I think that more things are happening on newer phones and devices and that same task feels slower on older device. This happens are lot faster on iPhones and phones in general (a year or two) as opposed to Macs/computers which can show signs of aging in 4-5 years. My 2018 intel computer feels very slow in 2025 running Gnome. No one slowed it down. It's just that the 2025 world of software is a lot heavier and 2026 will be even more and so on.
  - HumblyTossed 1y ago
    Apps are heavier because a lot of them do not use native code. It's all cross platform BS. And they include a lot of A/B code as well. Really wish Apple would nip that all in the bud.
  - bloppe 1y ago
    Apple has been proven to intentionally slow down older devices, but it's definitely not to inflate their profits. It's just a way to kindly preserve your old battery for you. And they try to keep it a secret from you so you don't get confused.
    - rsynnott 1y ago
      … Eh? It was neither. It was due to a design defect in a particular model; if voltage fell into a range that was perfectly possible with an aging but still functional battery, the SoC would shut off. The only viable software fix was to clock it down instead (there was an option to decline that and risk the abrupt shutoffs). Not really sure what else they could have done there.
- the_other 1y ago
  My iPhone X worked fine for 7 years, even without a battery replacement. It still works just fine. I wanted a larger screen and better zoom lens, so I upgraded earlier this year but I absolutely didn't have to and didn't feel any pressure from Apple to do so. n=1.
- endemic 1y ago
  No more than any other company.
- tempoponet 1y ago
  They support their phones for years longer than any vendor. This has been widely understood for probably 10+ years at this point. There's plenty of room for criticism without a blanket conspiracy that doesn't match what most can observe.
  - imcritic 1y ago
    Support means that the manufacturer just still releases OS updates. But it says absolutely nothing about the quality of those updates: what if those updates simply degrade the situation? Every iPhone user I know says the same without conspiring with each other: it's better to stop updating to newer major OS releases for older iPhones.
pantalaimon 1y ago
Won't that make Linux support even harder :/
- singularfutur 1y ago
  I tried many times to install linux on my m4 and it's very limited (only Asahi) and not with a great support of features like sleep. It's painful so at the end of the day, I restart with osx
ksec 1y ago
The Broadcom WiFi support 320Mhz while N1 is stuck with 160Mhz. There were report of N1 not supporting 4096 QAM as well but I didn't check.
- HumblyTossed 1y ago
  "stuck". An infinitely small percentage of people can take advantage of 320Mhz. It's fine.
  - londons_explore 1y ago
    Today. But in 3 years time it'll be widespread and your Mac will be the one with the sluggish WiFi connection that jams up the airwaves for all other devices too.
    - shwaj 1y ago
      How does it “jam up the airwaves” if its operating at a different frequency than the devices you say it will be jamming?
    - landl0rd 1y ago
      It really won't, and there will be a ton of devices "jamming up" the airwaves. In most places the backhaul isn't fast enough for anyone to get any use for 320MHz channels beyond maybe very large LAN file transfers which are for some reason happening over WiFi?
      - fragmede 1y ago
        Thankfully, there has been nothing new to use computers for since 2022. Definitely no new technology that involves downloading different 10+ Gib large files to test with, and users couldn't possibly conceive of a NAS, nevermind owning one because Netflix has never removed shows while people are watching them, breaking an assumed promise by users. ISP speeds are never ever going to improve either. Everyone knows that!
- 1y ago
kokada 1y ago
> Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish doing the exact same tasks ive been last couple of years. I have a work provided M2 Pro with 32GB of RAM. After the Tahoe upgrade it feels like one of the sluggish PCs at the house. It is the only one that I can see the mouse teleporting sometimes when I move it fast. This is after disabling transparency in Accessibility settings mind you, it was even worse before.
- fersarr 1y ago
  same here
- ExoticPearTree 1y ago
  26.0.1 fixed the sluggishness. 26.0 was pretty unstable - felt like a game dropping frames.
  - kokada 1y ago
    26.0.1 is better, but I can still get sluggishness in a few specific cases. I just got one example while passing the mouse quickly through my dock (I still use the magnify animation) and I can clearly see it dropping a few frames. This never happened in macOS 15.
- speedgoose 1y ago
  Do you have a few electron powered apps that didn’t get updated yet? Electron used to override a private function that makes the Mac OS sluggish on Tahoe, and apparently no one uses Electron apps while doing testing at Apple.
  - kokada 1y ago
    I keep my applications pretty much up-to-date but I didn't check the release notes for each Electron application that I have to make sure they're updated. I still think this is a failure of macOS, since one misbehaving application shouldn't bring the whole environment to slow to a crawl. What I can say is that while the situation is much better than at Day 1, the whole Tahoe experience is not as fluid as Sequoia. Also, it doesn't really matter to me if this was a private function or not, if this was Windows or Gnome/KDE people would blame the developers of the desktop instead.
lelandfe 1y ago
As a UI/UX nerd, it’s a coin flip on intentionality. I’ve been noticing so many rough edges to Apple’s software when it used to astound. iOS Settings search will flash “No Results” as you begin to type which is comically amateurish. The macOS menu bar control panels can’t be keyboard navigated... It’s just silly. I’ve been debating making a Tumblr-style blog, something like “dumbapple.com,” to catalogue all the dumb crap I notice.
- butlike 1y ago
  iirc, there's a setting to make the menu bar navigatable. you just need to "alt+tab" to it with some weird button combo, like Ctrl + Cmd + 1 or something.
  - lelandfe 1y ago
    You can turn on "Full Keyboard Access," which paints a hideous rectangle around anything you focus but does allow keyboard access to everything. But, like, man - why can't I just use the arrow keys to select my WiFi network anymore? I was able to for a decade. And the answer, of course, is the same for so much of macOS' present rough edges. Apple took some iPadOS interface elements, rammed them into the macOS UI, and still have yet to sand the welds. For how much we complain on HN about Electron, we really need to be pissed about Catalyst/Marzipan. Why does the iCloud sign in field have me type on the right side of an input? Why does that field have an iPadOS cursor? Why can't I use Esc to close its help sheet? Why aren't that sheet's buttons focusable? Why does the Stocks app have a Done button appear when I focus its search field? Why does its focus ring lag behind the search field's animated size? Where in the HIG does it sign off on unfocusable text-only bolded buttons, like Maps uses? https://imgur.com/a/e7PB5jm https://imgur.com/a/e7PB5jm ...Anyway.
  - netcoyote 1y ago
    There's also an app, MenuWhere, that enables you to configure different keys to walk the menu bar. It's free (but nagware). https://manytricks.com/menuwhere/ https://manytricks.com/menuwhere/
    - deleted 1y ago
Insanity 1y ago
Yeah I love my M1 iPad Pro. But the "liquid glass" update made it feel slower. Really only the 'unlock' feels slower, once I'm using it it's fine. But it's slightly annoying and does make me want to update this year to the m5. But it's a glorified Kindle and YouTube box, so I'm hesitating a little bit.
- asimovDev 1y ago
  my dad's got a pre AS iPad Pro and it's so bad after updating to 26. My 6th gen iPad on iOS 17 felt faster than this
  - baq 1y ago
    I have a 5th gen? Can’t even remember now it’s so old. Nothing works anymore except Netflix, YouTube and Disney, and that only after a minute or so. Which is fine, since it’s exclusively used to watch a kids show for a half an hour a day. …but it’s also super sad to see a once fantastic piece of kit to degrade so much primarily due to software.
- knowitnone3 1y ago
  "make me want to update this year to the m5." Then Apple software devs did what they were told
butlike 1y ago
I think it's probably a play to get you to upgrade for the new GPU computational power. I _do_ think that what we're seeing (and marketed as AI) will be the future, but I don't think it will look like what we're seeing now. Whatever that future holds will require the upgraded capabilities of these new GPU architectures, and this being a reason for the subtle nudge to upgrade from Apple makes sense to me. It feels very much like how I imagine someone living in the late 1800's might have felt. The advent of electricity, the advent of cars, but can't predict airplanes, even though they're right around the corner and they'll have likely seen them in their lifetime.
WhitneyLand 1y ago
“nobody really needs to upgrade that for most things” Maybe, but for lots of scenarios even M5 could still benefit from being an order of magnitude faster. AI, dev, some content scenarios, etc…
hexbin010 1y ago
[dead]
dawnerd 1y ago
I’m still daily driving my M1 Max and have no reason to upgrade for a long time. There’s really nothing in my workflow that could be markedly improved performance wise. There’s only thing is maybe more ram as the need for that keeps growing - I’m isn’t just under 30 when running a bunch of containers.
SkyPuncher 1y ago
There are so many software related things that drive me absolutely loony with Apple right now. * My iPhone as a remote for my Apple TV has randomly stopped deciding it can control the volume - despite the "Now Playing" UI offering an audio control that works. There auth screens drive me crazy: * Why cannot I not punch in a password while Face ID is working? If I'm skiing, I know Face ID isn't gong to work, stop making me wait. * Likewise, on Apple TV the parental control input requires me to explicitly choose to enter a Pin Code. Why? Just show me the Pin Code screen. If I can approve from my device, I will. * Similarly, if I use my phone as a remote, why do I need to manually click out of the remote to get to the parental control approval screen. I'm literally using my phone. Just auto-approve.
- strbean 1y ago
  > * Why cannot I not punch in a password while Face ID is working? If I'm skiing, I know Face ID isn't gong to work, stop making me wait. Funny, a similar thing has been driving me crazy on my Ubuntu 20.04 laptop with fingerprint login. When unlocking, I can either enter a password or use fingerprint. On boot, I am not allowed to enter a password until I fail with fingerprint. If I use fingerprint to log in on boot, I have to enter my password anyways once logged in to unlock my keychain. I should probably just figure out a way to disable fingerprint on boot and only use it for the lock screen.
  - prettymuchnoone 1y ago
    I think this is a GNOME thing...the keychain by default has the same password as the login password, so logging in with the password unlocks it too. fingerprint login doesn't unlock it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38527876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38527876, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME/Keyring https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME/Keyring
    - strbean 1y ago
      Yeah, I've resigned myself to that. The part that irks me is that it doesn't present a password prompt (on initial login) until fingerprint attempts are exhausted.
thenaturalist 1y ago
Don't kidd yourself: Planned obsolescence is real. Apple has a higher duty to their shareholders than to their customers. Not hating on Apple, just stating the hard economic truth.
- NetMageSCW 1y ago
  Nope, never been real, never will be real. Just conspiracy theories like all the others. PS The Earth isn’t flat. We did go to the Moon. Vaccines don’t cause autism.
  - otikik 1y ago
    Planed obsolescence is not a conspiracy. Apple specifically has been proven to sneakily add "silently slow down the hardware" to their updates. But there's examples of planned obsolescence abound.
  - thenaturalist 1y ago
    Yes, it's real and it's plain funny that you discredit simple facts in a case as obvious and with as many data points as Apple. From the 2005 iPods settlement [0], to the 113 Mio USD Batterygate [1], to Flexgate [2] where Apple only escaped settlement due to plausible deniability. To quote from Batterygate: > Apple has agreed to pay millions of dollars to 34 states over its controversial previous practice of deliberately slowing down older iPhones to extend their battery life. > [...] > Many believed it was an effort to encourage users to buy new iPhones. I agree on all your "PS" points, where we seem to differ is that reading is a virtue and not knowing something because you haven't heard of it doesn't constitute a conspiracy theory. 0: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ipod-class-action-suit-settled/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ipod-class-action-suit-settled/ 1: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/tech/apple-battery-settlement/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/tech/apple-battery-settle... 2: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/20/flexgate-class-action-lawsuit-dismissed/ https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/20/flexgate-class-action-l...
    - jwhiles 1y ago
random3 1y ago
This needs benchmarks. Sad if true. I feel my M1 max sluggish too lately. After bragging that this was the longest lived work machine I had and thinking I'm good to wait for M6. This is not good for business, but IMO you need more than raw power to justify upgrades even for professional use - form factor, screen quality, battery, etc. I think they bet a lot of hardware money on AI capabilities, but failed to deliver the software, so there was no real reason to upgrade because of AI features in the chip (which is literally what they boast on the first line of the announcement - yet nobody cares about making more cute faces) It's not 100% their fault. Everyone got onto the LLM bandwagon like it's "the thing" so even if they didn't believe it they sill needed something. Except an OS is not a chat interface, and LLMs do suck at stricter things.
lawlessone 1y ago
>The M1 itself is so powerful that nobody really needs to upgrade that for most things most people do on their computers a rant on my part, but a computer from 10 years ago would be fine for what most people do on their computer, only for software bloat..
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish Counterpoint: my M1 Pro was a turtle for a few weeks and then stopped doing nonsense in the background and is back to its zippy self. (Still buggy. But that would be true on new hardware, too.)
- quadyeast 1y ago
  mediaanalysisd has been consuming ~140% CPU since upgrading a few weeks ago. I just turned off Apple Intelligence and it dropped to 0%.
seunosewa 1y ago
My M1 Air got very sluggish after upgrading to Tahoe but then it started behaving normally after a couple of days. Hopefully, you'll experience the same soon.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- raspasov 1y ago
  Probably building a spotlight index or something of that sort.
antipaul 1y ago
Which is harder these days, software or hardware?
- DSingularity 1y ago
  Each challenging in their own ways. The real challenge is that we need codesign and that’s the tricky part.
kwanbix 1y ago
I really wish apple sold the Mx to others like Lenovo. I would love to se a ThinkPad with an M5 running Linux.
- fph 1y ago
  What is the Linux experience on new Mac hardware? I'd be interested also in running a Macbuntu.
  - bmdhacks 1y ago
    Asahi linux is essentially in a holding pattern with only support up to M2. Likely linux will never be supported above M2 and even M2 has a lot of rough edges. When my monitor sleeps on M2 linux it can never reawaken without a reboot.
    - cpuguy83 1y ago
      So the normal Linux desktop experience then! I kid, I kid.
      - pxc 1y ago
        maybe the normal desktop Linux experience in 1996
- tomekf 1y ago
  There are very nice Thinkpads running on Snapdragon now. But no Linux is available…
greg5green 1y ago
>The M5 MacBook Pro still gets the Broadcom WiFi chip but the M5 iPad Pros get the N1 and C1X (Sweet). Is that good? Their cellular modems have been terrible. I'll reserve judgement until trying one out. >The M1 itself is so powerful I think this is a bit of a fallacy. Apple Silicon is great for the power consumption to power ratio, but something like a Ryzen 9 7945HX can do 3x more work than an M1 Max. And a non-laptop chip, like an Intel Core Ultra 7 265k can do 3.5x.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- wizee 1y ago
  Those ratios seem way off if you're referring to the M1 Max and not the base M1. If we use Geekbench CPU performance, the Ryzen 9 7945HX (which is from 2023) is around 12% faster single core and 32% faster multicore than the M1 Max (which is from 2021). If you look at the 2024 M4 Max, it's substantially faster than the Ryzen and Intel you mentioned. https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/amd-ryzen-9-7945hx https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/amd-ryzen-9-7945hx https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/intel-core-ultra-7-265k https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/intel-core-ultra-7-... https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2021-apple-m1-max https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2021-... https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2024-16c-cpu https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2024-...
- Avamander 1y ago
  Having a cellular modem on a MacBook would be really handy even if it's not perfect.
- n8cpdx 1y ago
  Source re:modem claims? Performance seems fine in general, modestly slower on very high end networks but using 25% less power. Performance claims: https://www.ookla.com/articles/iphone-c1-modem-performance-q2-q3-2025 https://www.ookla.com/articles/iphone-c1-modem-performance-q... Energy claims: https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/02/27/apples-c1-modem-breaks-no-records-for-speed-but-is-exceptionally-power-efficient https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/02/27/apples-c1-modem-b...
phamduongtria 1y ago
Even the M4 Max MacBook, I tried in the stores were running like shit on Tahoe
port11 1y ago
It's incredible what the hardware teams at Apple have been doing. I imagine they also feel let down by the software that's driving these beasts. It's as if they're 2 completely different companies.
- kenjackson 1y ago
  The latest iPhone OS (iOS 26) is embarrassing. The number of glitches and amount of UI sloppiness is crazy for a company that historically prided itself on the details. It's the first major iOS update I've taken that just seems almost strictly worse than its predecessor.
  - paweladamczuk 1y ago
    I remember using my first Apple product years ago, it was an iPod touch 4th gen. The quality of the software on that thing was in a completely different league compared to anything I had used before. I also installed the iOS 26 update recently. The competitive advantage of software polish that Apple had seems totally gone. Add to that bugs in iCloud, AirDrop... I don't think I will be buying any more Apple devices for myself.
    - 0xWTF 1y ago
      What line of laptops is in the same league as the MacBook Pro?
      - mrheosuper 1y ago
        pretty much any ultrabook at the same price range: Dell XPS, Microsoft Surface
  - georgel 1y ago
    This feels more like a repeat of iOS7 to me.
    - Andrew_nenakhov 1y ago
wartywhoa23 1y ago
> ...The <thing I own right now> is so powerful that nobody really needs to upgrade... I keep hearing this since the Intel 486DX times, and > Nobody will ever need more than 640K of RAM!
- bombcar 1y ago
  This is the first time I’ve gone four+ years without even a real desire to upgrade, I have a hard time figuring out even what would be faster. Amusingly enough, adding more ports could do it.
dimal 1y ago
Seems like the software teams are there to simply squander the extra processing power that the hardware teams provide, thus ensuring recurring revenue. I see no good reason to upgrade to Tahoe. I’d have to buy a new computer just so I could power transparencies that I don’t want.
- bsimpson 1y ago
  This feels like it's always been true. Devices get slower for no perceivable reason, when in reality software at all levels makes higher assumptions about how much power you have, and squanders it more readily.
- hahamaster 1y ago
  Disable transparencies in Settings then. Simple.
DecentShoes 1y ago
They always release a slowdown update to destroy their older hardware. I don't know why you're even questioning it
- red369 1y ago
  I agree with your feeling that about Apple devices eventually getting updates to the point they becomes sluggish. I have just reached that point with iOS 26 and my iPhone 13 mini. I am undecided in my thoughts about how malicious this is. Do people think that it is something like wanting to cram more features into the operating systems, and they are careless how it affects the earliest supported models? Or do most people think it is planned obsolescence? Apple generally offer updates longer than Android, so is it more pronounced on iPhones than Android phones? I remember seeing similar slow-downs on Android phones in the past. Apple generally offer updates for iOS for less time than Windows. I don't really have a feel for the difference between the two in terms of how much new versions slow down older hardware. Obviously separating feature updates and security updates would be a way to address, and it's not possible that no one at Apple has considered that idea. They are a business and selling new products is unfortunately a disincentive pushing them away from doing that.
  - rester324 1y ago
    Apple was fined all over the world for intentional malicious software slowdown by different courts in many countries. Just google "batterygate". At this point this a proven fact that apple had been doing this. I am pretty sure they continue to do so. Why would they stop?
    - tiltowait 1y ago
      The slowdown occurs on systems that can't hold sufficient charge to reliably power the CPU to full anymore. If the battery can't supply the expected voltage, then the system simply shuts off. That is much worse than slowing down. This feature inarguably increased longevity—hardly what I'd expect from a "planned obsolescence" scheme. They did make a mistake, though: they should have been up-front about it. They should have advertised it rather than hiding it away.
nixpulvis 1y ago
I would be soo excited if apple split out the hardware and software orgs and moved to make hardware more standardized with macos/ios/etc being just one consumer. Not going to happen, but I can dream.
throw0101d 1y ago
> The M5 MacBook Pro still gets the Broadcom WiFi chip but the M5 iPad Pros get the N1 and C1X (Sweet). I think many IT departments will be thankful for that as Wifi behaviour can be challenging and hopefully will lower ticket counts.
rester324 1y ago
If Tahoe made M1 slower then I am sure it was intentional. Apple had done this in the past and been fined for hundreds of millions in different courts all over the world. So I am pretty sure they continue slowing software down intentionally on older hardware. You can google "batterygate" and you can see for yourself
sharts 1y ago
The reason for better hardware is so software can lag more.
nofunsir 1y ago
Before the whole "batterygate" thing[1], there were forums and discussions on macrumors and similar inquiring about the feasibility of inserting no-op codes deep below the kernel that would kick in under certain conditions. Post-batterygate, you can't find anything NOT about batterygate when searching. 1] Which I still firmly believe WAS indeed a power-supply design failure that would have forced a massive hardware recall had they not done something (slowing down the os). I believe it encompassed everything from inaccurate CPU power estimates to something actually incorrect with the PCB design, causing brown outs - and not merely a battery-aging red herring as is the reported scandalous reason they were "caught". In fact, I think Apple is GLAD that all it amounted to was some philosophical hullabaloo about protecting your poor aging battery. To clarify, I suspect the "aging battery" merely exposed the real issue - the incorrect PS design - which Apple successfully covered up.
- mnurzia 1y ago
  Do you have any links to these discussion posts? This sounds very interesting, and I'm intrigued to learn more about the hardware explanation for this phenomenon.
  - nofunsir 1y ago
    Nope. I know a couple were on macrumors forums. And to be clear, there were suspicions of Apple slowing down devices to get you to upgrade far before Batterygate. It used to be painfully obvious, but with apple's protections it wasn't knowable.
eboynyc32 1y ago
I think Tahoe is great on my m1 studio. It’s the first os update in a long time that I actually like. The new design feels very futuristic. And I think I’ll get an m5 MacBook Air. There no better computer deal . Even my m1 computer 5 year old still never has any issue with video or render. It’s insane.
jbverschoor 1y ago
>> Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish doing the exact same tasks ive been last couple of years Quit the Dropbox app, it’s electron, and it’s brand spanking new
fx1994 1y ago
That's why I did not upgrade :) I upgraded VM and when I saw how slow it was, it was a no no for my M2...
discomrobertul8 1y ago
> Software teams at apple really need to get their act together. WatchOS 26 has rendered my Apple Watch almost useless. It's gone from lasting a whole day including 2 cycling 'workouts' for my commute and the occasional lunch time run (or gym session before work) to now being at 40% battery by the time I make my mid-morning coffee and dead before I get home. I don't use most of the 'smart' features anyway - I'm mostly using the fitness features - so I'll probably switch to a Garmin at some point.
- bean469 1y ago
  > I don't use most of the 'smart' features anyway - I'm mostly using the fitness features - so I'll probably switch to a Garmin at some point. If that's your use case, I can absolutely recommend getting one. I have a Forerunner 745 and it works great for workouts alongside some smart functions like NFC payments, quick-replies to texts, etc. The battery lasts for days as well, which you can't really beat.
  - cdaven 1y ago
    > The battery lasts for days as well, which you can't really beat. The Garmin Instinct 2X's (and 3) battery lasts for 40 days in smartwatch mode, not counting the solar charging. The Instinct is an "outdoor watch" with a monochrome display, but it has most features the Forerunners have.
    - ansgri 1y ago
      Also it has a proper builtin flashlight which is surprisingly useful. Amazing watch, especially if you get a comfortable aftermarket strap e.g. from Hemsut.
      - konsnos 1y ago
        Dropping in to add that the Venu 4 is an amazing watch as well. Battery says it'll last 14 days. With Pulse Ox enabled at Sleep, it drops to 11, but I'm happy with the tradeoff. Workouts like running for half an hour drop it even more, but comparing it to an Apple Watch, it's no match. It has a flashlight as well and looks like a normal smartwatch instead of rugged. All in all, if you care more about health features rather than watch<->phone connectivity, a Garmin is worth it.
RataNova 1y ago
And it kind of defeats the purpose of having such powerful hardware if the OS isn't keeping up (or worse, actively throttling older devices)
mcculley 1y ago
Does this mean that the MacBook Pro still has no option for a cellular modem?
xz0r 1y ago
I've seen every new OS update leading to M1 Air performance degrade, at this point I'm pretty convinced Apple is doing this intentionally. Edit: Same experience with iPhone X Edit2: I still remember the feeling when I got them initially - that Apple is on customer's side, but now I feel totally helpless and i'm being forced to upgrade
- noname120 1y ago
  I haven’t noticed this to be honest: macOS 26 Tahoe is the first update that significantly hindered the performances of my MacBook Air M1. Even with the Electron _cornerMask fix + disabling auto heuristics at the OS level.
  - samat 1y ago
    Same thing, thinking about reinstalling :(
  - nonamenoslogan 1y ago
    I haven't either, though I've purposely kept my M1 on Sonoma for now because the newer OSs have dorked up my Ham Radio software.
artk42 1y ago
> I really hope this is not intentional from Apple to make me upgrade. That would be a big let down. I've got a reference macbook air from 2015, which is almost clean, only zoom, teams and chrome for meets are installed and used for calls. And boy, how do I regret making macOS updates.. I can believe teams and zoom are shitbags of modern software slop, and thus started to fail running simple video calls. But even native macOS apps that are barely updated for years like notes and calendar are freezing now. So I can conclude that these anti-backward compatibility updates are highly intentional, because hardware is absolutely fine for decade, i even used this ultra-tiny air for travel work once back in 2022, it was still capable to do all office things and thin client. But last year it just turned into pumpkin. My question is - maybe installing linux can help bring it back to life.
stingraycharles 1y ago
That’s a bit silly though, that implies that the MacBook Pro M5 will not be compatible with Apple’s lossless wireless codec introduced in the iPhone 17 and AirPods Pro 3? That really is a reason for me to skip this upgrade and wait for the next release.
dcchambers 1y ago
I really want to know why Apple refuses to put a cellular chip in the macbooks. They are so scared about cannibalizing mac/ipad sales - they really really want people to own both.
erickhill 1y ago
The fix is to disable Glass. In a terminal: defaults write -g com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES This gets rid of the slow animations, inconsistent window cornering, and other annoyances. Then (so menus aren't transparent and unreadable): System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Reduce Transparency If you do those two things your machine should look and feel normal again. I've been running an M1 Max since 2021 and Tahoe was simply a disaster. Removing the glass layer made everything feel good again. If for some reason you ever want the bad performance and glass back, you change the YES to NO in the Terminal command. Maybe someday it won't suck.
- vrmiguel 1y ago
  I think DisableSolarium has no effect anymore. At least I can't see any. I'm in macOS 26.0 (25A354)
  - erickhill 1y ago
    Works for me. 26.0.1 (25A362)
- relatall 1y ago
  this helps even iphone
- zer0zzz 1y ago
  https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into-a-solid-interface/ https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into... I really don't like what it does to certain transparent drop downs for certain apps as well as the control center. But It does seem nice to do it on a per app basis (ie "defaults write com.apple.finder com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES") https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into-a-solid-interface/ https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into...
hoppp 1y ago
They are known to slow down devices on purpose. For them its simply to bring the most out of their new models but it ends up deprecating the old ones.
caycep 1y ago
I wonder how much is due to just scale vs. a Bertrand Serlet vs Craig Federighi culture/management style I personally have no idea but I seem to recall the golden age of open source/unix embrace was under Serlet
attendant3446 11mo ago
I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to say that I agree with you. I also think that Apple's hardware is fantastic, but it's the software that's holding them back.

imcritic 1y ago

[flagged]

alimbada 1y ago
I've been using an iPhone 11 for 4 years now (also, reminder: the 11 was launched 2 years prior to when I bought mine). I replaced the battery earlier this year as it wouldn't last to the end of the day any more but besides that it's showing no slowdowns or any other issues.
- bombcar 1y ago
  Do you have iOS 26 on it? That pigdog is making my 15 Pro Max sweat and cry.
  - alimbada 1y ago
    I only just upgraded to iOS 18 recently. I'm unlikely to go to 26 unless there's a good reason to do so.
  - icedchai 1y ago
    I have an iPhone 13 and haven't upgraded yet. Sounds like I should hold off.
    - bombcar 1y ago
      I haven't really found anything that blew my socks off, and the number of "strange bugs" (not even talking about the UI complaints, just things like "touch stops working suddenly" and other weird things) is too damn high.
      - icedchai 1y ago
        I'll probably wait for 26.1 then!
    - tonyedgecombe 1y ago
      My SE has been fine with iOS 26.
    - criddell 1y ago
      I have an iPhone 13 Mini and upgraded is iOS 26 and it seems fine to me. I also have a 2018 iPad Pro and put iPadOS 26 on it and I haven't had any issues on it either except sometimes my keyboard is slow to connect. I'm not sure if it's the software or hardware though.
  - chasd00 1y ago
    i don't see what the big deal is with iOS 26. it looks a little bit different, everything now seems to have some degree of transparency but everything works the same.
  - rsynnott 1y ago
    Never, ever, upgrade to any Apple OS until at least .1. .0 is _always_ broken.
mumber_typhoon 1y ago
What I have seen with iPhones is that the ram has gone from 4gb to 12gb very quickly compared to how it went from 1gb to 3gb. Apps used to use less ram but over the years apps have become big and more complicated. This is probably why iPhones feel sluggish because new iPhones have more memory and apps snap back faster as newer iPhones which also have faster storage and memory bandwidth to reduce latency of reading more data from the flash. Batteries are also a problem as maintaining voltage is difficult for a 2-3 year old battery. An official battery swap at apple service for a 3 year old iPhone will make it run much better. I used to believe (and sometimes I still do) that apple intentionally makes everything heavier to make old phones and devices feel slower but I don't think thats the case. I think that more things are happening on newer phones and devices and that same task feels slower on older device. This happens are lot faster on iPhones and phones in general (a year or two) as opposed to Macs/computers which can show signs of aging in 4-5 years. My 2018 intel computer feels very slow in 2025 running Gnome. No one slowed it down. It's just that the 2025 world of software is a lot heavier and 2026 will be even more and so on.
- HumblyTossed 1y ago
  Apps are heavier because a lot of them do not use native code. It's all cross platform BS. And they include a lot of A/B code as well. Really wish Apple would nip that all in the bud.
- bloppe 1y ago
  Apple has been proven to intentionally slow down older devices, but it's definitely not to inflate their profits. It's just a way to kindly preserve your old battery for you. And they try to keep it a secret from you so you don't get confused.
  - rsynnott 1y ago
    … Eh? It was neither. It was due to a design defect in a particular model; if voltage fell into a range that was perfectly possible with an aging but still functional battery, the SoC would shut off. The only viable software fix was to clock it down instead (there was an option to decline that and risk the abrupt shutoffs). Not really sure what else they could have done there.
the_other 1y ago
My iPhone X worked fine for 7 years, even without a battery replacement. It still works just fine. I wanted a larger screen and better zoom lens, so I upgraded earlier this year but I absolutely didn't have to and didn't feel any pressure from Apple to do so. n=1.
endemic 1y ago
No more than any other company.
tempoponet 1y ago
They support their phones for years longer than any vendor. This has been widely understood for probably 10+ years at this point. There's plenty of room for criticism without a blanket conspiracy that doesn't match what most can observe.
- imcritic 1y ago
  Support means that the manufacturer just still releases OS updates. But it says absolutely nothing about the quality of those updates: what if those updates simply degrade the situation? Every iPhone user I know says the same without conspiring with each other: it's better to stop updating to newer major OS releases for older iPhones.

pantalaimon 1y ago

Won't that make Linux support even harder :/

singularfutur 1y ago
I tried many times to install linux on my m4 and it's very limited (only Asahi) and not with a great support of features like sleep. It's painful so at the end of the day, I restart with osx

ksec 1y ago

The Broadcom WiFi support 320Mhz while N1 is stuck with 160Mhz. There were report of N1 not supporting 4096 QAM as well but I didn't check.

HumblyTossed 1y ago
"stuck". An infinitely small percentage of people can take advantage of 320Mhz. It's fine.
- londons_explore 1y ago
  Today. But in 3 years time it'll be widespread and your Mac will be the one with the sluggish WiFi connection that jams up the airwaves for all other devices too.
  - shwaj 1y ago
    How does it “jam up the airwaves” if its operating at a different frequency than the devices you say it will be jamming?
  - landl0rd 1y ago
    It really won't, and there will be a ton of devices "jamming up" the airwaves. In most places the backhaul isn't fast enough for anyone to get any use for 320MHz channels beyond maybe very large LAN file transfers which are for some reason happening over WiFi?
    - fragmede 1y ago
      Thankfully, there has been nothing new to use computers for since 2022. Definitely no new technology that involves downloading different 10+ Gib large files to test with, and users couldn't possibly conceive of a NAS, nevermind owning one because Netflix has never removed shows while people are watching them, breaking an assumed promise by users. ISP speeds are never ever going to improve either. Everyone knows that!
1y ago

kokada 1y ago

> Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish doing the exact same tasks ive been last couple of years. I have a work provided M2 Pro with 32GB of RAM. After the Tahoe upgrade it feels like one of the sluggish PCs at the house. It is the only one that I can see the mouse teleporting sometimes when I move it fast. This is after disabling transparency in Accessibility settings mind you, it was even worse before.

fersarr 1y ago
same here
ExoticPearTree 1y ago
26.0.1 fixed the sluggishness. 26.0 was pretty unstable - felt like a game dropping frames.
- kokada 1y ago
  26.0.1 is better, but I can still get sluggishness in a few specific cases. I just got one example while passing the mouse quickly through my dock (I still use the magnify animation) and I can clearly see it dropping a few frames. This never happened in macOS 15.
speedgoose 1y ago
Do you have a few electron powered apps that didn’t get updated yet? Electron used to override a private function that makes the Mac OS sluggish on Tahoe, and apparently no one uses Electron apps while doing testing at Apple.
- kokada 1y ago
  I keep my applications pretty much up-to-date but I didn't check the release notes for each Electron application that I have to make sure they're updated. I still think this is a failure of macOS, since one misbehaving application shouldn't bring the whole environment to slow to a crawl. What I can say is that while the situation is much better than at Day 1, the whole Tahoe experience is not as fluid as Sequoia. Also, it doesn't really matter to me if this was a private function or not, if this was Windows or Gnome/KDE people would blame the developers of the desktop instead.

lelandfe 1y ago

As a UI/UX nerd, it’s a coin flip on intentionality. I’ve been noticing so many rough edges to Apple’s software when it used to astound. iOS Settings search will flash “No Results” as you begin to type which is comically amateurish. The macOS menu bar control panels can’t be keyboard navigated... It’s just silly. I’ve been debating making a Tumblr-style blog, something like “dumbapple.com,” to catalogue all the dumb crap I notice.

butlike 1y ago
iirc, there's a setting to make the menu bar navigatable. you just need to "alt+tab" to it with some weird button combo, like Ctrl + Cmd + 1 or something.
- lelandfe 1y ago
  You can turn on "Full Keyboard Access," which paints a hideous rectangle around anything you focus but does allow keyboard access to everything. But, like, man - why can't I just use the arrow keys to select my WiFi network anymore? I was able to for a decade. And the answer, of course, is the same for so much of macOS' present rough edges. Apple took some iPadOS interface elements, rammed them into the macOS UI, and still have yet to sand the welds. For how much we complain on HN about Electron, we really need to be pissed about Catalyst/Marzipan. Why does the iCloud sign in field have me type on the right side of an input? Why does that field have an iPadOS cursor? Why can't I use Esc to close its help sheet? Why aren't that sheet's buttons focusable? Why does the Stocks app have a Done button appear when I focus its search field? Why does its focus ring lag behind the search field's animated size? Where in the HIG does it sign off on unfocusable text-only bolded buttons, like Maps uses? https://imgur.com/a/e7PB5jm https://imgur.com/a/e7PB5jm ...Anyway.
- netcoyote 1y ago
  There's also an app, MenuWhere, that enables you to configure different keys to walk the menu bar. It's free (but nagware). https://manytricks.com/menuwhere/ https://manytricks.com/menuwhere/
  - deleted 1y ago

Insanity 1y ago

Yeah I love my M1 iPad Pro. But the "liquid glass" update made it feel slower. Really only the 'unlock' feels slower, once I'm using it it's fine. But it's slightly annoying and does make me want to update this year to the m5. But it's a glorified Kindle and YouTube box, so I'm hesitating a little bit.

asimovDev 1y ago
my dad's got a pre AS iPad Pro and it's so bad after updating to 26. My 6th gen iPad on iOS 17 felt faster than this
- baq 1y ago
  I have a 5th gen? Can’t even remember now it’s so old. Nothing works anymore except Netflix, YouTube and Disney, and that only after a minute or so. Which is fine, since it’s exclusively used to watch a kids show for a half an hour a day. …but it’s also super sad to see a once fantastic piece of kit to degrade so much primarily due to software.
knowitnone3 1y ago
"make me want to update this year to the m5." Then Apple software devs did what they were told

butlike 1y ago

I think it's probably a play to get you to upgrade for the new GPU computational power. I _do_ think that what we're seeing (and marketed as AI) will be the future, but I don't think it will look like what we're seeing now. Whatever that future holds will require the upgraded capabilities of these new GPU architectures, and this being a reason for the subtle nudge to upgrade from Apple makes sense to me. It feels very much like how I imagine someone living in the late 1800's might have felt. The advent of electricity, the advent of cars, but can't predict airplanes, even though they're right around the corner and they'll have likely seen them in their lifetime.

WhitneyLand 1y ago

“nobody really needs to upgrade that for most things” Maybe, but for lots of scenarios even M5 could still benefit from being an order of magnitude faster. AI, dev, some content scenarios, etc…

hexbin010 1y ago

[dead]

dawnerd 1y ago

I’m still daily driving my M1 Max and have no reason to upgrade for a long time. There’s really nothing in my workflow that could be markedly improved performance wise. There’s only thing is maybe more ram as the need for that keeps growing - I’m isn’t just under 30 when running a bunch of containers.

SkyPuncher 1y ago

There are so many software related things that drive me absolutely loony with Apple right now. * My iPhone as a remote for my Apple TV has randomly stopped deciding it can control the volume - despite the "Now Playing" UI offering an audio control that works. There auth screens drive me crazy: * Why cannot I not punch in a password while Face ID is working? If I'm skiing, I know Face ID isn't gong to work, stop making me wait. * Likewise, on Apple TV the parental control input requires me to explicitly choose to enter a Pin Code. Why? Just show me the Pin Code screen. If I can approve from my device, I will. * Similarly, if I use my phone as a remote, why do I need to manually click out of the remote to get to the parental control approval screen. I'm literally using my phone. Just auto-approve.

strbean 1y ago
> * Why cannot I not punch in a password while Face ID is working? If I'm skiing, I know Face ID isn't gong to work, stop making me wait. Funny, a similar thing has been driving me crazy on my Ubuntu 20.04 laptop with fingerprint login. When unlocking, I can either enter a password or use fingerprint. On boot, I am not allowed to enter a password until I fail with fingerprint. If I use fingerprint to log in on boot, I have to enter my password anyways once logged in to unlock my keychain. I should probably just figure out a way to disable fingerprint on boot and only use it for the lock screen.
- prettymuchnoone 1y ago
  I think this is a GNOME thing...the keychain by default has the same password as the login password, so logging in with the password unlocks it too. fingerprint login doesn't unlock it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38527876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38527876, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME/Keyring https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GNOME/Keyring
  - strbean 1y ago
    Yeah, I've resigned myself to that. The part that irks me is that it doesn't present a password prompt (on initial login) until fingerprint attempts are exhausted.

thenaturalist 1y ago

Don't kidd yourself: Planned obsolescence is real. Apple has a higher duty to their shareholders than to their customers. Not hating on Apple, just stating the hard economic truth.

NetMageSCW 1y ago
Nope, never been real, never will be real. Just conspiracy theories like all the others. PS The Earth isn’t flat. We did go to the Moon. Vaccines don’t cause autism.
- otikik 1y ago
  Planed obsolescence is not a conspiracy. Apple specifically has been proven to sneakily add "silently slow down the hardware" to their updates. But there's examples of planned obsolescence abound.
- thenaturalist 1y ago
  Yes, it's real and it's plain funny that you discredit simple facts in a case as obvious and with as many data points as Apple. From the 2005 iPods settlement [0], to the 113 Mio USD Batterygate [1], to Flexgate [2] where Apple only escaped settlement due to plausible deniability. To quote from Batterygate: > Apple has agreed to pay millions of dollars to 34 states over its controversial previous practice of deliberately slowing down older iPhones to extend their battery life. > [...] > Many believed it was an effort to encourage users to buy new iPhones. I agree on all your "PS" points, where we seem to differ is that reading is a virtue and not knowing something because you haven't heard of it doesn't constitute a conspiracy theory. 0: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ipod-class-action-suit-settled/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ipod-class-action-suit-settled/ 1: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/tech/apple-battery-settlement/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/tech/apple-battery-settle... 2: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/20/flexgate-class-action-lawsuit-dismissed/ https://www.macrumors.com/2021/07/20/flexgate-class-action-l...
  - jwhiles 1y ago

random3 1y ago

This needs benchmarks. Sad if true. I feel my M1 max sluggish too lately. After bragging that this was the longest lived work machine I had and thinking I'm good to wait for M6. This is not good for business, but IMO you need more than raw power to justify upgrades even for professional use - form factor, screen quality, battery, etc. I think they bet a lot of hardware money on AI capabilities, but failed to deliver the software, so there was no real reason to upgrade because of AI features in the chip (which is literally what they boast on the first line of the announcement - yet nobody cares about making more cute faces) It's not 100% their fault. Everyone got onto the LLM bandwagon like it's "the thing" so even if they didn't believe it they sill needed something. Except an OS is not a chat interface, and LLMs do suck at stricter things.

lawlessone 1y ago

>The M1 itself is so powerful that nobody really needs to upgrade that for most things most people do on their computers a rant on my part, but a computer from 10 years ago would be fine for what most people do on their computer, only for software bloat..

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

> Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish Counterpoint: my M1 Pro was a turtle for a few weeks and then stopped doing nonsense in the background and is back to its zippy self. (Still buggy. But that would be true on new hardware, too.)

quadyeast 1y ago
mediaanalysisd has been consuming ~140% CPU since upgrading a few weeks ago. I just turned off Apple Intelligence and it dropped to 0%.

seunosewa 1y ago

My M1 Air got very sluggish after upgrading to Tahoe but then it started behaving normally after a couple of days. Hopefully, you'll experience the same soon.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
raspasov 1y ago
Probably building a spotlight index or something of that sort.

antipaul 1y ago

Which is harder these days, software or hardware?

DSingularity 1y ago
Each challenging in their own ways. The real challenge is that we need codesign and that’s the tricky part.

kwanbix 1y ago

I really wish apple sold the Mx to others like Lenovo. I would love to se a ThinkPad with an M5 running Linux.

fph 1y ago
What is the Linux experience on new Mac hardware? I'd be interested also in running a Macbuntu.
- bmdhacks 1y ago
  Asahi linux is essentially in a holding pattern with only support up to M2. Likely linux will never be supported above M2 and even M2 has a lot of rough edges. When my monitor sleeps on M2 linux it can never reawaken without a reboot.
  - cpuguy83 1y ago
    So the normal Linux desktop experience then! I kid, I kid.
    - pxc 1y ago
      maybe the normal desktop Linux experience in 1996
tomekf 1y ago
There are very nice Thinkpads running on Snapdragon now. But no Linux is available…

greg5green 1y ago

>The M5 MacBook Pro still gets the Broadcom WiFi chip but the M5 iPad Pros get the N1 and C1X (Sweet). Is that good? Their cellular modems have been terrible. I'll reserve judgement until trying one out. >The M1 itself is so powerful I think this is a bit of a fallacy. Apple Silicon is great for the power consumption to power ratio, but something like a Ryzen 9 7945HX can do 3x more work than an M1 Max. And a non-laptop chip, like an Intel Core Ultra 7 265k can do 3.5x.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
wizee 1y ago
Those ratios seem way off if you're referring to the M1 Max and not the base M1. If we use Geekbench CPU performance, the Ryzen 9 7945HX (which is from 2023) is around 12% faster single core and 32% faster multicore than the M1 Max (which is from 2021). If you look at the 2024 M4 Max, it's substantially faster than the Ryzen and Intel you mentioned. https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/amd-ryzen-9-7945hx https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/amd-ryzen-9-7945hx https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/intel-core-ultra-7-265k https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/intel-core-ultra-7-... https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2021-apple-m1-max https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2021-... https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2024-16c-cpu https://browser.geekbench.com/macs/macbook-pro-16-inch-2024-...
Avamander 1y ago
Having a cellular modem on a MacBook would be really handy even if it's not perfect.
n8cpdx 1y ago
Source re:modem claims? Performance seems fine in general, modestly slower on very high end networks but using 25% less power. Performance claims: https://www.ookla.com/articles/iphone-c1-modem-performance-q2-q3-2025 https://www.ookla.com/articles/iphone-c1-modem-performance-q... Energy claims: https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/02/27/apples-c1-modem-breaks-no-records-for-speed-but-is-exceptionally-power-efficient https://appleinsider.com/articles/25/02/27/apples-c1-modem-b...

phamduongtria 1y ago

Even the M4 Max MacBook, I tried in the stores were running like shit on Tahoe

port11 1y ago

It's incredible what the hardware teams at Apple have been doing. I imagine they also feel let down by the software that's driving these beasts. It's as if they're 2 completely different companies.

kenjackson 1y ago
The latest iPhone OS (iOS 26) is embarrassing. The number of glitches and amount of UI sloppiness is crazy for a company that historically prided itself on the details. It's the first major iOS update I've taken that just seems almost strictly worse than its predecessor.
- paweladamczuk 1y ago
  I remember using my first Apple product years ago, it was an iPod touch 4th gen. The quality of the software on that thing was in a completely different league compared to anything I had used before. I also installed the iOS 26 update recently. The competitive advantage of software polish that Apple had seems totally gone. Add to that bugs in iCloud, AirDrop... I don't think I will be buying any more Apple devices for myself.
  - 0xWTF 1y ago
    What line of laptops is in the same league as the MacBook Pro?
    - mrheosuper 1y ago
      pretty much any ultrabook at the same price range: Dell XPS, Microsoft Surface
- georgel 1y ago
  This feels more like a repeat of iOS7 to me.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 1y ago

wartywhoa23 1y ago

> ...The <thing I own right now> is so powerful that nobody really needs to upgrade... I keep hearing this since the Intel 486DX times, and > Nobody will ever need more than 640K of RAM!

bombcar 1y ago
This is the first time I’ve gone four+ years without even a real desire to upgrade, I have a hard time figuring out even what would be faster. Amusingly enough, adding more ports could do it.

dimal 1y ago

Seems like the software teams are there to simply squander the extra processing power that the hardware teams provide, thus ensuring recurring revenue. I see no good reason to upgrade to Tahoe. I’d have to buy a new computer just so I could power transparencies that I don’t want.

bsimpson 1y ago
This feels like it's always been true. Devices get slower for no perceivable reason, when in reality software at all levels makes higher assumptions about how much power you have, and squanders it more readily.
hahamaster 1y ago
Disable transparencies in Settings then. Simple.

DecentShoes 1y ago

They always release a slowdown update to destroy their older hardware. I don't know why you're even questioning it

red369 1y ago
I agree with your feeling that about Apple devices eventually getting updates to the point they becomes sluggish. I have just reached that point with iOS 26 and my iPhone 13 mini. I am undecided in my thoughts about how malicious this is. Do people think that it is something like wanting to cram more features into the operating systems, and they are careless how it affects the earliest supported models? Or do most people think it is planned obsolescence? Apple generally offer updates longer than Android, so is it more pronounced on iPhones than Android phones? I remember seeing similar slow-downs on Android phones in the past. Apple generally offer updates for iOS for less time than Windows. I don't really have a feel for the difference between the two in terms of how much new versions slow down older hardware. Obviously separating feature updates and security updates would be a way to address, and it's not possible that no one at Apple has considered that idea. They are a business and selling new products is unfortunately a disincentive pushing them away from doing that.
- rester324 1y ago
  Apple was fined all over the world for intentional malicious software slowdown by different courts in many countries. Just google "batterygate". At this point this a proven fact that apple had been doing this. I am pretty sure they continue to do so. Why would they stop?
  - tiltowait 1y ago
    The slowdown occurs on systems that can't hold sufficient charge to reliably power the CPU to full anymore. If the battery can't supply the expected voltage, then the system simply shuts off. That is much worse than slowing down. This feature inarguably increased longevity—hardly what I'd expect from a "planned obsolescence" scheme. They did make a mistake, though: they should have been up-front about it. They should have advertised it rather than hiding it away.

nixpulvis 1y ago

I would be soo excited if apple split out the hardware and software orgs and moved to make hardware more standardized with macos/ios/etc being just one consumer. Not going to happen, but I can dream.

throw0101d 1y ago

> The M5 MacBook Pro still gets the Broadcom WiFi chip but the M5 iPad Pros get the N1 and C1X (Sweet). I think many IT departments will be thankful for that as Wifi behaviour can be challenging and hopefully will lower ticket counts.

rester324 1y ago

If Tahoe made M1 slower then I am sure it was intentional. Apple had done this in the past and been fined for hundreds of millions in different courts all over the world. So I am pretty sure they continue slowing software down intentionally on older hardware. You can google "batterygate" and you can see for yourself

sharts 1y ago

The reason for better hardware is so software can lag more.

nofunsir 1y ago

Before the whole "batterygate" thing[1], there were forums and discussions on macrumors and similar inquiring about the feasibility of inserting no-op codes deep below the kernel that would kick in under certain conditions. Post-batterygate, you can't find anything NOT about batterygate when searching. 1] Which I still firmly believe WAS indeed a power-supply design failure that would have forced a massive hardware recall had they not done something (slowing down the os). I believe it encompassed everything from inaccurate CPU power estimates to something actually incorrect with the PCB design, causing brown outs - and not merely a battery-aging red herring as is the reported scandalous reason they were "caught". In fact, I think Apple is GLAD that all it amounted to was some philosophical hullabaloo about protecting your poor aging battery. To clarify, I suspect the "aging battery" merely exposed the real issue - the incorrect PS design - which Apple successfully covered up.

mnurzia 1y ago
Do you have any links to these discussion posts? This sounds very interesting, and I'm intrigued to learn more about the hardware explanation for this phenomenon.
- nofunsir 1y ago
  Nope. I know a couple were on macrumors forums. And to be clear, there were suspicions of Apple slowing down devices to get you to upgrade far before Batterygate. It used to be painfully obvious, but with apple's protections it wasn't knowable.

eboynyc32 1y ago

I think Tahoe is great on my m1 studio. It’s the first os update in a long time that I actually like. The new design feels very futuristic. And I think I’ll get an m5 MacBook Air. There no better computer deal . Even my m1 computer 5 year old still never has any issue with video or render. It’s insane.

jbverschoor 1y ago

>> Tahoe however makes my M1 Air feel sluggish doing the exact same tasks ive been last couple of years Quit the Dropbox app, it’s electron, and it’s brand spanking new

fx1994 1y ago

That's why I did not upgrade :) I upgraded VM and when I saw how slow it was, it was a no no for my M2...

discomrobertul8 1y ago

> Software teams at apple really need to get their act together. WatchOS 26 has rendered my Apple Watch almost useless. It's gone from lasting a whole day including 2 cycling 'workouts' for my commute and the occasional lunch time run (or gym session before work) to now being at 40% battery by the time I make my mid-morning coffee and dead before I get home. I don't use most of the 'smart' features anyway - I'm mostly using the fitness features - so I'll probably switch to a Garmin at some point.

bean469 1y ago
> I don't use most of the 'smart' features anyway - I'm mostly using the fitness features - so I'll probably switch to a Garmin at some point. If that's your use case, I can absolutely recommend getting one. I have a Forerunner 745 and it works great for workouts alongside some smart functions like NFC payments, quick-replies to texts, etc. The battery lasts for days as well, which you can't really beat.
- cdaven 1y ago
  > The battery lasts for days as well, which you can't really beat. The Garmin Instinct 2X's (and 3) battery lasts for 40 days in smartwatch mode, not counting the solar charging. The Instinct is an "outdoor watch" with a monochrome display, but it has most features the Forerunners have.
  - ansgri 1y ago
    Also it has a proper builtin flashlight which is surprisingly useful. Amazing watch, especially if you get a comfortable aftermarket strap e.g. from Hemsut.
    - konsnos 1y ago
      Dropping in to add that the Venu 4 is an amazing watch as well. Battery says it'll last 14 days. With Pulse Ox enabled at Sleep, it drops to 11, but I'm happy with the tradeoff. Workouts like running for half an hour drop it even more, but comparing it to an Apple Watch, it's no match. It has a flashlight as well and looks like a normal smartwatch instead of rugged. All in all, if you care more about health features rather than watch<->phone connectivity, a Garmin is worth it.

RataNova 1y ago

And it kind of defeats the purpose of having such powerful hardware if the OS isn't keeping up (or worse, actively throttling older devices)

mcculley 1y ago

Does this mean that the MacBook Pro still has no option for a cellular modem?

xz0r 1y ago

I've seen every new OS update leading to M1 Air performance degrade, at this point I'm pretty convinced Apple is doing this intentionally. Edit: Same experience with iPhone X Edit2: I still remember the feeling when I got them initially - that Apple is on customer's side, but now I feel totally helpless and i'm being forced to upgrade

noname120 1y ago
I haven’t noticed this to be honest: macOS 26 Tahoe is the first update that significantly hindered the performances of my MacBook Air M1. Even with the Electron _cornerMask fix + disabling auto heuristics at the OS level.
- samat 1y ago
  Same thing, thinking about reinstalling :(
- nonamenoslogan 1y ago
  I haven't either, though I've purposely kept my M1 on Sonoma for now because the newer OSs have dorked up my Ham Radio software.

artk42 1y ago

> I really hope this is not intentional from Apple to make me upgrade. That would be a big let down. I've got a reference macbook air from 2015, which is almost clean, only zoom, teams and chrome for meets are installed and used for calls. And boy, how do I regret making macOS updates.. I can believe teams and zoom are shitbags of modern software slop, and thus started to fail running simple video calls. But even native macOS apps that are barely updated for years like notes and calendar are freezing now. So I can conclude that these anti-backward compatibility updates are highly intentional, because hardware is absolutely fine for decade, i even used this ultra-tiny air for travel work once back in 2022, it was still capable to do all office things and thin client. But last year it just turned into pumpkin. My question is - maybe installing linux can help bring it back to life.

stingraycharles 1y ago

That’s a bit silly though, that implies that the MacBook Pro M5 will not be compatible with Apple’s lossless wireless codec introduced in the iPhone 17 and AirPods Pro 3? That really is a reason for me to skip this upgrade and wait for the next release.

dcchambers 1y ago

I really want to know why Apple refuses to put a cellular chip in the macbooks. They are so scared about cannibalizing mac/ipad sales - they really really want people to own both.

erickhill 1y ago

The fix is to disable Glass. In a terminal: defaults write -g com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES This gets rid of the slow animations, inconsistent window cornering, and other annoyances. Then (so menus aren't transparent and unreadable): System Settings > Accessibility > Display > Reduce Transparency If you do those two things your machine should look and feel normal again. I've been running an M1 Max since 2021 and Tahoe was simply a disaster. Removing the glass layer made everything feel good again. If for some reason you ever want the bad performance and glass back, you change the YES to NO in the Terminal command. Maybe someday it won't suck.

vrmiguel 1y ago
I think DisableSolarium has no effect anymore. At least I can't see any. I'm in macOS 26.0 (25A354)
- erickhill 1y ago
  Works for me. 26.0.1 (25A362)
relatall 1y ago
this helps even iphone
zer0zzz 1y ago
https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into-a-solid-interface/ https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into... I really don't like what it does to certain transparent drop downs for certain apps as well as the control center. But It does seem nice to do it on a per app basis (ie "defaults write com.apple.finder com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES") https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into-a-solid-interface/ https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into...

hoppp 1y ago

They are known to slow down devices on purpose. For them its simply to bring the most out of their new models but it ends up deprecating the old ones.

caycep 1y ago

I wonder how much is due to just scale vs. a Bertrand Serlet vs Craig Federighi culture/management style I personally have no idea but I seem to recall the golden age of open source/unix embrace was under Serlet

attendant3446 11mo ago

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to say that I agree with you. I also think that Apple's hardware is fantastic, but it's the software that's holding them back.