Sensei: The Minimalist yet Powerful macOS Performance Software

Mac users often hear the myth that their devices are immune to slowdowns. While it’s true Macs are generally less prone to performance issues compared to Windows machines, they’re not entirely invincible. Factors like junk files, temporary data buildup, and background apps can contribute to a sluggish Mac. Hardware issues like battery degradation or failing cooling fans can further exacerbate the problem.

Sensei, a brand-new macOS performance tool, is a sweet solution.

What is Sensei?

Sensei in the Japanese language means master. The Sensei app for Mac is a piece of software that helps you to monitor, analyze, and improve your Mac’s performance.

Developed by Cindori, Sensei is comparatively new to the world of macOS cleaners. However, this new-generation Mac performance tool comes with the right set of features that every macOS Pro user has ever wanted.

Highlights:

• Monitor performance, including real-time statistics, hardware information, and disk benchmarks.
• Use S.M.A.R.T analysis to monitor HDD/SSD health and prevent data loss.
• Quickly remove unnecessary files like caches, logs, and downloads to free up space.
• Never delete anything without your permission, ensuring data safety.
• Easy to navigate for all user levels.

Is Sensei safe to use?

Yes, cent percent. And, it’s relatively easy to install and get started with.

Compared to the process of installing other tools in the category, the installation of Sensei is straightforward. You can download the installation file from the official website of Sensei, and it isn’t heavy at all. The entire process of installation takes less than a minute.

Once you install and launch Sensei, you have to provide specific permissions to the software. What it mainly needs is Accessibility permission. Once you have done this, the Sensei setup process is complete. And, a click on the OK button would show you the fully-fledged dashboard of this program.

Sensei keeps everything safe at all times too. For instance, it does not even touch system-based folders that could make a problem. Instead, the algorithms choose areas where healthy cleaning is possible.

What the developer says

I love the Mac, so it was natural for me to create an app that enhances the Mac experience.

I wanted to create an app that empowered the average Mac user to learn more about their Mac and optimize its performance, or even prolong its longevity.

I believe AI could offer a profound benefit for Mac users, and I’m definitely looking at ways to use it to empower our apps.

Read the full interview with Sensei App CEO – Oskar Groth

What’s inside Sensei? (TheSweetBits review)

Here we will be reviewing what Sensei for Mac has to offer. We have been testing Sensei on our 13′ MacBook Pro for the past month, and our opinions reflect the experience we had with the piece of software.

# Performance dashboard

Sensei is a real beauty in terms of the User Interface. As you can see below, the central dashboard is just unique, and it provides such a detailed, distinct, and data-driven overview of your Mac.

In the case of the MacBook Pro 13′ we used for testing, Sensei was showing system info, battery consumption, storage overview, RAM usage, CPU resources, and GPU usage. If we have other accessories connected, the dashboard may include that too.

This central performance dashboard is the best way to get a quick overview of your Mac.

# System monitor

In addition to being a Mac optimization tool, Sensei also serves as an excellent system information monitor. You can rely on the Monitor module when you want to clearly understand what is happening with your Mac hardware. It is worth noting that the Dashboard itself provides basic information about your MacBook, iMac, or Mac mini. However, the information you see through the Monitor module is much more advanced.

The Monitor module of Sensei appears in the menu bar of your Mac. You can edit what appears on the menu bar and the controls you can enable or disable. Each section contains a lot of information about each element. For instance, you can monitor the load on individual CPU cores and identify the apps consuming a considerable amount of CPU resources. Similarly, you can track the load on the network, Unified Memory, and CPU sensors.

Overall, the Monitor module of Sensei is quite helpful. You will find it more appealing if you want a better understanding of how things work inside your Mac.

# Utilities

Let’s take a look at the different utilities we get in the Sensei package.

• Optimize

This section of Sensei helps us remove two of the major causes for slowdowns: login items and launch agents. These are programs that run in the background when you turn on your Mac. We loved this feature as it helped us in finding hidden login items. Sensei offers a quick and convenient view of these things.

In a single click, you can toggle these login items and launch agents. This process is way easier than going to System Preferences and removing these programs individually. After doing this, the starting-up speed of our MacBook has improved noticeably.

You may want to do this once in a while since many programs become login items by default.

• Uninstaller

macOS has a standard interface for finding apps and removing them. However, most of the time, a few files stay in your Mac, slowing them down. More importantly, programs that you don’t currently use may be using up storage resources.

Sensei thoroughly scans the storage and apps for both these issues and provides a convenient way to remove applications from your Mac. The macOS tuner also lists applications by the amount of space it takes up. You can even know which components — app core files or data files — are making the app so big.

Once you make up your mind, Sensei allows you to uninstall multiple apps at once.

• Clean

The Clean section of Sensei is an effective way to remove junk from your macOS device. The Mac cleaning app would be scanning your Mac’s hard drive to find files that take up storage space as well as other sources of junk files. This process may take a while.

Just like we saw in the Uninstaller sector, Sensei lists down the most space-consuming content on your Mac. This could be user cache, huge files, system logs, downloads, or disk images. Once again, you can choose to remove multiple entries at once.

This feature helped me find files that we had downloaded long back and left unattended. More space saved!

• Trim

Trim is a utility that improves the performance of your Mac’s SSD storage. Sensei brings a custom driver for SSD trim, and it does a fantastic job. You have to go to the page, enable the Trim module, and give necessary system permissions to proceed. Changes take effect after rebooting.

Well, we restarted my Mac after removing several login items and enabling Trim. As claimed, there was a noticeable difference in speed and smooth performance. Because not many apps were running, we’re able to get started in a few seconds. We also noticed a considerable speed boost in the transfer. So, pretty awesome, we’d say.

# Hardware

In-depth hardware analysis is one of the reasons why we loved Sensei.

• Storage

This section provides a comprehensive overview of your Mac hard drive, mostly an SSD. You can see details like capacity, SMART status, type, lock status, and all the partitions that exist on the drive.

Besides, Sensei lets you benchmark, analyze the health, and monitor real-time statistics of the SSD your Mac is using. Trust me when we say this; these features are just useful.

• Graphics

In this section, you can know more about the Graphics Card as well as the Mac display. Even if you have an integrated graphics card, Sensei shows the necessary statistics. The same goes for all kinds of displays. Either to geek out or for information needs, this panel is the best.

Here, we don’t get any tests/benchmarks, though.

• Cooling

This is perhaps the most advanced section inside Sensei. Here, you get to know data from not just the built-in fans/battery but also thermal sensors. A cumulative insight from all these devices will tell you whether your Mac is overheating or if the fan controlling has any issues.

Sensei also uses some color codes to let you know if there is any trouble.

What we loved in Sensei

In the past couple of years, we have had the opportunity to review some popular macOS performance-boosting software. Still, here’re our personal take-aways on Sensei.

• Sensei is entirely minimal, top to bottom. The tool does not take many resources and still provides a comprehensive view of the device.
• The Dashboard of Sensei is just amazing, to say the least. Merely opening the dashboard gives us all the information we need.
• We’re yet to come across a simple tool like Sensei that provides so much information about the utility and hardware aspects of my MacBook.
• Productive features like the Trim enabler disk analyzer add so much value for a Pro user.

And, despite all these, Sensei is priced quite reasonably. Unlike some other tools for the same purpose, you can purchase Sensei at a minimal cost of $59.

What could be better?

Sensei is not yet perfect. We think there are a few areas where the developers can make amends.

• You’d miss scheduling features in Sensei. It’d have been nice if we could schedule tasks such as junk removal and statistics analysis
• As of now, Sensei supports devices that run Catalina. We think previous versions of macOS need this tool more than Catalina does.
• This did not bother me much, but Sensei does not work well with Thunderbolt 3 devices. When I connected my portable HDD via a USB Type C adaptor, for instance, Sensei was not picking up the primary partition in the drive.

We’d ask Cindori to fix these issues because that would make Sensei a must-have macOS app for almost everyone.

Any alternatives to Sensei?

Traditionally, Mac users have relied on tools like CleanMyMac for cleaning junk files or MacKeeper for basic maintenance. However, these tools often lack a comprehensive view of your Mac’s overall performance. They might clean temporary files, but they might not provide insights into CPU usage, memory allocation, or other critical system resources. For a more detailed comparison of Sensei and CleanMyMac, you can check out this resource: CleanMyMac vs Sensei: Battle of Mac Performance Tools

What does it cost?

As for pricing, there are two kinds of licenses that you can purchase. A one-year license of Sensei costs $29, and it provides support and upgrades for a year. But, if you want lifetime support and features, that will cost you $59.

By any standards, Sensei is the most affordable macOS performance software you can buy today. And, if you use any other products from Cindori, you can even get an upgrade with a discount.

Want to download Sensei free trial?

After analyzing all these aspects, we believe Sensei is a new-gen performance app for Mac users. It offers exceptional functionality without hogging system resources, a rare find these days. With just a click, Sensei provides a wealth of insights about your Mac.

Considering the time Sensei can save you, its cost is a minimal investment. If you’re running macOS Monterey (12) or later, we highly recommend checking it out! Sensei offers a free 14-day trial with full access, and it’s fully compatible with the latest macOS Sequoia and M3/M4 Macs.