macOS Big Sur review: you don’t see the biggest innovation

macOS Big Sur review

macOS Big Sur is such a major update that Apple has chosen to introduce a new version number. After about twenty years of OS X and macOS 10, it is time for macOS 11. Is that right? In this review we share our experiences with Big Sur’s Release Candidate, which is expected to be identical to the official update. We have tested several betas of Big Sur and have seen the software improve along the way.

Below we discuss the following topics:

• Stability
• Design
• Control panel and widgets
• Safari
• To inform
• Big changes coming
• Conclusion

macOS Big Sur is very stable

As indicated above, we tested Big Sur during daily use and we liked it very much. We did not encounter any problems on the two MacBooks we used. Of course there were sometimes some glitches, such as a mouse that sometimes lost the connection – but that can also happen in Catalina. We haven’t heard any major bugs from other users either.

Another positive thing is that almost all common apps are compatible with Big Sur. If you use general apps such as Photoshop, Slack, Twitter and Sketch, you don’t have to worry about encountering problems. It also worked well with the more special apps such as Forecast, Front and ImageOptim. But this is of course very personal. If you are dependent on special software, we recommend checking carefully in advance whether it still works. For example, during the beta period we tried to activate a Kobo e-reader from a family member, but that was an unusual activity that we had not previously anticipated.

The fact that everything worked so smoothly is actually remarkable when you consider how many changes have been made to the underlying architecture. A crash? Not experienced. Safari did get stuck on a beach ball twice.

As far as Windows is concerned, you don’t have to worry: on Intel Macs you can continue to use Windows with a virtual machine. If you switch to Macs with the M1 chip, you will have a problem, because Apple does not yet offer a solution for this. However, we ‘normally’ tested on an Intel Mac, namely a 13-inch MacBook Air from 2020.

Design of macOS Big Sur

We have already written a lot of text about the design of macOS Big Sur. We are very pleased with the new appearance with clearer menu bars and toolbars. It looks tidy and it looks a bit more pleasant. Michael Flarup speaks of ‘The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design’. He even talks about a philosophical turning point in visual design. It has been worked on for years and Apple is now showing how it should be done. “It’s just the beginning, but I think we’re at the beginning of a new era.” That sounds promising. And all because of a few other icons and toolbars?

There is of course more to it. The user experience has been completely overhauled and is much more refined. Everything has become more unified and it fits better with Apple’s mobile operating systems iOS and iPadOS.

Alan Dye, Jony Ive’s successor, said during the WWDC 2020 keynote that depth, shadows and transparency have been used to create more hierarchy in Big Sur, making it more organized. “These new materials are rich and they are vibrant,” Dye said. There are several similarities with iOS and iPadOS. For example, if you look at the dock, you will immediately see where the inspiration comes from, if only because the icons are now the same squares with rounded corners.

The icons are also the messiest of all. They are not yet very consistent and we hoped that Apple would change this somewhat during the beta process. But that didn’t happen. Some icons have too much shadow, like FaceTime and Messages, while others look a bit bizarre, like QuickTime.

To test whether the new design of macOS Big Sur stands out, we installed the update with Catalina as the desktop background. And guess what? No one around us noticed. There was actually one moment when the new design stood out and that was when logging in. From now on, you enter your password in an elongated box with rounded corners.

While the icons still provoke some discussion, this does not apply to the design of the apps, the toolbars, the consistent choice of icons and the transparent bars. It all looks attractive and it works fine. We don’t mind that it all looks a bit more like iOS.

What did bother us was the sometimes strange choice of accent color. If it’s blue, green or purple, we’re fine with it, but the red accent color in the Music app gives the impression that you’re looking at error messages. In our opinion, Apple would have preferred to choose a somewhat safer color palette for this.

Control panel and widgets in MacOS Big Sur

New in macOS Big Sur is the Control Center, which actually works in the same way as that of iOS and iPadOS. You can easily turn on your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, adjust the brightness and more. There is some overlap with the menu bar, which also has icons for sound, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. You can adjust this if necessary.

What’s also very useful is that you can drag items from the Control Center to the menu bar. Furthermore, you can click on the items to see more options, for example for dark mode, Night Shift and display preferences. This means you don’t have to go to  > System Preferences as often.

Another welcome addition are the widgets. They are actually back, since Apple dropped the Dashboard Widgets in Catalina. In Big Sur you will find the widgets at the bottom of the updated Notification Center. There are currently few widgets available, but that will change when third-party apps add them. Managing and customizing the widgets is very easy. However, some errors still occurred. For example, Amsterdam was shown in the weather widget as ‘Placeholder’.

The notifications are now more interactive and show more useful options to take actions. If you receive multiple notifications, they will be stacked from now on. That took some getting used to, but takes up less space. All in all, not a big one, but a welcome improvement.

Safari: a fresh look, yet familiar

As in every major macOS update, Safari gets some new features. Of course they all have a Big Sur look and that’s not a bad thing. Just like on iOS and iPadOS, you now see a transparent menu bar with more depth in context. Where you mainly see a new appearance is on the Home page. Here you can now set a default background, but a self-made photo is also among your options. You can match the background on the Safari Home page with your wallpaper and clearly gives a personal touch to the browser.

Safari is fast: according to Apple, even 50% faster than Chrome. At least it’s a lot less hungry. Apple has again implemented all kinds of optimizations for Big Sur, including to improve the battery life of MacBooks. The most prominent new feature is the Privacy Report. This is a new window that even has a button in your menu bar. Click on it and you’ll see which trackers the current page is trying to use. For more information and a complete overview of trackers, click on the i symbol, after which all websites will be mentioned by name.

Another improvement has to do with extensions. In that respect, Safari is not exactly the king of browsers, but that is about to change. With a new development tool, Apple is making it easy for developers to convert their Google Chrome extension to Safari. Apple is also tackling distribution by introducing a new section in the App Store. As a user, you will find the most popular extensions here and you can be sure that it is familiar.

Apple wouldn’t be Apple if it didn’t include some extra features to secure your online accounts. That is why you will receive a notification from Safari from macOS Big Sur if your password is involved in a known data breach. This way you know immediately whether you need to take action. You can read more new features for Safari in macOS Big Sur in our round-up. In any case, we are happy with the improvements for Safari. It may not be something that is immediately useful, but one day we may benefit from its features – in addition to just being more beautiful. Apple has managed to keep Safari a familiar-looking browser.

Messages: finally all iOS features on Mac

For years, the iPhone has been way ahead with certain features in the Messages app, especially iMessage. In macOS Big Sur, Apple makes short work of the shortcomings of the Mac. You can now finally use all iOS features of Messages on Mac. This way you can send full-screen effects, Memoji Stickers, GIFs and more. Sharing your profile photo and screen name is now also possible from your Mac.

In addition, the Mac also gets all 2020 features for iMessage. These include improved group conversations, pinned iMessage conversations, instant replies and mentions. Why it took so long for Apple to bring the iPhone and Mac into line is a mystery, but we’re glad it’s finally happened. It also didn’t make any sense that on the Mac you would see ‘sent with confetti’ while on the iPhone that message would explode with joy. These changes once again show what Apple plans to do in the future where the Mac and iPad are closer together.

There are more functions that the Mac takes over from the iPhone and iPad. We discuss them in a separate article.

Conclusion macOS Big Sur

If you upgrade from macOS Catalina to macOS Big Sur, you’ll get a new design, Control Center, and improvements to Notification Center and the Messages app. These are also the four most visible changes. However, the real innovations are not visible at first glance: the fact that this is the first macOS version that makes the switch to Apple Silicon possible. It’s great that Apple has been able to implement so many innovations in Big Sur and at the same time make it suitable for Intel Macs and ARM-based Macs.

macOS 11 is a giant leap for Apple, but for a layman only the new design stands out. Only in a while will you benefit from it when you start using your first Apple Silicon-powered Mac and we can, for example, run iPhone apps natively on the Mac.

For an operating system with so many drastic changes, we are struck by how stable macOS Big Sur actually is. We did not encounter any problems when testing on two MacBooks during daily use.

If you want to know more about the new features in macOS Big Sur, we will help you get started with an overview. Big Sur can be downloaded from November 12 for anyone with a suitable Mac.