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MacOS Big Sur compatibility: Will your laptop work with the new OS?

MacOS Big Sur is available for download now, so long as you have one of these supported Apple devices.

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Rae Hodge was a senior editor at CNET. She led CNET's coverage of privacy and cybersecurity tools from July 2019 to January 2023. As a data-driven investigative journalist on the software and services team, she reviewed VPNs, password managers, antivirus software, anti-surveillance methods and ethics in tech. Prior to joining CNET in 2019, Rae spent nearly a decade covering politics and protests for the AP, NPR, the BBC and other local and international outlets.
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Managing Editor Alison DeNisco Rayome joined CNET in 2019, and is a member of the Home team. She is a co-lead of the CNET Tips and We Do the Math series, and manages the Home Tips series, testing out new hacks for cooking, cleaning and tinkering with all of the gadgets and appliances in your house. Alison was previously an editor at TechRepublic.
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You can download the MacOS Big Sur public beta now, if your Mac is compatible.

 Apple

Apple's latest Mac operating system, MacOS Big Sur, is now available for download on all compatible Apple devices. Big Sur -- first announced at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June -- includes major updates to the Safari web browser, and refreshed Maps and Messages apps (we've rounded up some of the best new MacOS Big Sur features and how to use them here, and have instructions on how to download Big Sur, too). 

This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET's complete coverage from and about Apple's annual developers conference.

Big Sur represents the biggest design update since OS X was first released almost 20 years ago, Apple executives said during WWDC. The new OS includes tweaks to the curves of the window corners, dock icons and colors of the user interface. But a lot of it looks pretty familiar: The same Photos design from iPadOS comes to MacOS , as do many of the app updates that we've seen in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14. The control center in the menu bar, widgets and notification center are more sophisticated-looking, too.

At a virtual event on Nov. 10, Apple unveiled new Mac computers running Big Sur and powered for the first time by the company's own M1 silicon chips. If you do buy a new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or Mac Mini with the M1 chip, MacOS Big Sur is optimized to run on these machines. Apps will run faster and more smoothly, Apple executives said during the event, and you'll also see increased device security. 

Watch this: MacOS Big Sur: Check out these 5 great new features now

If you're looking to download and install Big Sur now, you'll need to have a compatible Mac to run the new OS. Here are all the models of Macs that can run MacOS Big Sur, according to Apple: 

For more, check out our review of MacOS Big Sur here. 

See also

Watch this: Apple's new M1 chip engineered for MacOS Big Sur

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