Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

sonyablueberry

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 6, 2022
10
1
Hi all! I will be reinstalling the system on my MacBook Air M1, and I would like to know which version of macOS is better to install - Big Sur, Monterey, or Ventura? For me, the main thing is battery life, as well as speed. I'm not worried about new features availabale in Monterey and Ventura, so if Big Sur is better in performance, I would prefer it. Thanks in advance for reply :)
 

AudiHeel

macrumors member
Apr 22, 2019
86
79
Carolina
Yep, I'm on Monterey and it's good. I had a small issue that got fixed with the 12.4 update last year. Since then no issues. I may jump to Ventura after at least 13.4 comes out.
 

tasty_mushroom

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2024
9
2
Would like to know what macos is still the best for MBA 13” in terms of performance, less heatness and battery life?

I’m on Macbook Air M1 16/512gb 8 GPU
With latest Monterey 12.7.3

Is Ventura in it’s current state would be better?
 

tasty_mushroom

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2024
9
2
Sonoma works fine. None of the available OSes have performance issues on Apple Silicon Macs.
I heard about crazy battery drain on Sonoma. Many ppl confirmed that in their reviews around internet. It’s very critical for laptop.
 

tasty_mushroom

macrumors newbie
Feb 2, 2024
9
2
Sonoma works fine. None of the available OSes have performance issues on Apple Silicon Macs.
you were right, thank you! 🙏
everything is fine with Sonoma, 3rd day of the flight and everything is OK 👍
even officialy unsupported Parallel Desktop 17 with old virtual machines working good for me 💪
 
Last edited:

h.gilbert

macrumors 6502a
Nov 17, 2022
730
1,275
Bordeaux
I'm on Sonoma and notice no difference from Ventura.

I think it's fine since Sonoma supports older 2018 Intel Airs so the M1 would be absolutely fine. Perhaps when the M1 Air is getting near its end of life I'll think about sticking to the current OS rather than the latest.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scarrus and Tagbert

Eithanius

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2005
1,557
419
I tend to believe that the best OS has to be the one that comes pre-installed with the machines the first day they're launched. My M1 Air still runs best on Big Sur despite trying all on OSes to date, with the worst being Monterey. The same goes with my old mid-2010 MBP, best on Snow Leopard, worse on Mavericks. Ancients G5 iMac and first Intel Mac Pro runss best on Tiger, worse on Leopard etc...
 

ozone

macrumors 6502
Feb 18, 2004
498
45
Ontario, Canada
My MBAir M1 was great all the way up and including Ventura. And then with Sonoma, it started crashing - sometimes 4 or 5 times a day initially. Now, after multiple updates, it seems mostly restricted to when it comes out of sleep, especially if I close the laptop and disconnect from a basic dock. It was rock solid before Sonoma, and I might have experienced a problem once every 3 to 4 months at most; now, it's hit or miss. I probably have to do a clean install.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,729
7,306
My MBAir M1 was great all the way up and including Ventura. And then with Sonoma, it started crashing - sometimes 4 or 5 times a day initially. Now, after multiple updates, it seems mostly restricted to when it comes out of sleep, especially if I close the laptop and disconnect from a basic dock. It was rock solid before Sonoma, and I might have experienced a problem once every 3 to 4 months at most; now, it's hit or miss. I probably have to do a clean install.
It's definitely worth looking into that further- this is not typical operation in Sonoma on any Mac.
 

Howard2k

macrumors 603
Mar 10, 2016
5,715
5,672
I used to go for the .1 or .2 of whatever the current OS is, but for the last few years I've been staying one OS behind, or at least waiting for the .4 or .5. Venture 13.6.5 for now and it's totally rock solid.

I was tempted to go to Sonoma 14.4, but then this:


I can wait.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.