In case you’re on the fence about upgrading to macOS Sierra from El Capitan, you’ve come to the right place. We’re dissecting the new macOS in detail, looking closely at how it compares to the previous and if the end justifies the means (of waiting for an hour-long upgrade). However, if you want to upgrade to macOS 10.13 High Sierra, jump straight to. Before we begin, here’s a few most common things you have to know about the latest macOS: the update is free as always, it runs on most Macs later that 2009, and you can only upgrade from El Capitan (you can’t skip it and run Sierra from Yosemite directly).
There, now let’s look at what Sierra has to offer. Comparing OS X El Capitan 10.11 to macOS Sierra 10.12 We’ll run a comparison on the most important things: features, performance, and system requirements. Usually, most of these criteria are enough to make a decision whether you need to upgrade or not. Some of the measurements are approximate and might show different figures in the case of your Mac, like battery life, which depends heavily on its age and intensity of usage. Features Comparison El Capitan Sierra iCloud cross-device sync Calendar, Messages, Notes — the usual stuff. New folders added: Desktop and Documents. Available, still imperfect, but it’s there.
I really like El Capitan as it is stable and has better battery life(I've heard) but now I really have no choice as there are many apps that are.
Apple Pay Nope. Available, works well.
Space management Only the one you perform yourself by being neat. Optimized Storage with cleaning features. Apple Watch Unlock Nope. Is there, works mostly fine.
As you can see, macOS Sierra is pretty packed with. Some of the goodies can only be used if you have other Apple devices, like iPhone or Apple Watch. Optimized Storage is a whole separate story on how Apple tried to make a good space cleaning solution and almost succeeded. Bottom line is, if you want your system running smoothly for longer than a few months after the installation, you’ll need third-party for both El Capitan and Sierra. Despite the fact that you can free a notable chunk of your drive by moving stuff into the iCloud with Optimized Storage, you still get all kinds of system trash (like app cache) that doesn’t go anywhere. READ MORE: Another novelty, an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator Siri, has been long-expected and we’re all glad to have it on Mac. Even though it’s still not the future-is-now kind of assistant that really understands you and can hold a conversation.
But it will look for files on your Mac or on the web and find you a place to have that anniversary dinner. Which is nice. Performance Comparison El Capitan Sierra Speed test Works fine when having enough free disk space (10%) Appears snappier, but could be just a clean new system. Runs better on new Macs. Battery life 6-7 hours on a Macbook Air 2013 5-6 hours on a MacBook Air 2013.
Seems to be a general trend of 1-2-hour shorter battery life after upgrade. Security Pretty solid OS, but could be better.
65 security fixes, sounds impressive. It’s hard to make a sweeping judgement on which OS version is faster or more powerful. Because of the constant sync with your iCloud (and probably something else because when it’s turned off the problem is still present) macOS Sierra does drain your battery faster. On average, an upgrade will cost you a few hours of work. On the other hand, at least a fresh-installed system is really snappy and the response is amazing.
It could be because it’s a new install and it could get lost in half a year, but hey, half a year is still not bad. Just make sure your Mac supports Sierra, otherwise instead of getting faster it will slow down even more. So getting an app like or the likes is still advisable even for the latest macOS. System Requirements El Capitan Sierra RAM 2 GB 2 GB Hard Drive space 8.8 GB of free storage 8.8 GB of free storage Hardware (Mac models) Most late 2008 Some late 2009, but mostly 2010. The main difference is with the Mac models, you can see for more details on which Macs can upgrade, but the official requirements for RAM and disk space are the same, even though technically the installation file for Sierra is smaller. To sum it up, if you have a late 2009 Mac, Sierra is a go.
It’s fast, it has Siri, it can keep your old stuff in iCloud. It’s a solid, safe macOS that looks like a good but minor improvement over El Capitan. We hope this guide has been of help. Remember to backup your files and upgrade safely.
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Thus far I am very disappointed with macOS Sierra. I have a MacBook Pro late 2011 (2.5 Ghz intel core i5, 4 gb ram) which was running great on El Capitan. Updated today to macOS Sierra and my computer is so slow now, honestly shocked because it's the slowest its ever been. Applications take much longer to open, Siri isn't even worth using due to how slow it is. Everything went so well when I had upgraded to El Capitan, I thought I would have similar results this time around. Anyone else on a 2011 MacBook Pro with better results than me? I'm on a mid-2011 MacBook Air (so significantly less horsepower than your MBP) and I've not noticed any slowdowns as you've described.
Now, I always make a practice of doing several reboots over a few days (rather than just let my Mac go to sleep when I'm not using it), as I've found that helps Apple's OS get its ducks in a row - and maybe that helps. Boots are marginally longer, but beyond that. The only other caveats here I have is that I don't use a lot of power / processor hungry apps and, being an Air, I have a SSD, rather than a HDD - so I don't know if those issues are playing into your's there - but firedept10's comment above suggests that its not a SSD/HDD issue?
Hi Bazza1, I have a question for you. How about battery on a mid-2011 MacBook Air? How long is Air working on a Sierra?Hi Dmitry - In truth, I don't use my Air as often as I once did on battery alone (though my battery's health and number of cycles left on it is still pretty good) - so I can't really give you a comparison. And I never really kept track of how long it ran with previous OSs and I've not really had enough of an opportunity to run it 'dry' on Sierra yet.
Sorry I can't offer guidance there. My early-2011 MacBookPro is running at a glacial pace on Sierra. I actually didn't even realize that I was upgrading the system, or I wouldn't have done it! In that same vein of knowing so little as to be dangerous, I don't know what HDD or SDD is. This Mac is an old one from work that I'm using at home, and I would love to not have to invest in a new one, if that's possible.
Thanks for being smart people on this site!HDD is a hard disk drive, the 'old' traditional spinning hard drive. The newer computers often come with an SSD, or solid state drive, which is much like a memory card in your camera. No spinning drives, just near instant read/write access. Performance is quite a bit better. You can see for yourself when I changed my 2011 Mac Mini HDD with an SSD. See this thread.
Robertk328 - Thabks for the explanation! I wouldn't be able to do that changeout myself, but it's very good to know what to ask someone else for! That's an amazing result and would be so much better than the molasses brick I currently own. I'll look around for a place that can do this work.It will make a big difference. If you're curious, here's a video: Depending on your comfort level you may be able to do it.
A backup is a must. But if you have a local place willing to do it, it could be worth it. Just get a decent SSD (i.e. Samsung EVO) and enjoy! MacOS Sierra it's not working for me! The features is great and i don't see big differences in speed, but the battery flows in 1,5 hours MAX. Before the upgrade, battery was holding 3-4hrs!
Wtf now, really? I can't get used to the noise of the fans. After the upgrade by the time i open it, they are working all the time as like i'm rendering a video in Cinema 4D. It was the worst experience i have had with Apple. I'm talking about MacBook Pro early 2011, 2.3GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB ram, SSD HD Samsung EVO 750.
How can i downgrade my Macbook and which was running great for similar Macbooks? Thus far I am very disappointed with macOS Sierra.
I have a MacBook Pro late 2011 (2.5 Ghz intel core i5, 4 gb ram) which was running great on El Capitan. Updated today to macOS Sierra and my computer is so slow now, honestly shocked because it's the slowest its ever been.
Applications take much longer to open, Siri isn't even worth using due to how slow it is. Everything went so well when I had upgraded to El Capitan, I thought I would have similar results this time around. Anyone else on a 2011 MacBook Pro with better results than me? I'm on a early-2011 MacBook pro and I've not noticed any slowdowns as you've described, but my battery flow very quickly and the fans working all the time. If you replace your hdd with a ssd the macbook will boot and work a lot faster! It will blow your mind!
This samsung EVO 850 500GB is really good It is also trim enabled. On your macbook pro 2011 you can enable trim.
There are a lot of tutorials on the internet how to do this. Trim keeps your flash memory appropriately cycled so that you can achieve faster read and write speeds, as well as a longer lifespan for your SSD.Pretty sure Sierra allows you to enable Trip without having to go through any hoops, unless I read fake news. Also, I'm not sure splurging on an expensive 500GB SSD is worth it for a machine that old, when you can get by with a $100 Evo or Intel SSD at 240-256GB Capacity which has 400MB R/W speeds.
Get the cheaper SSD, and use that extra money to upgrade the RAM. And possibly replace the battery, if you can get that done on the cheap. Once the machine is open, it costs almost nothing extra in labor to do that. You'd basically only be paying for the part. I'm on a early-2011 MacBook pro and I've not noticed any slowdowns as you've described, but my battery flow very quickly and the fans working all the time.Old Machine, likely with some dust in it, which is built with lots of components that generate quite a bit of heat compared to today's notebook computers. That's normal, especially after quite a few years of ownership.
Also depends on what type of applications you're running, as well. A friend of mine has a 2011 MacBook Pro, and she's done nothing but complain about performance and beach balls since upgrading to Sierra.