This autumn, macOS 27, codenamed Golden Gate, is poised to introduce a blend of compelling enhancements and moderate adjustments.
The public beta for macOS 27 Golden Gate is now accessible, offering M-series Mac users an early opportunity to experience Apple's newest features, notably a refined, less obtrusive Liquid Glass visual style. This aesthetic shift alone provides a compelling reason for anticipation, especially for those currently using Tahoe who find its transparency distracting. Furthermore, several other aspects make this beta particularly inviting for exploration.
Prior rumors suggested this macOS iteration would prioritize performance enhancements, bug resolutions, and numerous minor quality-of-life upgrades over a complete redesign. Golden Gate largely aligns with this expectation, beyond the adjustment to Liquid Glass. Apple underscored this focus during its WWDC keynote, presenting a detailed list of pragmatic yet impactful improvements, including an "Optimized CPU scheduler" and "Support for Mac mirroring in 5K resolution."
Remarkably, the Golden Gate developer beta has demonstrated commendable stability in daily usage on both M5 MacBook Air and M5 Max MacBook Pro devices. This is significant, as developer betas frequently introduce issues such as reduced battery longevity or increased hardware temperatures. For those considering the public beta (and comfortable with potential minor bugs), a review of its new features, spanning both notable successes and more modest additions, follows.
As observed in an earlier developer beta review, the refined Liquid Glass design, harmonized corner window radii, and enhanced visual elements within File Explorer and app sidebars represent clear triumphs for Golden Gate. While a return to macOS Sequoia's flatter aesthetic would still be preferred, the current Liquid Glass implementation is significantly more manageable and less intrusive. Upon the official Golden Gate release this autumn, an immediate upgrade will be recommended to all Tahoe users.
Siri's innovative Expressive Voices feature has entered preview with developer beta 3. Beyond its standard voice options, the macOS 27 public beta now enables users to tailor Siri's speech pace and expressiveness. Currently, this customization is available for female and male American accents, each offering five distinct levels for both pace and expressivity.
Despite not being a primary Siri enthusiast, this particular feature is highly appreciated. The immediate adjustment to maximum speaking speed and minimal expressivity resulted in a commendably robotic and concise vocal delivery. This personalized setting is likely to become permanent and will be applied across all personal Apple devices. Such granular control over voice assistant delivery is a welcome addition, and further options, perhaps even a "friendliness" slider for a more direct, no-nonsense tone, would be enthusiastically received.
A surprisingly valuable new addition is the Menu Bar overflow button. Previously, on macOS 26, an abundance of menu bar items could lead to the leftmost ones being obscured by application menus. Golden Gate addresses this by allowing the Menu Bar to be populated with numerous buttons and dropdowns, automatically concealing items to the left of the notch. These hidden items can then be temporarily revealed via a double-arrow expansion button, enhancing usability.
Among the new Photos app functionalities, the "Clean Up" feature stands out as the most significant enhancement. Evoking Google's Magic Eraser, it demonstrated effective removal of various subjects in testing. While effortlessly clearing minor elements like greenery from a sky in a Sony RX10 V photograph, its capability to convincingly erase a fly from a highly detailed flower proved particularly impressive. Though not a substitute for professional tools like Photoshop, this feature offers considerable utility for casual users.
Additional prominent Photos features, available across both macOS and iOS, include "Reframe" and "Extend." These allow users to adjust the composition by rotating or tilting images and to expand the picture's framing beyond its original capture. While a colleague previously evaluated these on the iPhone, testing on the Mac, using photographs taken with non-Apple devices, yielded mixed results.
While "Extend" capably expands images with AI-generated content, "Reframe" consistently produced visually unconvincing outcomes. Both features tend to grant Apple Intelligence excessive creative license, sometimes resulting in distorted or artificial-looking alterations. For instance, reframing an image of an airplane in the sky transformed it into an unnatural AI rendition, and applying it to a photograph of a bunny resulted in disproportionate features.
As a dedicated Lightroom Classic user, the Photos app on macOS is not a primary tool. However, even if it were, these particular AI-driven features would likely remain unused.
Siri AI remains a feature with limited personal utility. While an initial review indicated an improvement in its functionality (from a very low baseline), despite this significant upgrade, its practical application continues to be elusive. There is no habitual reliance on Siri for inquiries or information retrieval, whether through text or voice. A persistent skepticism regarding the accuracy of AI-generated responses, even for straightforward questions, remains, and its resolution may depend on a notable reduction in inaccuracies.
A new "Ask Siri" option occasionally surfaces at the top of the right-click context menu within the operating system and certain applications. Its inconsistent appearance can be somewhat jarring, despite the context menu adjusting its position to accommodate it. Adaptation to this feature is anticipated over time.
Similarly, the revamped battery percentage display in the Menu Bar, which now aligns with iOS by embedding a small numerical value within the battery icon, continues to be a less favored design choice, as noted in the initial Golden Gate review. Nevertheless, it has become a familiar aspect of the interface.
Despite reservations regarding Siri AI and the broader Apple Intelligence features, Golden Gate is distinctly preferred over Tahoe. Whether it will persuade users who remained on Sequoia specifically to circumvent Liquid Glass is uncertain. However, the cumulative effect of its smaller enhancements is positive, and for current Mac users accustomed to the "glassy" interface, Golden Gate represents a clear improvement.
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