Apple on Monday unveiled macOS 10.14 Mojave during its WWDC 2018 keynote, confirming rumors that the Mac is finally getting the Dark Mode so many people wanted — sadly, there was no Dark Mode for iOS 12.
But Dark Mode isn’t the only new feature in macOS Mojave. We’ve got a bunch of new Apple apps, desktop and finder improvements, a new Mac App Store experience, as well as several privacy and security features built into Safari. What all that means is that older Macs will not be able to upgrade to Mojave later this year, even if they run High Sierra just fine.
Coming this fall as a free update, which is customary for Apple’s new OS releases, Mojave will be compatible with MacBooks and Macs introduced in mid-2012 or later, as well as 2010 and 2012 Mac Pro models that feature recommended Metal-capable graphics cards.
What that means is that Apple dropped support for several Macs, including older MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, iMac, and Mac Pro models. On the other hand, if you still own a 2009 or 2010 MacBook or Mac that’s already on High Sierra, then you’ve probably had a more than decent run. There’s perhaps no Windows-based machine made in 2009 or 2010 that can offer a great Windows 10 experience.
If you want to upgrade to a Mac that can run Mojave and enjoy that Dark Mode experience, then your best bet would be waiting for Apple to release its 2018 Macs, which will probably run macOS 10.14 out of the box.
If you want something more affordable, but still guaranteed to run Mojave, then make sure you buy one of these — the newer, the better, as it’ll likely receive plenty of macOS updates:
- Retina MacBook (early 2015 or later)
- MacBook Air (mid-2012 or later)
- MacBook Pro (mid-2012 or later)
- Mac Mini (late 2012 or later)
- iMac (late 2012 or later)
- iMac Pro (2017 — that’s the first-gen and only model so far)
- Mac Pro (mid-2010 and mid-2012 models with recommended GPUs, and anything newer)
macOS Mojave is available in developer beta right now, and you can install it right away on compatible hardware if you have access to a developer profile.
