With the release of macOS Sonoma beta 7, Apple includes a ton of new wallpapers that are all gorgeous. They’re so amazing that they might be the best reason to upgrade when Apple releases it this fall.
There are a lot of new wallpapers. Before beta 7, Sonoma had six Landscape wallpapers; with beta 7, there are 47! There are more Cityscape, Underwater, and Earth wallpapers, too. Of course, we have to state the usual beta disclaimer and note that Apple could change this when it officially releases Sonoma, so they could reduce the number of wallpapers from this beta–or hey, here could be more of them!
All of the wallpapers can be set as the Mac’s animated screensaver where the scene pans across the display. If you use the Spaces feature, a different wallpaper can be set for each desktop Space. These wallpapers can all be used on the new Sonoma Lock Screen, which seamlessly zooms into your desktop. To find them all once you’re running Sonoma, head over to the Wallpaper tab in System Settings.
Here’s a sample of the new wallpapers in beta 7–but keep in mind that these are single shots of an animated sequence.
Sonoma River
Apple has included five wallpapers that feature the Sonoma Valley for which this version of macOS gets its name.
China
Apple is always looking to grow its market share in China and featuring the country in some wallpapers might attract a few new Chinese users. Here are six wallpapers, including a couple of the Great Wall.
San Francisco
Here’s some trivia from this San Francisco resident: The fog, which is a part of daily SF life, has a nickname. We call it Karl, which is prominently featured in the wallpaper.
macOS Sonoma wallpaper: San Francisco Bay
macOS Sonoma wallpaper: San Francisco Evening
macOS Sonoma wallpaper: San Francisco Night
macOS Sonoma wallpaper: San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge
macOS Sonoma wallpaper: San Francisco Skyline
macOS Sonoma wallpaper: San Francisco Ferry Building
macOS Sonoma wallpaper: San Francisco Fog
Underwater
Apple added 15 Underwater wallpapers with jellyfish, sharks, seals, dolphins, rays, and more. Since these can be used as screen savers, the animals swim across the display. Here’s a look at six of them.
Earth
The 17 new shots taken from the Earth’s orbit focus on other areas, such as Antarctica and its Southern Lights, West Africa, New York, Southern California, and China at night. Those wallpapers are shown here.
Our guide to macOS Sonoma can fill you in on the next version of the Mac operating system, which is expected to arrive later this fall.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor
Roman has covered technology since the early 1990s. His career started at MacUser, and he's worked for MacAddict, Mac|Life, and TechTV.