How best to migrate to a new Mac?

Last year when I migrated from a 2016 MBP to a 2023 MBA I used a Thunderbolt cable. It seemed to me to be the fastest option, and I migrated around 750GB in around 20 minutes. Highly recommend this method if both Macs have Thunderbolt ports. For me, I used an Apple Thunderbolt cable, but I'm sure there are others that work just as well.

Migrating from a Time Machine backup is a tried and true method and has never failed me in the past. This method is rock solid, IMO.

The above being said, I would NEVER recommend migrating via WiFi. It's slow, and susceptible to signal dropouts that can result in corrupt files.

The simplest and least hassle way is to just plug in the old Time Machine backup and migrate form the (make sure its backups are up to date).

Direct connection while doable but still more hassle than just plugging in a Time Machine drive and I would avoid WiFi as there can be way to many things that can interrupt the process and ultimately bork the transfer.

I can't say which one is better but I bought an M3 Air and migrated from my 2017 MacBook Pro by connecting them with a cable. It was piece of cake, and faster than I thought it would be.