iOS 27 Beta Gets Faster, But Siri AI Stumbles

Apple released the iOS 27 public beta on Monday, July 13, roughly a month after previewing the software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. After testing both the developer and public betas, the update feels less like a major reinvention and more like a collection of useful refinements, awkward experiments, and underwhelming AI features.

The beta is still unfinished, so Apple warns that features may be buggy and battery life may suffer. Anyone testing it before the general release this fall should use a secondary iPhone rather than a primary device.

The iOS 27 improvements that stand out

The most noticeable change may be performance. On an iPhone 16 Pro running the public beta, unlocking felt snappier, apps opened faster, and moving between screens seemed more fluid than on the same phone running iOS 26.5. The difference was less obvious on an iPhone 14 Pro running the developer beta, but comparing multiple iPhones made the improvements easier to detect.

Widgets are also getting a new size option that fills an entire iPhone screen. The larger format makes Apple Music considerably more useful, showing six playlists instead of four. News, Reminders, Weather, and Smart Stack widgets can also expand, providing more content without opening their full apps.

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The Weather app has another welcome upgrade that Apple did not highlight at WWDC or on its iOS 27 webpage. New Precipitation and Wind buttons in the hourly forecast let users view visual information about rain and wind conditions across the day and week. For anyone who regularly checks the chance of rain, the change provides more useful context at a glance.

Siri AI remains inconsistent

Apple positions the combination of Siri and Apple Intelligence as iOS 27's headline feature, but testing suggests it still has substantial limitations. Siri sometimes handled simple requests, such as sending messages or opening apps, but it also failed to recognize voice commands, froze after responding, or completed only the first part of a multi-step task.

Breaking complex requests into separate steps improved the results, though not consistently. Siri could sometimes create a reminder or note from a message, and it offered one-tap actions for adding photos to the Library or creating Calendar events. Those cross-app prompts were among the more practical uses of the new system.

The Siri AI app also returned outdated information when asked about the news, including reports from roughly a month earlier. It displayed a disclaimer advising users to verify its responses, but that limitation undercuts the appeal of using the assistant for current events. A BBC study from last October found that other AI models misrepresented news content about 45% of the time, although there is no comparable data yet for Siri AI.

The redesign creates a separate usability problem. With Siri AI enabled, swiping down from the top-middle of the Home Screen opens Siri Search or Ask instead of Notification Center. Notifications can then be accessed from the top-left, an awkward change for someone holding an iPhone in the right hand. Disabling Siri AI, or using the older Siri without AI, restores the familiar gesture.

AI photo tools produce strange results

The Photos app’s new Extend and Reframe tools are similarly mixed. Extend generates more space around an image, while Reframe changes the apparent perspective. Both may work for minor edits against simple backgrounds, but testing produced distorted proportions and uncanny results.

The tools altered tattoos, removed part of a subject’s head, and created unnatural facial proportions. Reframe is attempting to simulate what the image might look like from a different camera position, which can introduce lens-like distortion. In many cases, taking another photograph from a different angle remains the simpler option.

Overall, iOS 27 feels like a solid round of fine-tuning rather than a compelling reason to upgrade immediately. The faster performance, larger widgets, and improved Weather app are practical additions. Siri AI, by contrast, still feels limited and requires too much verification to make everyday tasks easier.

Because the software remains in beta, Apple could resolve many of these problems before its expected release around mid-September, based on the company’s past launch schedule.