When Apple unveiled iOS 27 at WWDC, the main highlight was artificial intelligence, which is only available on newer phones. The company spent a good portion of its keynote talking about the new Siri AI, Apple Intelligence, and other features that require the latest hardware to run. Unsurprisingly, this left owners of older iPhones wondering what exactly they would gain from the update.
After spending some time testing the iOS 27 beta on an iPhone 11 Pro Max (the oldest iPhone supported by the update), I can report that iOS 27 is just as important for older iPhones—maybe even more so. Although they’ll miss out on the latest AI features, iOS 27 may be the best update older iPhones have received in years.
If you’ve installed iOS 26 on an older iPhone, you’ve probably noticed that some things weren’t exactly smooth. Even some of the latest iPhones had some trouble running the fancy animations added with Liquid Glass. Also, I recently wrote about how iOS 26 seemed noticeably buggy compared to other recent iOS releases. Animations stuttered more often, apps took longer to launch, and even basic system interactions sometimes felt sluggish.
Apple promised that iOS 27 would address many of these issues. While we only have access to the first beta of iOS 27, my tests with the iPhone 11 Pro Max show that the company was serious about improving performance, especially when it comes to old hardware.
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To get a better idea of how much has changed, I measured the time it takes to complete a handful of common tasks on the same iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 26 and iOS 27 beta 1.
I started with something simple that most people do every day: taking photos with their iPhone. On iOS 26, my iPhone 11 took 0.98 seconds to open the Camera app, then 3.61 seconds to take a photo and load it into my photo library.
I ran the test again with iOS 27, and the improvements were noticeable. Now it only takes about 0.65 seconds to open the Camera app, and 2.44 seconds to take a photo and immediately open it from the thumbnail preview. For users, this means a lower chance of missing an important shot because their phone is too slow.
Many iPhone users also rely on the Maps app every day, and on iOS 26, the iPhone 11 took a long 3.01 seconds to load it. With the first beta of iOS 27, the same iPhone now loads the Maps app in just 1.36 seconds. That’s twice as fast as on iOS 26.
Other actions, such as launching Safari, browsing the App Store, and opening the share sheet, are also noticeably faster in iOS 27.
Results are in seconds. Lower results/shorter bars are better.
On their own, these numbers won’t transform the experience. After all, we’re talking about fractions of a second in some cases. But when you’re running these tasks multiple times a day, every second adds up to minutes saved. And the whole system feels remarkably faster.
Performance benchmarks are only part of the story. What really makes iOS 27 better on the iPhone 11 is how much smoother the animations feel during everyday use.
Visuals everywhere appear more consistent and less prone to frame drops. Swiping to open Control Center is noticeably more fluid. Unlocking the phone feels more responsive. App transitions seem better optimized and less likely to hitch.
Those were all things that bothered me when I tried using this iPhone on iOS 26, and now Apple seems to have fixed nearly all of the slow animations.
Once again, these aren’t dramatic changes individually, but together they create the impression that the old hardware is no longer struggling to keep up with the operating system. The result is an iPhone that feels newer than it actually is.
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Another change I noticed almost immediately is the temperature. While my iPhone 11 Pro Max heats up quite easily on iOS 26, even when performing basic tasks, iOS 27 seems to keep the phone cool for longer. And that’s a great sign that the optimizations Apple made across the system have worked.
A cooler phone generally indicates that software processes are being managed more efficiently. It often means less unnecessary CPU and GPU activity, which can also translate into better battery life over time.
Of course, this is still a beta, and hardware usage can fluctuate significantly throughout the beta cycle. Still, seeing a beta run already cooler than the previous public release is an encouraging sign.
If you watched the WWDC keynote, you might have been disappointed, as it seemed as though older iPhones wouldn’t be getting anything more than bug fixes with iOS 27. But that’s not actually the case. In fact, while devices like the iPhone 11 won’t support Siri AI, there are still many other new features coming to these devices. One of my favorite new features in iOS 27 is the new clipboard shortcut right on the keyboard, which makes it faster to paste text or even a screenshot you just took. Being able to control the volume of the alarms and timers independently was also a nice addition.
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There’s also the ability to create custom passes in the Wallet app, a redesigned interface that makes it easier to play audio messages in iMessage, an option to save a high-resolution frame from a video in the Photos app, and larger Home Screen widgets.
All of these features are coming to older iPhones with iOS 27. Sure, they might not sound as exciting as a new AI assistant that can control your phone, but they’re exactly the kind of improvements that make your phone feel more useful and polished.
Not to mention that all iPhones getting iOS 27 will feature refinements to the Liquid Glass interface, including the new transparency slider that lets you choose the look you want.
To be honest, I was quite surprised when Apple confirmed during the WWDC keynote that even the iPhone 11 would get the iOS 27 update. After all, my experience running iOS 26 on that generation of phone was quite frustrating. But now that I’ve tried the first beta, I can see why Apple made that decision.
The main narrative surrounding iOS 27 focuses heavily on AI, and that’s completely understandable. Apple had been lagging behind in this race, so it’s no surprise that they want to make a big deal out of all the new Apple Intelligence and Siri AI features.
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Yet, after using iOS 27 on an iPhone 11 Pro Max, I can’t help but think that older devices may be among the biggest beneficiaries of this update. The software feels faster. Animations are smoother. The phone runs cooler. And users still get a collection of useful new features despite missing out on AI.
For anyone worried that iOS 27 would leave older iPhones behind, the first beta suggests the opposite. Apple appears to have spent just as much time optimizing the experience for existing users as it did building features for future hardware, and that’s great news for people still holding onto a seven-year-old iPhone.