📱A brand new era for iOS. The first look at Apple’s latest software — iOS 26 — is now out, and we decided to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about. iOS 26 offers the first major redesign of Apple’s iPhone operating system since iOS 7 in 2013; yet, is there substantial change beyond aesthetics?

Hello, liquid glass, and welcome back Frutiger Aero. With the latest update, Apple is veering away from the minimalist aesthetic that has come to define its OS, and instead, seems to be embracing a return to form. iOS 26 introduces what Apple has dubbed “liquid glass” — a colorful, window pane-esque design language reminiscent of mid-‘00s design language Frutiger Aero, which you may recognize from previous Windows editions such as Vista and 7.

The good: For the first time in over a decade, iPhone homescreens look alive. The new liquid glass design language adds depth, vibrancy, and freshness to a hitherto monotonous display. Both the camera and the photo apps also underwent a much-needed round of housekeeping, and user interfaces for both have cut out all the noise, resulting in uncluttered and easy to navigate interfaces — a far cry from their widely-criticized iOS 18 counterparts.

If you’re a self-proclaimed DJ, you’ll want to get your hands on iOS 26’s latest music feature. Among the OS’s flagship features, the new ‘automix’ setting in Apple Music is one we were initially skeptical of — but it exceeded our expectations. Instead of abruptly transitioning from one song to another, activating the feature allows the music app to seamlessly transition between songs, curating playlists with songs that overlap and complement each other. Needless to say, we spent quite a bit of time enjoying this particular feature.

The bad: Given that this is the very first public beta version, many third-party apps and interfaces are yet to be optimized. All of Apple’s native apps — Messages, Facetime, Safari, and the like — have all gotten a fresh look and are armed with shiny new buttons. These, unfortunately do not carry over to other apps such as WhatsApp and other social media platforms, resulting in a disjointed experience that may feel off-putting at times — especially when jumping between apps.

And the ugly: If you upgrade, keep a charger handy. The beta update has quite the appetite for battery life — draining devices faster than usual. If you’re good with a little bit of lag, you should be fine — we were not. While the fresh look and updated animations offered some much-appreciated change, we didn’t quite appreciate the frequent screen freezes and lags. Navigating the device proved incrementally frustrating, but we’d wager that these hiccups will be ironed out in upcoming versions.

Unless curiosity is getting the best of you, we’d recommend sitting the beta version out and waiting for the official release, which is set to roll out starting mid-September. If you decide to give it a shot, try it out on a secondary device you can easily restore. Friendly tip: don’t forget to back up your device.

The verdict: iOS 26 may offer the visual renaissance many users had been hoping for, but aside from an interesting feature here or there, there isn’t much that changed. The new Apple Intelligence features — which are already limited in number and scope — remain in their preliminary stages. AI-backed Siri? Still lounging about in an undisclosed, off-the-grid location.

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