This UI change will have zero effect on battery life as the UI is already a fully 3d rendered since iOS 1.0
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iOS 26: Everything You Need to Know About the Liquid Glass Redesign
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Ive been running it on iPhone and iPad for couple weeks. I’m not fan of it aesthetically or its poor readability.
Battery life took a major hit, but that could be beta problems.
I hate the safari address bar shifting from dark to light depending on what on the webpage.
I hate the glass shimmering effect of the icons on dark wallpapers.
There more but it just looks ‘cheap’ to me.
I’ll see it to final launch but i may just switch to another device if it doesn't change by much.
Battery life took a major hit, but that could be beta problems.
I hate the safari address bar shifting from dark to light depending on what on the webpage.
I hate the glass shimmering effect of the icons on dark wallpapers.
There more but it just looks ‘cheap’ to me.
I’ll see it to final launch but i may just switch to another device if it doesn't change by much.
I do not want this nightmare readability scenario at ALL. Please give me a themes picker and let it be a theme, and I will stick with "readable ios 18 style".
I'm not THAT OLD yet my vision isn't as good as a 21 year old, and I want good contrast on text - 100% black text (most of the time) against a light background. Or whatever is appropriate for a good readability score. I don't need or want my background picture to show thru everything, every button, every box, every other control. The background picture just isn't why I use a phone/tablet/computer. Its nice, but not the main thing that demands the most visible pixels.
I'm not THAT OLD yet my vision isn't as good as a 21 year old, and I want good contrast on text - 100% black text (most of the time) against a light background. Or whatever is appropriate for a good readability score. I don't need or want my background picture to show thru everything, every button, every box, every other control. The background picture just isn't why I use a phone/tablet/computer. Its nice, but not the main thing that demands the most visible pixels.
I certainly had this question, and the related question of how UI performance changes under low battery conditions. But it may be hard to fully assess if there's still debug code in the betas.
Anecdotal of course, but I have noticed performance improvements particularly with QR code scanning on iOS 26 beta. I have not noticed any battery life change; 5 month old 16 Pro Max.
Bottom line for me is this...if LG cannot be completely disabled, then *OS26 will never be on any of my devices.
I am happy to say that my iPhone XR is not compatible with iOS "26" - so I won't have to deal with any of that LG crap.
I think you're being quite premature in your assessment having not actually used it based on chatter on the internet from people who either just watched the keynote and made assumptions or have maybe even just watched clickbait videos on YouTube, etc.
But hey, you do you - if you want to throw away compatibility with new software, new features, etc. go ahead.
I think you're just making life difficult for yourself over nothing though, without having even used it.
- Are you actually running the public beta?
- If so, have you left any feedback?
- If you aren't running the public beta, stop making usability assumptions that don't exist.
It isn't a solution. So far, it is some poorly thought out changes to the visual elements of the UI which make text harder to read. There are a few places now where tab bars and sliding tabs collapse without giving any indication that they can be expanded to access more function. Sidebars now look like windows floating above the window to which they are attached. These are paradigm breaking changes which result in a loss of functionality. They are changes for the sake of someone's idea of visual aesthetics, not functional design.
I’m surprised no one is talking about this. You can’t generate warping effects and add other graphical effects to elements in real time without cost. I’m sure it’s efficient on the back end, but still. The GPU definitely gets taxed.
They have been overthinking and being way too obtuse and convoluted in how they are doing things for a while now. The new UI in Books I guess was the first look at this obnoxious trend where they seem determined to put everything into the smallest box possible that you need to drill down 4 levels to find the option you want. Music, Books, Safari are all perfect examples of UIs that are positively claustrophobic to use, especially on macOS.
I loath the new Music UI, especially on macOS. Especially how they buried the progress bar on a forced hover delay. Insane given I’m using a 27” display.
Whattayaknow! The new iPhone will have big battery improvements just when you need them most!
You literally can if the GPU has been doing all the work required for years already anyway. iOS UI has been GPU processed since day one; this is just a shader.
I’ve noticed no battery life change. You're talking about couple of tiny little rendering effects on a GPU that can run AAA games these days.
In terms of Betas, for me so far the 26 line of Betas has been much less buggy than previous versions I've run.
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Not sure how that’s true, the transparency in iPhone 4S used to be exclusive because of CPU drain on older devices.
Bluntly, either Apple scraps Liquid Glass or my blind father is going to scrap his iPhone. Allowing modification of the Control Center is bad enough for him (iOS 18.) And before the sycophants crow, “Reduce transparency!” that’s going to make it too dark, even in Light mode. I’m sorry, but Apple cannot claim to be any kind of leader in accessibility if they’re shoveling garbage like liquid glass onto phones.
Agree. It's hard to imagine what drove this, aside from everything from Apple is pretty stagnant so it just seems like a way to shake things up.
Regarding Liquid Glass...I'm on the fence. In some of the examples I found it difficult to read the icon and know where I was at on the screen. In other places, it was very nice and refreshing to see through the displays. I hope we have the option to toggle Liquid Glass. If we don't, I will opt out of using it at this time. I've been an iPhone fan since day one and love each iteration that comes through. Currently using iPhone 16 Pro Max; Pro Max my go to choice for my iPhone! I look forward to September!
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Apple wanted you to upgrade to a 4s to get the flashy new UI
The GPUs in even the original iPhone are well and truly capable of basic transparency without breaking a sweat.