Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I have a 15P and everything is laggy. I've never seen 4th beta's this bad to be honest. I'm in the process of restoring back to 18.5 - something I've never, ever done in a decade of running betas.

I fired up an old iPhone 7 today, and it shocked me how "snappy" it all felt.

The direction of iOS26 is unfortunate. While I give grace for betas, this direction is pushing it. A 10 year old device should not feel snappier than one I purchased last year. And I will add, that I even tried "Reduce Transparency" mode, which helped a bit, but not much.

If it continues down this path, I will seriously be shorting AAPL stock near launch time - this is going to end up in lawsuits, as it's making people's devices comparatively unusable.
 
Noticed this on B4, but B1, B2 and B3 never had this scrolling stutter. B4 has massively improved the laggy/stuttery UI on the 16 PM overall, but still not as smooth as 18 was yet, but it's so much better than it was on all the previous versions. But B4 has now introduced this scrolling stutter particularly noticeable in Safari and settings, still plenty of time until September for optimising things, but for a 4th beta that should be the public test version, these major performance issues are unacceptable even for a beta.

I've been playing with betas for many years, and while OS stability and app compatibility has been really good, these are the worst betas I've seen when it comes to performance.
 
Last edited:
Noticed this on B4, but B1, B2 and B3 never had this scrolling stutter. B4 has massively improved the laggy/stuttery UI on the 16 PM overall, but still not as smooth as 18 was yet, but it's so much better than it was on all the previous versions. But B4 has now introduced this scrolling stutter particularly noticeable in Safari and settings, still plenty of time until September for optimising things, but for a 4th beta that should be the public test version, these major performance issues are unacceptable even for a beta.

I've been playing with betas for many years, and while OS stability and app compatibility has been really good, these are the worst betas I've seen when it comes to performance.
Same here in terms of some of the worst betas, at least for this stage in the game.

I gave up and went back to iOS 18.5. Good gosh it feels so fast in comparison. Just little things like trying to take a selfie… or toggling between views on the Phone app. It just works. Not all this wiggling and jumping around.

I’m going to be honest I hope Apple really do go public soon, so they can get proper feedback. I think they’re in denial at this point. As I noted in another comment, it is actually so bad I would be prepared to short AAPL stock.
 
For me it’s the opposite. I got the 15 Pro 1TB.

Beta 2 was super laggy and choppy, considered switching back but decided not to cause it’s a big hassle with all the data I got (700GB of various media on my phone that would have to be redownloaded). Apps were slow to load, animations were so laggy it’s like using an old PC with a modern game. Probably 10 fps lol.

Beta 3 was slightly better, enough not to annoy me but still visibly choppy, akin to using a phone without ProMotion.

Beta 4 so far has smooth animations and feels “normal” to me. I’ll observe to see if I get any more lag but it seems okay.
 
Scrolling in a web browser depends a lot on the page rendered and the network connection, as well as any content blockers installed. I am seeing no issues on my 16PM on WiFi. Pulled up an article on Slashfilm and it does that endless scroll thing to additional articles. It just flies. Scrolling as fast as I can, backing up, and zipping down again. Smooth and responsive.
 
we are literally on the fourth beta of a usual eight, in the vast majority of consumers won’t get this update until 26.2.
any talk of shorting the stock or any of that nonsense is just that, nonsense.
there is also the fact that betas, even almost final ones, still have extra diagnostic logging and checks happening that just simply don’t happen on an official public release, so performance will be better, just based off of that alone.
also, no matter what, you should never judge the performance of an operating system based off of the first 24-48 hours.
we go through this with literally every single update, people rushing to tell us how it’s slow and laggy and stupid… And then their phone settles down and returns to normal after a couple days and all of a sudden they disappear.
 
there is also the fact that betas, even almost final ones, still have extra diagnostic logging and checks happening that just simply don’t happen on an official public release
Agree with everything you said but this bit. Pretty sure this was debunked awhile ago. The feedback app and the logs are always on device, even when you unenroll from betas. They are very small text files and uploading them to Apple is no impact on performance. If you can find any documentation that say otherwise though, happy to read it.
 
Anybody seeing scrolling issues outside of Safari? Just trying to get a feel for this problem to see if it is a change in animation or a change in webpage rendering.
 
Anybody seeing scrolling issues outside of Safari? Just trying to get a feel for this problem to see if it is a change in animation or a change in webpage rendering.
I’m seeing this stuttering issue everywhere (16 PM), in apps, games like candy crush, even just zooming into my eufy cameras and panning the image around its slightly stuttery.

Never has this issue with B1, B2 or B3. Everything feels terrible because of it, they screwed up something pretty badly in B4.

It seems to change very quickly from smooth to stuttery like the refresh rate is rapidly changing, instead of maintaining it.
 
I no longer put betas on my phones, but speaking for my iPad Pro this is the smoothest beta in ages, at this stage. No lagging while scrolling or doing anything else. Each new release has fixed bugs that were obvious to me so I’m seeing significant improvement with each release. I remember how bad ios 11 was during betas and even after initial release. That’s one reason I no longer put betas on my phones, but I can deal with a few problems on my ipad. This time around I’ve had so few problems, all minimal, that they could release this as is today and I’d be satisfied. The few visual glitches I occasionally see are really no worse than those occasionally seen in general releases. All apps, native and 3rd party work without any issues, so good on you Apple!
 
  • Like
Reactions: tim_apple
I’ve never installed beta versions myself, but I always read user experiences to better understand what the first official release might be like when it comes out. Based on the comments about the iOS 26 betas, I’m honestly worried about what’s coming. The visual “candy” just isn’t worth it if the UI ends up being slow and laggy. What I’ve always appreciated about iPhones and Apple devices is how well-optimized they are. Android tends to rely on “brute force” by stuffing endless amounts of RAM into phones, yet they still become laggy at some point. I really hope the iPhone isn’t heading in that same direction.

What do you think, do these slowdowns in the beta suggest that the first official release will also be slow, or is there still hope?
 
I have a 15P and everything is laggy. I've never seen 4th beta's this bad to be honest. I'm in the process of restoring back to 18.5 - something I've never, ever done in a decade of running betas.

I fired up an old iPhone 7 today, and it shocked me how "snappy" it all felt.

The direction of iOS26 is unfortunate. While I give grace for betas, this direction is pushing it. A 10 year old device should not feel snappier than one I purchased last year. And I will add, that I even tried "Reduce Transparency" mode, which helped a bit, but not much.

If it continues down this path, I will seriously be shorting AAPL stock near launch time - this is going to end up in lawsuits, as it's making people's devices comparatively unusable.

Noticed this on B4, but B1, B2 and B3 never had this scrolling stutter. B4 has massively improved the laggy/stuttery UI on the 16 PM overall, but still not as smooth as 18 was yet, but it's so much better than it was on all the previous versions. But B4 has now introduced this scrolling stutter particularly noticeable in Safari and settings, still plenty of time until September for optimising things, but for a 4th beta that should be the public test version, these major performance issues are unacceptable even for a beta.

I've been playing with betas for many years, and while OS stability and app compatibility has been really good, these are the worst betas I've seen when it comes to performance.
Usually I’m one of those that experience problems when most don’t. While I had massive problems with beta 1 and 2, 3 is the smoothest by far. Apple Maps was the worst, a complete stutter fest. Now it’s finally usable.
But in general, I agree that these are the worst performant betas in the last 4 years at least.
I don’t know about lawsuits because of usability, too early to make a call, but I expect massive unrest around the world. Apple is toying with core functions on millions of devices, their entire catalog actually.
Who’s gonna explain to my mom how to use the new camera app and why do I have to. Or why the new version of iOS drains her older iPhones battery even faster? After years of trying to talk with my family and friends about planned obsolescence and how new iOS version have actually done the opposite, I have to shut my mouth hole after all, if it doesn’t fur out to be magically incredibly optimized. But considering that low power mode was never really optimized for ProMotion iPhones I have no trust that the entire system will perform good.

xOS 26 is the perfect example of how the decisions of some overpaid strangers in sunny California affect the daily lives of literally millions of people around the entire globe. For no reason but change’s sake. That might be worth a lawsuit.
 
I’ve never installed beta versions myself, but I always read user experiences to better understand what the first official release might be like when it comes out. Based on the comments about the iOS 26 betas, I’m honestly worried about what’s coming. The visual “candy” just isn’t worth it if the UI ends up being slow and laggy. What I’ve always appreciated about iPhones and Apple devices is how well-optimized they are. Android tends to rely on “brute force” by stuffing endless amounts of RAM into phones, yet they still become laggy at some point. I really hope the iPhone isn’t heading in that same direction.

What do you think, do these slowdowns in the beta suggest that the first official release will also be slow, or is there still hope?
I‘m confident iOS 26 will perform as well as iOS 11 did. So not very much on older devices but on the latest ones.
iOS 26 is supposed to support the iPhone 11, SE and the 12&13 mini. That means it has to be optimized for rather many different and low specs, display types and sizes. If you put into consideration, which you really REALLY should, the different accessibility features, like text size, you have a LOT of UI to completely rework for these models. Apple did a terrible job at this in the past, so I wouldn’t expect them to be any better this time around.
But ey, best to wait until September and see the „final“ product. Just make sure you’re not a sucker with one of these older devices I guess ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sami13496
I’ve never installed beta versions myself, but I always read user experiences to better understand what the first official release might be like when it comes out. Based on the comments about the iOS 26 betas, I’m honestly worried about what’s coming. The visual “candy” just isn’t worth it if the UI ends up being slow and laggy. What I’ve always appreciated about iPhones and Apple devices is how well-optimized they are. Android tends to rely on “brute force” by stuffing endless amounts of RAM into phones, yet they still become laggy at some point. I really hope the iPhone isn’t heading in that same direction.

What do you think, do these slowdowns in the beta suggest that the first official release will also be slow, or is there still hope?
I had the latest devices at the time iOS 11 was released. I had gotten the latest iPad Pro that summer and bought that fall’s latest iPhone 8, I believe, that came with iOS 11 installed. It was horrible. 26 is light years ahead of that and is still in an early beta. It’s so good I’m tempted to put it on my phone, but my rule is to never do so anymore after the debacle of 11. If it were released today, as-is, I’d have no hesitation in putting it on my phone. On my iPad Pro it feels like a final release. (but I still shield my phone from betas, you never know)
 
I had the latest devices at the time iOS 11 was released. I had gotten the latest iPad Pro that summer and bought that fall’s latest iPhone 8, I believe, that came with iOS 11 installed. It was horrible. 26 is light years ahead of that and is still in an early beta. It’s so good I’m tempted to put it on my phone, but my rule is to never do so anymore after the debacle of 11. If it were released today, as-is, I’d have no hesitation in putting it on my phone. On my iPad Pro it feels like a final release. (but I still shield my phone from betas, you never know)
iOS 11 was so bad it’s the only one I can definitively recall being bad. That was the only time I’ve ever rolled back to the production version, though I came close a few versions back - possibly iOS 15, though I can’t say for sure. For me at least, 26 has been the most stable experience I’ve ever had with development betas, much better than 18 last year. Given the UI changes I was expecting a rougher journey.
 
  • Like
Reactions: papbot
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.