Which iPhone is needed to run iOS 26 smoothly?

[ktrhn]

I’m currently on an iPhone 12, which has always been fine for my needs. Normally I wouldn’t even think about upgrading. However, since updating to iOS 26 the phone has become extremely slow and the battery drains noticeably faster.

I’ve already tried reducing animations and disabling transparency effects, but it still feels almost unusable. The system frequently “freezes” for several seconds, which makes everyday use frustrating.

My question: On which iPhone models does iOS 26 actually run smoothly? I’d especially like to hear about user experiences with the somewhat older models (13, 14, 15, 16).

 

[BSoares]

I would stick with a 15 Pro or 16/17 models, solely because of Apple Intelligence which is lacking now but more and more Apple will make new features that only work on iPhones capable of using Apple Intelligence. I have a 15 Plus and I already feel left out on some stuff like live translation with AirPods Pro 2.

 

[Bazza1]

I could be catty and say they haven't built it yet, but for what it's worth, I use it on my 16, and it runs as well as might be expected.

That said, I have turned off both Siri and Apple Intelligence (as neither interest me), use the Dark (not Clear) settings, and have turned off transparency (and basically all of the "Squirrel!" visual gimmicks) - so I suspect the device is not dealing with a lot of stressful issues.

Nothing to be done about the rest of the WTF features Apple has added to the OS.

 

[FeliApple]

The 17 series.

/end of thread.

 

[Paddle1]

What's your battery health? My iPhone 12 seemed to throttle and would stutter even on iOS 18.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

My 13p ran every iOS 26 developer beta fine. My new 17p made my 13p seem sluggish and of course it doesn’t have any of the new features.

 

[TwitchyPuppy]

I would stick with a 15 Pro or 16/17 models, solely because of Apple Intelligence which is lacking now but more and more Apple will make new features that only work on iPhones capable of using Apple Intelligence. I have a 15 Plus and I already feel left out on some stuff like live translation with AirPods Pro 2.

You can disable Apple Intelligence and solely use Siri (it most likely won't make much of a difference, functionality wise, but it should reduce the lag).

 

[Travis299]

I’m currently on an iPhone 12, which has always been fine for my needs. Normally I wouldn’t even think about upgrading. However, since updating to iOS 26 the phone has become extremely slow and the battery drains noticeably faster.

I’ve already tried reducing animations and disabling transparency effects, but it still feels almost unusable. The system frequently “freezes” for several seconds, which makes everyday use frustrating.

My question: On which iPhone models does iOS 26 actually run smoothly? I’d especially like to hear about user experiences with the somewhat older models (13, 14, 15, 16).

15PM & 16P on IOS26.1 (23B5044I) with no problems.

 

[stikle]

I ran iOS 26 just fine on my 14 Pro since the early dev beta days.

 

[HouseLannister]

You can disable Apple Intelligence and solely use Siri (it most likely won't make much of a difference, functionality wise, but it should reduce the lag).

It would already be disabled on his 15 Plus.

 

[uecker87]

iPhone 26 for iOS 26 - duh. 🥸

Hoping 26.0.1 comes out today and provides some fixes. The UI is still pretty rough even on my 17 Pro. Lots of micro-stutters when scrolling, etc.

 

[0423MAC]

There are a lot of weird glitches regardless of device. I had to opt in to download the 26.1 Beta because I was experiencing the WiFi issue on my brand new 17.

 

[bapegg]

26 runs fine on the 14 series. The issue is that the battery life is worse on 26 compared to 18. Plus the 14s won't run Apple Intelligence.

 

[Genelec8341]

26 runs well on my 14PM and iPad Pro 4th gen, no new battery problems, in fact maybe a small improvement but I did a full reset and fresh install on both.
Putting 26 over iOS18 may be the cause of a lot of peoples problems.

 

[Manneman32]

Took a chance and installed it on my wifes iphone 12 pro and it works great, with nothing turned off. My son installed it on his 14 pro and it lagged like crazy. So I guess it differs a lot due to circumstances for every user. It shouldn’t but it does

 

[BSoares]

You can disable Apple Intelligence and solely use Siri (it most likely won't make much of a difference, functionality wise, but it should reduce the lag).

The issue I pointed out is not lag, it's lack of features due to the phone not supporting Apple Intelligence. I bet every cool thing Apple introduces now will depend on that so only the newest phones will be capable.

 

[PotentPeas]

I am running it on 12 Pro without any problem. Everything seems fluid and snappy.

It was lagging some shortly after the install but that resolved after maybe an hour. I think that is normal for major updates as the iPhone does some reindexing work.

...I mean, I have some issues with the UI, and with occasionally things being unreadable because iOS is putting one of their glass overlay bubbles on top of a white background but doesn't want to switch to dark text for some reason. But I don't think that's a phone model specific thing :-\

 

[bapegg]

26 runs well on my 14PM and iPad Pro 4th gen, no new battery problems, in fact maybe a small improvement but I did a full reset and fresh install on both.
Putting 26 over iOS18 may be the cause of a lot of peoples problems.

And that very well could be part of the issue some are having with bad battery life. My 14 Plus battery was down to 89% when I updated from 18.6.2 to 26.0.

The other thing as mentioned is that the 14s and older do not support Apple Intelligence so they do not have all of the available features as newer phones do.

 

[iPhone-Guy]

I’ve seen it run fine on a 15 but on the 13 it’s pretty bad. of course if you want all the new features the 16 works but the 17 is probably worth the extra $$$. Of course 17/16/15 Pro works fine (I’ve seen it on all of them, mine is 16 Pro and has worked with every single developer beta) and I think that 14 Pro would too, haven’t seen it though…

 

[klasma]

My question: On which iPhone models does iOS 26 actually run smoothly?

I don’t think there is any such iPhone model.

 

[UliBaer]

Probably iPhone 27, but unfortunately it will come with iOS 36.0 preinstalled and refuse to run iOS 26 completely...

 

[CrankinJland]

iOS26 has been running with no problems on my iPhone 11Pro since last week.
I disabled the Glass look because I don't like it.
I have noticed a slight increase in battery consumption, but not more than a few percentage points over 24hrs.
I'm a very light user of the device, (it's approaching its sixth year now with the original battery showing health max capacity of 89%.)

 

[arc of the universe]

I’m currently on an iPhone 12, which has always been fine for my needs. Normally I wouldn’t even think about upgrading. However, since updating to iOS 26 the phone has become extremely slow and the battery drains noticeably faster.

I’ve already tried reducing animations and disabling transparency effects, but it still feels almost unusable. The system frequently “freezes” for several seconds, which makes everyday use frustrating.

My question: On which iPhone models does iOS 26 actually run smoothly? I’d especially like to hear about user experiences with the somewhat older models (13, 14, 15, 16).

before buying the iPhone Air, i was using iOS26 (for about 1 week before i got my Air) on my iPhone SE2.
it ran smoothly on even that old device.
the more modern devices have an effect of better depth, however.

 

[winxmac]

It's always the iPhone that the iOS version was designed for, in this case iPhone Air and iPhone 17 series for iOS 26. You can also consider the previous release, the iPhone 16 series, and to some extent, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max.

 

[flat6pilot]

I updated to iOS 26 on my work iPhone 11 and it runs smooth. And that's even with all the company spyware.