Worth upgrading to iOS 26? (May 2026) iPhone 16 PM

[flembot95]

I’ve held out from upgrading to iOS 26 over concerns of latency and lag that would, undoubtedly come from the additional computational costs from Liquid glass UI.

I’m still rocking iOS 18 but I’m starting to get a little bit of FOMO. Should I upgrade or stay put? Has the iOS seen much refinement?

I will prefer to stay with iOS 18 if it means less lag and overall faster.
But if I remain here - it seems my new AirPods Pro 3 won’t show up on find my. It’s like a penalty for staying on the older OS.

At the time of writing iOS 26.4.2 is the latest version available

 

[Radon87000]

I’m not quite understanding the dislike for Liquid Glass. Coming from Android, I find Liquid Glass to be incredibly visually stunning. I’m also a PC gamer who appreciates gorgeous graphics, but the way light reflects and content appears under glass is really nice. Android skins seem plain after seeing this level of graphical wizardry.

It runs perfectly fine on my M5 iPad and iPhone Air. Liquid Glass is gorgeous and fun to play with.

 

[Spenny25]

I have a 16 Pro Max as well and have upgraded to iOS 26. I've found it's been fine and not noticed any lag or speed issues at all really, we have other iPads and iPhones in our household (iPhone 14 pro max and 15 pro max) and no issues there either.
IMO the Liquid Glass isn't as bad as its made out to be and deffo not a reason not to upgrade.

 

[Sital]

I have no issues with iOS 26 (26.4.2) on my 16 Pro.