What are the experiences of iPhone 11 users with iOS 26 and 27? If it makes it better and the phone doesn’t struggle, then what’s recommended and which one is better to download from iOS 18?
iOS 26.7 or iOS 27.0?
Will the battery drain more? Will liquid glass exhaust the A13 chip? Which is more optimised? or do I have to stay on iOS 18?
Please note that I require stability, and cannot deal with bugs under any circumstances, as my phone has high demands (Used a lot)
Posted on Sep 21, 2026 2:02 AM
Sep 21, 2026 11:30 PM in response to Arzo-Andrés
Yes, the iPhone 11 will work on iOS 27, BUT It was designed for iOS 13, that means it will struggle on iOS versions made for 2025-2026 iPhones, and especially the liquid glass that will destroy the battery life on it, That includes the performance, That’s what I’m afraid of, iOS 18 does not have liquid glass that stresses the A13 processor, and also adding to your points, yes, there isn’t a major life-changing difference in the 3 versions (for the iPhone 11) and I should correct you, Apple intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro and later, Base 15 and older will just have the casual ordinary Siri we used to have for years.
I will definitely be keeping iOS 18 until Apple completely stops supporting it with security updates, and patches, Including application developers for major apps.
Thank you for your response.
User level: Level 1 (50 points)Sep 21, 2026 11:19 PM in response to Community User
that is a good question, if iPhone 11 can be updated up to iOS 27 it means that it will work well as the iphone 11 is still good, I suggest to keep in mind the following:
I recommend to keep software in iOS 18 as there's no big difference, or update after few months of updates for the iOS 18 ( remember to backup device before doing this) :)
User level: Level 2 (446 points)Sep 21, 2026 8:03 AM in response to Community User
I suggest you wait for some time, as bugs and all those things go on in the original, and after 1 or 2 updates release, then you can proceed to update iOS 27.
User level: Level 9 (74,110 points)Sep 21, 2026 8:00 AM in response to Community User
Performance: The iPhone 11 handles iOS 26 and 27 surprisingly well for its age, even showing a 5–10% increase in app opening speeds and better single-core performance on iOS 27 compared to early versions of iOS 26.
User Experiences: Many users quote that the iOS is running absolutely fine
User level: Level 9 (55,707 points)Sep 21, 2026 8:54 AM in response to Community User
Note that while you currently have a choice of iOS 26 or iOS 27, that choice may not last for long.
I believe that the last couple of years, when Apple has offered similar choices, the choice has gone away, without warning, within a few weeks. (With iOS 18, Apple eventually relented and brought it back for a while, but that was very unusual and I would not count on it happening again.)
Sep 21, 2026 11:02 PM in response to weeklycod
I was thinking of updating to iOS 26.7, and keep iOS 27 until the next year, but I assume the phone will struggle with liquid glass and drain the battery quicker than usual, so you recommend iOS 27 a while after it has came out? I’ll say 27.2?
Thank you for your response.
Sep 21, 2026 11:06 PM in response to Servant of Cats
It’s very sad that we cannot choose what software version we want on our phone, Right, we know that the latest updates have patched a lot of vulnerabilities and is highly recommended, (I assume my phone will struggle on 26 though), I was on iOS 17 and I was afraid that Apple will remove the update to iOS 18 option when iOS 26 came out, Do I update to 26.7 or do I just wait a few weeks until Apple patches bugs? (Maybe at 27.2)?
Thank you for your response.
Sep 21, 2026 11:00 PM in response to WheelieNick
Does this include battery drain? Can performance get better by adjusting liquid glass levels?
Thank you for the response.
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256361757