Should I Upgrade to iOS 17? Early Adopter Will Tell You

What Can You Benifit from iOS 17 Update?

iOS 17 is a must upgrade for older iPhones

iOS 17 is a benefit for older iDevices. Traditionally, new iOS systems won't play nice with older devices, in the way of slowing down the device or eliminate the support for older phones. Instead, iOS 17 is focused to improve performance on even older iPhone iPad. After you update to iOS 17 on older devices, you can experience faster performance in iOS 17 vs iOS 17: 40% faster launching apps, 50% faster displaying keyboard and 70% faster taking photos. According to personal experience, iOS 17 is amazingly faster when running most apps on my iPhone 7 Plus. If you want the maximum performance lift, upgrade iPhone iPad to iOS 17.

Upgrade to iOS 17 can fix iOS 17 bugs

Last year has been tough for iOS. The iOS 17 was unusually and exceedingly buggy. With iOS 17, we had battery problems, Wi-Fi failures, apps crashes, performance issues, and various bugs. There are users considering iOS 17 as the worst iOS ever. To fix the mess in the previous version, iOS 17 has focused on bug fixes and performance improvements. From users feedbacks, iOS 17 has already fixed some bugs that long exist on iPhone running iOS 17. My early tests indicate that iOS 17 does offer significant improvements on the performance, stability, usability and bugginess. If you're plagued by problems caused by iOS 17, upgrading to iOS 17 can be your solution.

Five new features worth the upgrade

1. Augmented Reality
Augmented reality gets enhanced on iOS 17 with a new USDZ file format created by the company alongside Pixar for creating and sharing 3D Augmented Reality content in s single open file. All iOS and macOS devices, as well as many third-party apps from Adobe, Autodesk, etc will support this new format. iOS 17 takes advantage of its AR abilities in a new app called Measure. The new app is able to measure the objects or distances in front of you.

ARKit 2.0 makes iOS 17 the widest platform for AR. After you upgrade to iOS 17, you will be able to access to shared experience. In other words, multiple users can view the same virtual objects from different devices. Companies including LEGO are using ARKit 2 to build multiplayer gaming. This feature is quite fun.

2. Photos Gets Smarter
Searching one specific picture from thousands others is a pain. But when you upgrade iPhone iPad to iOS 17, things get easier. Photos app in iOS 17 gets a big update. It automatically provides search suggestions based on the people, location and events. You can use multiple search terms at once. There is a new tab For You will recommend effects and filters you may want for your pictures. For You also offers a new sharing feature to suggest who to share the photo with. These new features make iOS 17 comparable to Google Photos.

3. Screen Time
If you want to manage time smarter like Android P, don't hesitate on whether to update to iOS 17 or not, just do it. iOS 17 has a new feature called Screen Time, which will track and chart your device usage on individual apps. This feature can help users to schedule the amount of time per app, set the downtime and also bypass the restrictions you set via some feature called app limits. Screen Time is extremely useful for parents to limit the time their children can use the device.

4. Siri Does Things Faster
Apple upgrades Siri in iOS 17 to stack up against Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Siri in iOS 17 integrates with notifications and other third-party apps to create shortcuts for carrying out command faster. With the new app called Shortcuts, you can create single and custom reminders tailored for you to trigger the action. For example, you can customize it with a particular phrase or keyword to help you remember it, like "Hey Siri, it's movie time" to let Siri open the video app.

5. Grouped Notification
Notifications on previous iOS 17.4, 11.3 and earlier are annoying and messy. But after you upgrade to iOS 17, you can enjoy improved the notifications experience. Apple takes a big step in notification management: support grouped notification in iOS 17. Notifications are grouped together and can be dismissed or interacted with from the same app in a single tap. Multiple notifications will show up in a stack to avoid missing any important messages.

What Are the iOS 17 Deficiencies That Swayed Your Decision?

1. Buggy Beta versions

Like always, as iOS 17 is in its early stage with the developer beta only, the beta version is not stable and a lot of bugs are waiting to be addressed. For example, there are many early adopters reporting "Can't connect to App Store" error. Other reported bugs include "Skype app may force close", " "Volume won't work", "Notification bage not working properly", "data lost after iOS 17 Update" and various others. It's no big deal if the failure doesn't have any big effects to your life, but we can't tell if any huge ones are waiting. For example, iOS 17 Beta 7 update has been pulled owing to the performance bug. If you don't want to experience bugs like "iOS 17 Update bricks iPhone", our suggestion is to wait until more feedbacks come out.

2. iOS 17 lacks support right now

At current stage, iOS 17 is under test. Namely, neither Apple nor developers will know what bugs will there be, not to mention how to fix them. When you update to iOS 17 and encounter any trouble with it, you can't get any existing help or support. You may find the solution on your own, or suffer the bug until an official fix releases.

3. iOS 17 compatibile devices limits

You know, iOS 17 is compatible with the same iOS devices that can run iOS 17, namely:

iPhone: iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 5s.
iPad: 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2, 12.9-inch iPad Pro, 10.5-inch iPad Pro, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad 5, iPad mini 4, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 2.
iPod: iPod touch 6

Although it covers most iPhone iPad and iPod devices over the years, some older versions also fail to update to iOS 17. Still, we're normally sceptical about whether older devices like iPhone 5s/6 can actually cope with the greater processor demands presented by new software.

Conclusion: Upgrade to iOS 17 Or Not?

Certainly, you should upgrade to iOS 17, but not before iOS 17 official release. According to techradar, iOS 17 Update release date is Sept 17, 2023, a week after the Apple's fall event. Then you're highly suggested to upgrade to iOS 17 to enjoy an overall faster performance, a great number of new features like ARKit 2, clever Siri suggestion, group facetime, animoji and memoji in iMessages, brand-new Photos app, digital wellbeing etc.

If you'd like get a sneak peak of iOS 17 before Sept 17, you can update to beta version on your sub-subroutine iDevices to get rid of any data loss in the process. Once you decide to update, remenber to backup your iOS data before everything. This will keep your iOS data intact and safe for restoring after update.

Should I Upgrade to iOS 17? Find Your Solution Here

By Rico Rodriguez to iPhone, Apple Resources | Last Updated on Dec 18, 2023