Now that the first release of the iPhone’s latest software cycle is here, millions have updated to try the new Siri AI, greater control over Liquid Glass, extended Apple Intelligence, a focus on child safety and more. You can read full details of what’s in the release here. So, is the new software ready for primetime or should you wait?

I’ve been holding off on this article because the download process is more extended with the first release of a new cycle of software. So many people trying to download a big, multi-gigabyte file at the same time means issues can be slow to emerge.

I’ll be updating this post next Wednesday, Sept. 30.

Who Is It For And How Do You Get It?

This update is for every iPhone from the iPhone 11 onwards. That’s the identical series of iPhones that could run iOS 26, so if your phone handled the last software, it can manage this.

To upgrade to the new software, simply open the Settings app on the iPhone, choose General, then Software Update. Next, tap on Download and Install, and the software will download from there. This download is hefty, 22.94GB on my iPhone 17 Pro Max, but if you’re updating from an earlier iOS 26 version, your download could be bigger still.

As mentioned above, this update is full of new features, such as being able to organize tabs in Safari by topic and a capability for it to check when web pages change. There are natural language capabilities in Calendar and Call Context so that when you’re on the phone it can find and show you a confirmation code, for instance. There are improved accessibility features and a Siri mode in the Camera app for the first time. And lots more.

There are a lot of security issues fixed in this update — fellow Forbes contributor Kate O’Flaherty estimates this at 120 fixes . Most of these are also in iOS 26.7, which has been released at the same time to provide cover for those who want to be properly secure but don’t fancy jumping on board with iOS 27 yet. That update is about security only and has no new features. And iOS 27 has more fixes (there are 75 patches shared between the two releases).

There’s been a lot of positive feedback for the new release, including praise for performance improvements, especially on older phones. There’s much delight about the improvements to Liquid Glass with one Redditor saying it now looks “really nice,” and that the new software is “actually so crazy good.”

Set against that, there are reports of battery drain (though that could be the extensive indexing required if you’re not already on the last iOS 26 release) and occasional glitches.

More worryingly, some users reported a Face ID issue which caused the phone to freeze. Apple has now revealed that iOS 27.01 is on its way in the coming days to fix exactly this. It’s not clear how widespread this problem has been.

Apple iOS 27 Initial Verdict: Update Or Hold

There’s so much that’s good here that I’d recommend updating, for the security fixes as well as the new features. But I’m on the fence — with iOS 27.01 less than a week away, I suspect, there’s also a strong case for updating to iOS 26.7 for now and taking advantage of iOS 27.0.1 when it arrives.