At凌晨 on September 15, Beijing Time, Apple released the official version of iOS 17, three months after its initial unveiling at WWDC. According to the official statement, iOS 17 introduces multiple upgrades, including UI design improvements, enhanced system smoothness, and functional optimizations.
(Source: Apple)
When iOS 26 was launched, Apple heavily promoted it with great fanfare, but as everyone knows, iOS 26 faced widespread criticism for its numerous bugs and poor performance. Since the mainland China version of iOS 27 still hasn’t implemented Apple Intelligence, apart from AI features, there are actually very few significant upgrades worth highlighting. Our primary expectation for it is simply smooth and reliable performance.
So, how is iOS 27 actually performing? Should you upgrade? Here's a detailed review from Lei Technology.
iOS 27 brings 10 noteworthy improvements that we’ve summarized for you.
As mentioned at the beginning, one of the major highlights of iOS 27 is the new Apple Intelligence, but it has not yet been rolled out in the Chinese mainland version. For ordinary users, the noticeable changes mainly consist of numerous small, scattered feature updates. For this reason, Lei Technology (ID: leitech) has compiled 10 notable changes in iOS 27—let’s take a look together.
1. The holiday alarm you've been waiting for.
Domestic iPhone users have long complained that the alarm function does not support holiday alarms, often leading to situations where they are woken up on holidays when they want to sleep in, or oversleep on adjusted workdays because the alarm doesn’t go off.
On iOS 27, the holiday alarm feature has finally been integrated into the built-in Clock app, with repeat options now including weekdays (including make-up days), non-weekdays, and custom settings—finally giving us full control over our choices.
(Source: Lei Technology)
2. Videos can now be frame-by-frame saved, and camera custom options have been enhanced.
The simplest and most straightforward way to extract a frame from a video and save it as an image on a mobile device is to take a screenshot. However, this method has several drawbacks: screenshots may reduce image quality, and pause controls or other on-screen elements can appear as distractions.
A small change in iOS 27 appears in the Photos app, allowing users to select a single frame from a recorded video and save it as an image, resolving the above issue.
(Source: Lei Technology)
The main change to the system camera is that shortcuts can now be customized, allowing users to pin features such as filters, exposure, and timer for easy access during photo capture.
(Source: Lei Technology)
3. Volume can be set individually, but it's still not as flexible as on Android.
A persistent small issue on iPhone has troubled many users—volume cannot be controlled independently across different apps. This means that when you adjust the volume for one app on iOS, the volume for all other apps and the entire system changes as well.
iOS 27 partially optimizes this issue by allowing users to independently set the volume for alarms and notification sounds, separate from the ringer volume.
(Source: Lei Technology)
However, it still does not support independent volume control for third-party apps, which is a significant difference from Android. Of course, opinions vary on whether independent volume settings should be fully unlocked; Apple’s approach does help prevent volume confusion.
4. Don't like liquid glass? You can now adjust the transparency.
A major change in iOS 26's UI style is the introduction of Liquid Glass design, but users have mixed reactions: those who like it appreciate its modern visual effect, while those who dislike it find that it often interferes with the display of other elements. Additionally, many users don't agree with the Liquid Glass aesthetic, comparing it to "melted acrylic."
On iOS 27, Apple simply allowed users to adjust the opacity of Liquid Glass themselves, letting them set their preferred level of transparency between opaque and transparent—a best possible solution given the difficulty of satisfying everyone.
(Source: Lei Technology)
5. The weather feature has been enhanced with more detailed and time-specific information.
The system Weather app on iOS 27 has also been updated with new features and UI changes, offering more detailed information and enhanced functionality. Upon entering the Weather interface, you’ll see three sub-tabs at the top: Weather, Precipitation, and Wind. For example, when you tap into the Precipitation section, you can view the hourly probability of precipitation for the day, along with a bar chart showing precipitation forecasts for the coming days.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Overall, the new version of the Weather app has made several practical improvements over the previous version. Currently, most popular weather apps in China tend to be bulky, overloaded with features, and filled with excessive advertising and promotional content. Apple’s official Weather app, by contrast, is cleaner and more pleasant to use.
6. The input method supports character decomposition input, making it easier to enter rare characters.
This is another feature that Android and third-party apps adopted long ago, and Apple is now catching up. The built-in Pinyin keyboard in iOS 27 supports character decomposition input—for example, if you want to type the character 「犇」 but don’t know how to pronounce it, simply type “niuniuniu.”
(Source: Lei Technology)
However, this feature is not yet fully refined. Our testing found that character decomposition input is currently only supported by full keyboards; Apple’s default nine-key Pinyin input method does not yet support this feature. Additionally, some less common characters cannot be entered using this method—for example, the character 「喆」 cannot be input by typing "Ji Ji" directly.
(Source: Lei Technology)
We also found that this method doesn’t work for common characters, such as 「林」 and 「明」. However, the key issue is that Apple determines whether a character is common or rare, and this judgment isn’t always accurate.
7. The wallet now supports adding QR codes—can it store tickets now?
On iOS 27, iPhone Apple Pay Wallet now allows users to manually add credentials, such as tickets and membership cards. Previously, Apple Pay could add QR codes, but only through redirection from third-party apps. Now, iOS 27 supports direct manual addition, enabling any third-party QR code to be added.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Of course, this feature is primarily designed for convenient screenshot storage of QR codes, but it only supports static QR codes. In real-world scenarios, many digital tickets, train tickets, and other vouchers have dynamically refreshed QR codes, making Apple’s feature somewhat impractical.
8. Headphone functionality upgraded, with adjustable noise cancellation mode.
iOS 27 also includes a less noticeable change: the noise cancellation feature on AirPods has been upgraded. Typically, AirPods’ noise cancellation modes are limited to just a few options—active noise cancellation, transparency mode, and adaptive mode—each of which is fixed.
But now, if users select Adaptive Mode, they can further fine-tune the settings to slightly favor either Transparency Mode or Noise Cancellation Mode. In short, this feature allows users to customize the balance between noise cancellation and environmental awareness according to their personal preference.
(Source: Lei Technology)
Additionally, AirPods can now adjust their own EQ, allowing users to customize bass, midrange, and treble—useful for music lovers.
9. You can choose your own location-sharing duration.
The Find My app on iPhone can not only track Apple devices registered under your account but also share your location with others. Previously, location sharing offered only two options—always share or don’t share—but this feature has now been upgraded, allowing users to choose to share for 1 hour, 1 day, or a custom time period.
(Source: Lei Technology)
This feature is quite practical and well-suited for temporary scenarios, such as meeting a friend and having trouble locating them—it allows you to temporarily share your location. Its functionality is similar to WeChat’s location sharing, but with greater customization options. Note that to enable location sharing, you must add the other person to your phone’s contacts.
10. Improved smoothness with reduced frame drops.
This is the most critical upgrade we believe in; according to the official announcement, iOS 27 increases app launch speed by up to 30% and photo loading speed by up to 70%. Overall, the user experience throughout the day is noticeably smoother compared to iOS 26, with applications opening and animation transitions feeling significantly more fluid, and frame drops—occasional on iOS 26—occurring far less frequently.
Looking back, we find it somewhat ironic that system smoothness should be a basic expectation for phones and operating systems, yet iOS 26 performed so poorly in this regard that iOS 27 received praise simply for improving responsiveness.
There aren't many bugs, but they haven't been completely resolved.
As mentioned at the beginning, one of the main criticisms of iOS 26 was its numerous bugs. To be fair, iOS 27 performs much better in this regard, but some minor issues still remain. Specifically, the camera interface in iOS 27 feels sluggish when manually tapping to set the focus box; this lag is even more noticeable when deleting photos in the Photos app. Additionally, users have reported that the white dot in accessibility mode still experiences frame drops, and even after enabling bold text mode, the font in secondary menus within Settings remains unbolded.
(Source: Lei Technology)
However, overall, iOS 27 has done a good job improving smoothness and reducing bugs, so for users still on iOS 26, I personally recommend upgrading. Of course, if you're still on iOS 18, you may want to reconsider whether to upgrade.
On one hand, both iOS 26 and iOS 27 feature a liquid glass design, which some users may not prefer; on the other hand, the official release of iOS 27 still has a few minor issues that will be addressed in future updates—if you're concerned, you might want to wait a bit longer.
The devices compatible with iOS 27 are largely the same as those for iOS 26, with the oldest supported model being the iPhone 11 released in 2019. However, due to the relatively high hardware demands of iOS 27, upgrading older devices is not strongly recommended.
According to Zhongxin Jingwei, Apple's customer service advised against upgrading to iOS 27 on devices earlier than the iPhone 13. Leitech (ID: leitech) considers this advice reasonable, as the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 series, regardless of their chip performance or memory capacity, still struggle to run iOS 27 with its Liquid Retina effects.
It is also worth noting that upgrading to iOS 17 does not automatically grant access to the latest Apple AI features. First, as previously mentioned, Apple’s AI features have not yet been launched in mainland China, so devices in this region cannot experience Apple Intelligence. Second, the oldest device supported by Apple Intelligence is the iPhone 15 Pro; earlier models are not supported.
Moreover, fewer devices support iOS 27’s on-device AI models, requiring 12GB of RAM; currently, only three older models—the iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air—as well as three newly released models—the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and iPhone Duo—support it.
Without AI, how can iOS 27 compete with domestic operating systems?
Without exaggeration, September is the most competitive month for new device launches. Apple and Huawei have already unveiled their flagship models, MediaTek’s flagship chip launch has just concluded, and Qualcomm will follow shortly thereafter. Soon after, leading brands such as Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, and Honor will roll out their new flagships, culminating in a wave of premium device releases by month’s end. This year, the release dates for the next generation of Android flagships have been moved earlier, bringing them into direct competition with Apple.
This year, Apple's biggest wildcard is the iPhone Duo, but as its first foldable device, external evaluations have been largely negative. After all, from a hardware perspective, Apple’s foldable offers little innovation and lags behind the mature offerings from the Android camp in terms of specifications, while also being priced significantly higher than other foldable competitors.
Regarding the system, in our view, iOS 27 offers relatively smoother performance and fewer bugs compared to iOS 26. In terms of AI, iOS 27 has caught up, but AI capabilities on mainland China devices are still lagging behind.
On the side of Apple’s competitors, domestic brands’ customized operating systems have widely accelerated their AI and Agent integration. Devices like the Nubia NaviX Ultra, which are centered around Agents, are naturally at the forefront—but even flagship models from Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo have rolled out major OS updates: Huawei’s HarmonyOS 7, Xiaomi’s HyperOS, OPPO’s ColorOS 16, vivo’s OriginOS 6, and Honor’s MagicOS 11. Each offers a distinct user experience, with noticeably improved fluidity and AI capabilities that now far surpass those of iOS 27, effectively delivering a generational advantage. These systems are aggressively integrating diverse Agent functionalities, enabling AI to perform complex, cross-app tasks on smartphones. In comparison, iOS 27 simply has fewer stories to tell in this area.
(Source: Nubia)
Of course, Apple still has other advantages. The liquid glass aesthetic introduced by iOS 16 and iOS 17 has gradually become mainstream, and Apple’s brand appeal remains strong. Frankly, Android custom systems still heavily emulate iOS, and issues like intrusive ads are far more prevalent than on iOS.
Conversely, iOS 27 is also learning from Android—most of the new features mentioned earlier have similar counterparts on Android devices. Moreover, a significant part of iOS 27’s upgrade philosophy involves opening up customization options: you can now choose your own alarm times, adjust the transparency of Liquid Glass, and even fine-tune noise cancellation settings. Apple’s approach here can be seen as empowering users—or, alternatively, as taking the easy way out.
In summary, iOS and Android continue to converge: Apple is lowering its barriers and adopting Android’s practical features, while Android manufacturers are aligning with Apple in UI aesthetics and underlying ecosystems. However, facing the pivotal year of 2026, when AI agents are expected to surge globally, iOS 27’s absence of localized AI features in China makes it somewhat disadvantaged in competition against leading domestic flagship devices.