Every time Apple released a new iOS update, people swore their iPhones suddenly felt slower. This rumor has followed Apple for years and while the company always denied it, the suspicion never really went away. With its latest iOS 27 update, I believe Apple has finally put this rumor to rest.
I installed the beta on my iPhone Air, but the bigger story is what’s happening on the older models. Reports from people running iOS 27 on even older iPhones say their phones feel faster, not slower.
That’s the opposite of what the planned obsolescence crowd has been claiming all these years, and it’s happening in a developer beta, which is usually the buggiest, least-optimized version you can get.
So what changed this time around?
According to Apple, the speed gains come from rebuilding how the system handles things like CPU scheduling, memory, and background tasks. In plain terms, your iPhone is now smarter about where it spends its energy, so older chips don’t get bogged down doing work they don’t need to.
Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends
Apple is throwing out some crazy numbers. It claims app launches are up to 30% faster, AirDrop is 80% faster, Photos load about 70% faster, and a few other improvements across the board. I usually take these figures with a pinch of salt, since there’s no way to quantitatively test them. But with the results I am seeing on my iPhone Air, I will say that something genuinely feels different.
I am especially impressed by the new AirDrop. You can actually feel the improvement in transfer speeds. Smaller files transfer in a jiffy, and even larger video files take almost half as long to transfer as they did on iOS 26.
Rachit Agarwal / Digital Trends
But the best part is that Apple didn’t lock these improvements behind the newest iPhones. Every device that can run iOS 26 can run iOS 27, going all the way back to the iPhone 11. Yes, older devices might miss out on the new AI features, but they all get the speed and stability improvements that will prolong the life of these devices.
Does this mean the rumors were always wrong?
I wouldn’t say so. Older iPhones do slow down over time, but it’s not some evil master plan. New features require more powerful chips, apps get heavier, and battery health naturally declines, which can throttle performance. Apple itself admitted to slowing down the performance of older iPhones to eke out more battery. The company even had to pay more than $600 million to settle lawsuits.
John Appleseed/Unsplash / Unsplashed
iOS 27 update has changed this narrative. Instead of adding flashy new features that need the latest hardware to run well, Apple spent this year making the experience better for everyone, including people holding on to older phones. For this reason, the iOS 27 is the most important update Apple has released in years.
It ensures that my iPhone will last me for a long time, and that I’m not on some invisible countdown to my next upgrade. I have always argued for a maintenance update every few year if not every other year. If Apple keeps on delivering such updates, these planned obsolescence rumors will quietly fade away.
