I can’t stop playing with the low light comparison between the iPhone 17 and the Pixel 10, showing the sandwich shop menu.
Why do the letters in the Sandwiches signage at the top of the image move slightly between the different photos? Is it because of a very slightly different camera angle, or is it because one (or both) of the phones has used OCR and rewritten the word with AI processing of the image when taken? I know iPhones automatically replace slightly blurry text in low light images, sometimes with a faint change in colour of the background - like when using a translate app.
That's what I hoped too. The way the letters moved just seemed strange to me, like they were moving too far. But I find it entirely likely that exactly what you described would look strange to me - I don't look at these comparisons very often so I don't know what is normal. Sort of like how moving closer while zooming out to keep the subject the same size does a strange (but neat) effect on everything else in video.
This line very early on about iOS 26 made me worry about the quality of the article:
"Pros:
...
+ iOS 26 visual makeover"
This is a review of a new iPhone, so surely most people buying it will be upgrading from an iPhone. What percentage of those people are upgrading from iPhones that aren't also able to upgrade to iOS 26? What is the iPhone 17 having iOS 26 a positive point compared to? An iPhone 15 with iOS 26? An iPhone XS, stuck on iOS 18?
Also, given the mixed reactions to the iOS 26 visual makeover, is it really worth specifically calling out that makeover as being one of the top five features of the phone? The 5th best thing about the phone is something that a lot of people seem to wish they could opt out of forever?
I was initially thinking of upgrading to the 17 pro, I always appreciate better battery and the additional antenna bands could maybe help with the awful cell reception where I live, but buying a new iPhone would mean being forced to use iOS 26, and by extension liquid glass, which you could not pay me to do.
Have you tried it out, on an old phone for example? I've been trying it through the betas and I grew to hate it less than I expected. You might not, but it might be worth a try. Once again it's a shame that security updates and UI updates are inseparable. If you could do the security update without the feature update, I wouldn't even suggest you try it.
I actually think it's a shame that some of the most ridiculous levels of unreadable layering won't be seen by everyone. Most people will hate on something without ever having seen the full-fat, much worse version. Pulling the Control Centre down over the App Library was great (to giggle at in a beta on a backup phone, not on your main phone). There was also an entertainingly vibrant and dramatic distortion when pulling down the notification screen which has been toned way down. I can genuinely see why Apple thought it was cool, but common sense should have stepped in. Also, I think there's a good argument that UIs shouldn't be cool.
I won't upgrade to it quickly on my main phone but I wondered if I might be able to live with it, and there's a chance that the 26.1 might make it more useable.
I have some family members who updated this week so I have finally seen it in person (I don’t have any spare Apple devices to install beta software on), but I’ve also been watching videos of the various betas on YouTube over the past few months. For sure there have definitely been moments where I’ve seen like, an update in one of the betas where my reaction is “oh good they made that more readable than in the last beta” and then I looked at the same screen on my phone not on the beta and the consistency of the legibility is just night and day. Liquid glass can be presented in specific scenarios that look good, great even. It’s a very neat shader pack. Very “rule of cool”. Unfortunately, I prefer “rule of I can always read the words” and there are plenty of scenarios where liquid glass falls apart, even in the official non beta release.
I first realized that it might be a mess back at WWDC when they showed the apple TV ui, commenting on how the refractive glass “seamlessly blended into the content” or whatever all the while, in their own highly produced advertisement, I couldn’t help but find that the refractions were noticeably distracting. I couldn’t focus on anything else.
It feels like the UX equivalent of watching a Mr beast video, just maximum stimulation all the time. Maybe that’s their strategy for appealing to a new generation of smartphone users (</joking>).
I can’t stop playing with the low light comparison between the iPhone 17 and the Pixel 10, showing the sandwich shop menu.
Why do the letters in the Sandwiches signage at the top of the image move slightly between the different photos? Is it because of a very slightly different camera angle, or is it because one (or both) of the phones has used OCR and rewritten the word with AI processing of the image when taken? I know iPhones automatically replace slightly blurry text in low light images, sometimes with a faint change in colour of the background - like when using a translate app.
Pictures were taken from a slightly different angle because they were shot by a human and humans cannot do their deeds with milimetric precision.
That's what I hoped too. The way the letters moved just seemed strange to me, like they were moving too far. But I find it entirely likely that exactly what you described would look strange to me - I don't look at these comparisons very often so I don't know what is normal. Sort of like how moving closer while zooming out to keep the subject the same size does a strange (but neat) effect on everything else in video.
This line very early on about iOS 26 made me worry about the quality of the article:
"Pros:
...
+ iOS 26 visual makeover"
This is a review of a new iPhone, so surely most people buying it will be upgrading from an iPhone. What percentage of those people are upgrading from iPhones that aren't also able to upgrade to iOS 26? What is the iPhone 17 having iOS 26 a positive point compared to? An iPhone 15 with iOS 26? An iPhone XS, stuck on iOS 18?
Also, given the mixed reactions to the iOS 26 visual makeover, is it really worth specifically calling out that makeover as being one of the top five features of the phone? The 5th best thing about the phone is something that a lot of people seem to wish they could opt out of forever?
I was initially thinking of upgrading to the 17 pro, I always appreciate better battery and the additional antenna bands could maybe help with the awful cell reception where I live, but buying a new iPhone would mean being forced to use iOS 26, and by extension liquid glass, which you could not pay me to do.
Have you tried it out, on an old phone for example? I've been trying it through the betas and I grew to hate it less than I expected. You might not, but it might be worth a try. Once again it's a shame that security updates and UI updates are inseparable. If you could do the security update without the feature update, I wouldn't even suggest you try it.
I actually think it's a shame that some of the most ridiculous levels of unreadable layering won't be seen by everyone. Most people will hate on something without ever having seen the full-fat, much worse version. Pulling the Control Centre down over the App Library was great (to giggle at in a beta on a backup phone, not on your main phone). There was also an entertainingly vibrant and dramatic distortion when pulling down the notification screen which has been toned way down. I can genuinely see why Apple thought it was cool, but common sense should have stepped in. Also, I think there's a good argument that UIs shouldn't be cool.
I won't upgrade to it quickly on my main phone but I wondered if I might be able to live with it, and there's a chance that the 26.1 might make it more useable.
I have some family members who updated this week so I have finally seen it in person (I don’t have any spare Apple devices to install beta software on), but I’ve also been watching videos of the various betas on YouTube over the past few months. For sure there have definitely been moments where I’ve seen like, an update in one of the betas where my reaction is “oh good they made that more readable than in the last beta” and then I looked at the same screen on my phone not on the beta and the consistency of the legibility is just night and day. Liquid glass can be presented in specific scenarios that look good, great even. It’s a very neat shader pack. Very “rule of cool”. Unfortunately, I prefer “rule of I can always read the words” and there are plenty of scenarios where liquid glass falls apart, even in the official non beta release.
I first realized that it might be a mess back at WWDC when they showed the apple TV ui, commenting on how the refractive glass “seamlessly blended into the content” or whatever all the while, in their own highly produced advertisement, I couldn’t help but find that the refractions were noticeably distracting. I couldn’t focus on anything else.
It feels like the UX equivalent of watching a Mr beast video, just maximum stimulation all the time. Maybe that’s their strategy for appealing to a new generation of smartphone users (</joking>).