Transcription
Hi everyone, Aaron here for zolotete and today Apple released iOS 26.3 beta 2.
iOS 26.3 beta 2 is available to developers and iOS 26.3 public beta 2 should be out either by the time you're watching this video or within a day or so. Now, this particular update came in at 4.75 GB on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. However, I have seen many reports of it going up to 11 gigabytes. It just depends which version you're installing from and to and whether or not you had the security updates installed as well.
Now, this update was released alongside many other updates with iPad OS 26.3 beta 2, Mac OS 26.3 beta 2, tvOS, and HomePod OS 26.3 beta 2, Vision OS 26.3 beta 2 along with watch OS 26.3 beta 2. There were some older updates for Mac as well.
Now, let's go ahead and take a look at the build number and talk about what's new. So, we'll go to settings, then we'll go to general, then about. And as you can see, the build number is 23D5103D. And this is getting us closer and closer to a final release. We'll talk more about that a little bit later.
But as far as a modem update, we do have a new modem update. Coming from beta 1 to beta 2, we go from version 1.20.03 on the 17 Pro Max to version 1.40.02 with beta 2. So, a pretty big jump there with version numbers. Hopefully, it helps with overall connectivity and any other issues we were having. I know I had quite a few issues at CES 2026. However, that could be due to congestion as well, but hopefully it maintains a better signal. You'll see I'm only at one bar right now, but that's pretty typical where I am right now.
When it comes to new features, well, I did notice a change here. So, if we go into our settings, and this time, if we go down to notifications, and on the left here, we'll have beta 1. So again, scroll down to notifications. You'll notice that they no longer have the option for notification forwarding. Now, this could be region specific as many people were saying that the notification forwarding would be for third-party maybe watches such as a Samsung watch or something else where it would work with different devices. However, that's not mandated in the United States. So, we may not see that here. So, let me know if you're outside the US, maybe if you're in the EU or Japan, if you're seeing that option, but I'm not seeing it any longer on beta 2. So, they've removed it there.
When it comes to other new features, well, coming from beta 1 to beta 2, there's not a big change here. So, beta 1 brought in a new feature to allow you to transfer to Android, as you can see here. So, that feature is still here. No change there where you could bring a device nearby and transfer it over. However, I'll try this out in a future update as I don't really want to risk it with my SIM card just now, but we'll try it a little bit later. But hopefully that works really well and we could just seamlessly transfer to a different device.
Also, if we go into our wallpaper in beta 1, they split the categories of weather in astronomy into their own respective categories. And also, something else we typically get with iOS 18.3 or 26.3 is typically a new Unity wallpaper. So, we may or may not see that this year, but we'll have to wait and see if they release it with the RC or maybe in beta 3.
Now, one thing many of us are waiting for is an update to Apple Intelligence with Siri 2.0. Apple today confirmed with a statement to CNBC that they're working with Google using the Gemini model to provide some of these features coming this year. Also, Google confirmed this on X. You can see a statement here where it says Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation models will be based on Google's Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year. After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google's AI technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and private cloud compute while maintaining Apple's industryleading privacy standards.
So, this confirms it. It looks like Apple's working with Google on this. Of course, you'll probably be able to turn this off, but Gemini is very good. I've used it on quite a few devices and it's one of the better models out there for just using day-to-day. But let me know what you think of this in the comments below if you're going to use it, if you're looking forward to it. And of course, it is separate for Apple being run on their own servers, so it should be private as they've mentioned.
Now, with every update, people are concerned that you can no longer airdrop to Pixel devices. So, I thought we'd test that out now that we have beta 2. We'll go into quick share here on the Pixel 10 Pro. And then we'll go into our photos and try and share today's wallpaper. So, if we go to AirDrop, give it a second. Hopefully, it will show up. There it is. It looks like it's working. We can accept on the Pixel, and it looks like it's actually transferring. So, it's still working without an issue. It shouldn't really stop working as it's more of a standard this time around, and Google just figured it out. So, I'm glad to see this on Pixels. Hopefully, it's just a standard throughout the industry and will be on everything in the future.
Now, when it comes to bugs and bug fixes, well, I did test a few different things. One of those being the camera. Typically, there was a very blue tint the first time you opened it up. And typically, you would have to switch to maybe the 2x zoom or a different camera for it to change. It looks like they've corrected this or the overall white balance. So, it looks like it's back to normal here.
Also, I tested it with the flash as many people were saying that when you're on the 1x camera and if you have the flash enabled and you go ahead and take a photo here. So, let's do that. Some people were saying it would freeze up and it looks like it's working properly. So, it appears that they've fixed this issue, at least for now with beta 2.
When it comes to Apple CarPlay, it didn't really seem to be an issue for me, but I know it was for quite a few people. So, we'll have to wait and see if that works, and we'll talk about it in the weekend follow-up video, but hopefully that's resolved.
When it comes to the wallpaper bug, well, let's take a look here. So, we'll close out of those. We'll swipe up, and you'll see it does desaturate just a bit. It's very saturated here. Swipe home and it desaturates. Now, earlier on with a different wallpaper, it seemed to be reverse of this when I was testing it on beta 2. So, prior to this with a different wallpaper, it was more vibrant on the home screen and more dim on the lock screen. So, this is an odd bug and something again that I hope they fix. We'll just have to keep reporting it in feedback.
As far as anything else, well, if we go to Apple's public facing release notes, we'll go into release notes here. Give it a second to load. And it says there are no new release notes for this software update. This is something that Apple really needs to improve and get better at where they should really update the notes with better documentation telling us specifically what they've fixed so that we can provide even better feedback. So if maybe they say they've fixed issues with the camera, we can provide it and say, "Well, you've fixed most of them, but maybe there's an issue here or there." This is something that Apple really, really needs to improve and hopefully improves in the near future now that they've sort of changed around internally how things are going there with leadership.
When it comes to releases, well, it looks like we should get iOS 26.2.1 soon, and Mac rumors confirm this today. Basically, that they're seeing it in their analytics. So, we could see that as soon as tomorrow, maybe we'll see it in a week or so. But quite a while ago now, Apple stopped signing iOS 26.1, leaving only iOS 26.2 for restore or downgrading to. So, if you're on the beta, you've got that as well as 26.2 as far as downgrading. So, they really need to push this out. Typically they do, and I would expect it very soon with some bug fixes and some security updates.
As far as iOS 26.3 beta 3, well, we only had three betas last year with iOS 18.3 and then we had an RC, but I would expect iOS 26.3 beta 3 as soon as next Monday or Tuesday. Then maybe the RC on the 26th with a public release maybe on the first week of February. We're a little bit later than usual as we're a week behind what we've seen in the past. So maybe we'll see that sort of release schedule. And then of course we'll move on to iOS 26.4 betas where we expect that new Siri update, maybe some new emoji, as well as maybe some other features we weren't expecting. But hopefully we see some more features and much more refinement.
If you're wondering if you should install iOS 26.2 beta 2, if you're on beta 1, absolutely install it. It seems to be much better, and we'll talk about performance in a moment, but overall, it's something you should do. If you're on beta 1, test it out. report and feedback if you need to. And also, if you're on iOS 26.2, I would probably wait for the public release of 26.2.1. So, at this point, I wouldn't necessarily upgrade trying to fix something as it is a beta and there are typically some issues when you do that.
As far as performance, I noticed that the overall animations and general feel is a little bit smoother this time around. That doesn't mean all the stutters are gone. So, if we go into the control center and swipe, it's generally smooth, but maybe there's some delay in frame rate. If we go into music again, swipe seems to be pretty good. And if we go into the app library, it's nice and fast. And promotion seems to be very, very smooth and working properly. Now, the overall animation speeds may have varied slightly, but overall, it feels very nice and smooth. And of course, there are occasional stutters the first time you do something. For example, when I went into the co control center, swiped up and down, it seemed to lag a little bit. Now, it's better. Maybe it was still processing in the background.
When it comes to overall heat, well, it does still feel a little bit warm as it's processing in the background. Let me just show you that quickly. The phone is a little bit warm currently as it's processing in the background. You can see the thermal signature about 28° C or so. Nothing crazy, but definitely a little bit warm. And that's pretty typical when you first install an update as it continues to process in the background. So, not really any concern there, but definitely a difference just sitting idle.
Now, when it comes to overall battery life, let's go ahead and take a look at settings, battery, and battery health. I'm currently at 100% capacity with 53 cycles. And battery life overall has just been mediocre for me. I use this heavily at CES. Some of it had to do with issues with my overall cell service. Sometimes I had five bars, but no service, and that was probably due to congestion. But if we go back a couple days here, you'll see I had 3 hours and 34 minutes of screen active time, 4 hours and 11 minutes of screen idle time, and used 65% of the battery. Today, I've used it 2 hours and 50 minutes of screen active time. Plugged it in while I was installing the update, and you'll see it was at 35% usage. So, it's going to take a few days to measure this. Of course, we'll talk about it in the weekend follow-up video.
When it comes to overall storage use, let's go ahead and take a look. So, on the left is beta 1, on the right is beta 2. We'll scroll down, wait for it to load here, and you'll see the overall size is 23.02 GB on beta 2 and 20.62 GB on beta 1. If we take a look at the size, typically it's because Apple Intelligence is about 3 GB larger or so. We're right around 14 GB for iOS in general. In fact, it's a little bit smaller for iOS with Apple Intelligence being a little bit larger. So, maybe they've refined the code a little bit there. But, of course, system data goes up and down. So, I would really ignore this unless it's a huge size, but generally it's going to go up and down in a few days when we talk about this in the weekend follow-up. This could drop down to 2 GB or could be at 50 GB. It just depends on what the OS needs.
Now, I did run benchmarks a couple times. So, if we go into Geekbench 6, we'll go to CPU benchmarks and the history. And I ran it twice here. The best one so far I've had is 3793 for single core, 9,724 for multi-core. Again, the first time I run it, usually if I run it two or three times after the phone cools down and things are done processing, it bumps right up. But overall, it's pretty good. Well, within the margin of error, I would expect this to increase a little bit once it's done processing. And again, we'll talk about it in the weekend follow-up.
And so, that's everything so far with iOS 26.3 beta 2. As I find more features or changes, of course, I'll mention those in the weekend follow-up as well. But let me know if you've noticed anything different. I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. Of course, I'll link this wallpaper in the description like I normally do. And if you haven't subscribed already, please subscribe. And if you enjoyed the video, please give it a like. As always, thanks for watching. This is Aaron. I'll see you next time.