How well does iOS 27 and Siri AI work on iPhone Air?
I made the bold move of putting iOS 27 on my main phone right before a 3-day weekend to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA. Not only was it my main phone, but it was an iPhone Air, which already has less than ideal battery life.
What can I say except, “I like to live on the edge.”
I was confident that even the first iOS 27 beta would be fine considering iOS 27 was focused on stability and performance in every conceivable category.
My worries were quelled from the get go since I didn’t have any battery issues once my phone was done indexing, and the only time battery life would take a hit was during extended time with Siri or while using Extend, Reframe, and Clean Up in Photos. Ditto with Image Playground. The phone would heat up, the screen would dim, and Pro Motion turned into slow motion. Once I stopped using those features, things went back to normal, including battery life.
More recently, I’ve been rarely using the imaging processing tools and that honeymoon period is over, but my honeymoon with Siri AI is still ongoing. I’m liking her more, and she’s also getting better at battery life. If you live to talk to your AI chatbot though, be prepared to carry a battery pack with you.
Overall, things are looking real good considering we’re only on the first of many betas.
Siri AI
Siri AI isn’t perfect, but no AI assistant is. That being said, it does perform well and does use your personalized context in ways that surprised me. Here are some examples:
It was able to tell me the weather near my vacation destination without having to spell out to Siri where I was going. It pulled up my calendar and email with hotel reservation information to figure out where I was going.
Asking Siri about my kids’ summer camp and for more details pulled up the email my wife forwarded me regarding their summer camp.
I asked Siri for any Halal restaurants in Williamsburg, and it did provide me with the only restaurant nearby and some that were out of our driving range. I wasn’t surprised considering we were in Williamsburg.
Siri correctly was able to tell me which one of my other 3 kids is in the most photos with our 1 year old baby.
I needed to reset an AirTag from scratch, and Siri was able to locate the instructions on how to do that. It’s not as simple as removing the AirTag in Find My.
On the famous Escape from Pompeii ride where you get soaked, I remember getting my shoes and socks wet 8 years ago since I sat in the front row and the first dip causes a gush of water to engorge your shoes. I asked Siri if there was a spot to put your shoes before you get on the ride, and she correctly told me there is no place to put your shoes and you have to wear them.
Most rides in Busch Gardens allow you to put your items in cubbies or baskets right before you board your seat (including shoes or slide sandals), but in the Pompeii ride, you are specifically told to hold onto all your belongings and the staff doesn’t make any exceptions. I’m glad I wore sandals.
I needed to remove a fuse in my minivan since one of my rear windows was falling off the regulator, and I didn’t want anyone to press the switch to roll the window down. Siri AI was able to point me in the right direction and I was successful in deactivating the proper window switch. I triple-checked with Gemini and YouTube since the window would be stuck in the rolled down position.
I was trying to remember the name of a movie I saw decades ago and gave Siri this prompt:
“What's that movie where the people were messing around with a truck radio thing and then they accidentally murdered somebody by accident?”
She correctly responded:
“The movie you are thinking of is likely Joy Ride (2001). The plot follows two brothers (played by Paul Walker and Steve Zahn) who use a CB radio to prank a lonely truck driver known as "Rusty Nail". The seemingly harmless joke quickly spirals out of control, leading to a deadly game of cat and mouse.”
My Costco membership was going to expire in 41 days per the app, and I asked Siri what date my membership would expire based on the information on-screen, and she gave me the exact date.
Siri is actually usable, for real for real.