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Running iOS 26 Beta On My iPhone 13 Pro: Liquid Glass Design, Top App Updates & Performance Review
72 hours with iOS 26 Beta on my 5-year-old iPhone 13 Pro — A real-world review of Apple’s biggest UI shift since iOS 7. Here’s how many glasses I broke.
Apple wrapped their WWDC’25 keynote at the beginning of this week — announcing one of their biggest iOS redesigns since iOS 7 (in 2013), a design overhaul of some of their current apps, and two brand-new apps. So, of course, I had to get the Developer beta on my iPhone as soon as possible, just like last year.
Last year, when I set out to beta-test iOS 18 after WWDC ’24, I briefly mentioned the cosmetic changes before moving on to the app updates. However, this time, with one of the biggest design overhauls in over a decade, we may need to spend more time on cosmetic changes, also known as design updates, before discussing the app updates. Lastly, we will be covering the battery life and stability concerns (if any) to help you decide if the betas are worth jumping into.
This time, I installed iOS 26 Developer Beta 1 on my backup device — the iPhone 13 Pro, and it came in at 7.72 GB. iOS 26 is compatible with iPhone 11 and later models, so my 13 Pro will be a perfect mid-age…
