Well, Apple has been fooling us a little, hasn’t it? The iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max are here now, and there’s an Apple Intelligence public beta to give your new iPhone a boost at launch.
Yes, the public beta isn’t as stable as the upcoming iOS 18.1 release next month, but I decided to install it on my brand new iPhone 16 Pro Max and I’m impressed with the results so far.
For the sake of full transparency, I installed iOS 18.1 developer beta 1 on my iPhone 15 Pro Max back in July, and after testing Apple Intelligence for a few days, I wiped the buggy junk off my device. It wasn’t so much an Apple Intelligence issue, but more related to how unstable a developer beta can be and why no one should install developer betas on their primary device.
Fast forward to September 20th and not only do I have the shiny new iPhone 16 Pro Max in Desert Titanium, but I’ve also freshly installed iOS 18.1 thanks to Apple’s surprise public beta drop. Public betas are still in development, but they’re typically much more stable than any developer beta and so far so good.
I unboxed my 16 Pro Max, immediately updated to iOS 18.1 public beta (if you want to know how to do this, check out our iOS 18.1 public beta install guide), and joined the Apple Intelligence waitlist.
Within minutes, my new iPhone was equipped with Apple Intelligence and my concerns about the messy Apple Intelligence launch were somewhat alleviated.
To be clear, the iOS 18.1 public beta is just that, a beta, so while I love using it on my primary device, I wouldn’t recommend installing it unless you know exactly what you’re getting into. I haven’t encountered any bugs or performance issues so far, and the available Apple Intelligence features work reasonably well, but everyone’s experience with beta software will be different depending on the apps you use.
Back to Apple Intelligence: Here you’ll find all the features my colleague Lance Ulanoff discussed in his review of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, like Writing Tools to proofread and summarize text, smart replies in Messages, the new Siri design (although not as super-smart as you might have been waiting for), Clean Up in Photos to remove objects from photos, the ability to create Movie Memories, and the most underrated Apple Intelligence feature of all: Reduce Interruptions Focus mode.
On paper, it might not sound like a lot of new additions to iOS on the best iPhone, but Apple Intelligence brings a 2024-esque AI look to your phone, making my new device feel fresh again. It’s no small upgrade over my already stellar 15 Pro Max from last year.
It’s not quite ripe yet
So far, I’ve used Apple Intelligence to respond to my girlfriend more times than I care to admit (she’s definitely aware, so I have to be careful), quickly remove a dog toy from the background of a photo of my French bulldog, and use Reduce Interruptions to silence unnecessary notifications. I’ve had no issues with Apple Intelligence’s performance so far while using the iOS 18.1 public beta, everything works exactly as expected and so much better than that first developer beta I tried all those months ago. While it feels like the AI ​​features aren’t quite mature yet, this is a taster enough to get me excited about the life of my iPhone 16 Pro Max and all the Apple Intelligence it has to offer.
If you’re still on the fence, there are worse things you could do than try out the iOS 18.1 public beta with Apple Intelligence. But remember, it is a beta after all.
