The iOS 12 public beta that Apple promised back at WWDC 2018[1] has finally landed[2]. But should you install it on your iPhones, iPads, or iPod touch devices?
See also : Apple products you shouldn't buy (June 2018 edition)[3]
As with most things in life, the answer is "it depends."
I've been running the iOS 12 developer preview beta on test devices for a couple of weeks now and my feelings about it are somewhat mixed. I've gone into some detail about this here[4], but here are the highlights:
- It's a beta, and there are plenty of bugs (as you'd expect). That said, it's not as terrible as the iOS 11 beta at this point in time.
- Performance issues such as frame drops and lags are still present.
- Performance on older devices is not great, but it's become better with the latest developer release. On a zero to 10 scale, going from unbearable to awesome, I'd have to say that the iOS 12 beta hovers around a 2 to 3, whereas the same hardware running iOS 11 feels closer to a 4 or 5.
- Performance is interesting. Benchmark tests suggest that iOS 12 is faster than iOS 11 on the same hardware, but in the real world apps feel laggy and irritating to use. However, on the upside, accessing the keyboard and camera both feel faster, smoother, and more reliable.
OK, but should you install it?
If you've got an older iPhone you can throw it onto to play with, then why not. If your only iPhone or iPad is also your daily driver, then