Apple iPhone 17 Pro
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July 3 update: this post, first published on June 30, has been updated with more details of the new release and further initial reactions.
An unexpected iPhone update has just landed. Unexpected because Apple has confirmed the security fixes on board were part of the developer and public beta releases for iOS 26.6. However, Apple decided that the security patches scheduled for that next update were urgent enough to justify a sooner release. So, here it is.
This post has the initial thoughts on the new release and I’ll be updating this post over the coming week. I’ll add final thoughts on Tuesday, July 7.
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Unlike the last update, iOS 26.5.1, which was only for the iPhone 17 series and iPhone Air, this is for every iPhone running iOS 26, that is, all phones from the iPhone 11 onwards.
To upgrade to the new software, the process is straightforward: go to the Settings app on the iPhone, choose General, then Software Update. Next, select Download and Install, and the software will download from there. This download was small, 721MB on my iPhone 17 Pro Max but if you’re updating from an earlier iOS 26 version such as iOS 26.5.1 as you may well be if you have an iPhone 16, for instance, your download will be bigger and take longer to install. One user on Reddit said the update on their iPhone 16 Pro Max weighed more than 27GB.
What It’s About
There are no new features in this release, only security updates. Apple didn’t even specify any bug fixes in the release notes, though that doesn’t quite rule them out. The main event, though, is the security aspect.
Apple iOS 26.5.2 Security
This update, then, is all about security and embodies around 30 fixes. While it’s believed that none has been actively exploited in the real world, they are significant and urgent — otherwise they’d be coming in iOS 26.6.
In fact, Apple has confirmed to Reuters that it brought the iOS 26.5.2 release forward to counter what it described as AI-driven security concerns. In other words, the advances that AI have brought aren’t all good: hackers can use AI to find vulnerabilities in code and can attack it all the sooner. So, the security issues here, originally meant to launch in iOS 26.6 and seen in the current developer and current betas of that software, have been introduced earlier to try and beat the bad guys.
This change in practice will surely lead to more frequent iOS updates (and you thought there were quite enough of those already, perhaps) though it’s possible that some will come in the form of what are called Background Security Improvements.
Or it may mean that the security updates will come in the developer and public betas of future releases but then go on general release sooner, that is, after a shorter testing time in beta.
Initial Reactions
A big proportion of the initial reactions on Reddit have been concerned about the size of the update, and how it varies from under 1GB right up to 27GB.
There have been few comments about improvements or calamities, other than the usual notes that battery life was reduced immediately after installation, which is commonplace.
None of this is surprising: since the update is all about security, it’s not expected that there would be any significant changes, good or bad.
Even so, one user said that the iPhone is reporting apps using 7% more energy and system using 11% more. This means their iPhone now hits 58% at times when it was usually at 78%.
There are also suggestions that Safari is snappier and some Redditors think they’ve spotted updated app icons — though others dispute this.
Apple iOS 26.5.2 Initial Verdict: Update
With so many security fixes on board, deemed so urgent that Apple pushed them out early, this is an easy one to recommend: update now.
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