Updated: March 18, 2026
My article title is perhaps a wee melodramatic. Now, not that long ago, I was given a nice hand-me-down, one iPhone 11, which I also happened to have tested five years prior to that date. I use the device sporadically, testing what life feels like on the other side of the pond. Overall, I'm most interested in the promised support, longevity, how the system behaves across consecutive updates, and such. Long-term value for money.
As this ain't my primary phone, I also allow myself some slack. Well, a lot. Extra testing, perhaps an adventure or two that I wouldn't normally do, albeit far far short from anything silly. I'm not talking about any stupid app installations or such. I'm talking how to copy local MP3 music via VLC and KDE Connect, and then what iOS 26 feels like on this device. We shall now expand on that endeavor, and then some, and I will highlight the ups and downs gathered over the past year or so.
System stability, performance
Let's start with this aspect of the usage. Lovely jubbly. One, even the latest version of iOS feels quite snappy. I must contrast that somewhat with my past experience with various other phones, where eventually the updated bloat led to significant performance degradations. Furthermore, if you disable transparency and motion, which I feel are imperative for a good user experience with the Liquid Glass interface, then you gain some extra speed and responsiveness, plus better ergonomics. Sure, the various dot releases have improved the baseline, like the search box shadow issue I highlighted in the very article above, but still, the new UI feels meh. In particular, I'm unhappy with the lock screen. It feels spongy. And no, I have no intention of using Face ID whatsoever.
The iPhone 11 is stable, fast. No issues. Even various tiny bugs and niggles have been rectified, like the forever blinking SIM card discovery icon and such. As Goldmember in Austin Powers would say, the system is as tight as a tiger.
Annoyances, frequent reboots
When it comes to user-focused nudges, iOS 26 is far more in-yer-face than the previous version of the operating system. For example, on every reboot, it will tell you to turn on iCloud. Nope. Then, if you open messages, it will tell you how mobile data is turned off. Thank you, I know, stop reminding me. I don't want any extra connectivity right then. In the new iOS, Lockdown Mode also prompts for Settings - this wasn't the case before.
Now, the biggest offender - on-idle reboot. I know Apple added this mechanism as defense against "poking", so say your device has been seized or taken by whoever, then if it hasn't been unlocked for some time, the system will reboot, to minimize memory access, tampering and such. The concept is nice, but there's no toggle to disable it if you don't want it. Worse, the reboots in iOS 26 are more frequent than before.
With iOS 18 or whatnot, the reboots would occur only once 72 hours if you haven't unlocked your phone. With iOS 26, this happens every 24 hours. Quite annoying if you don't want to constantly use the device, or if you leave it be, and let it get messages or such in the background. On reboot, you will lose Wi-Fi connectivity, so that effectively means you might not receive certain messages or notifications that rely on network. Effectively, the safety measures also means you must interact with your phone more frequently. Yes, some people are glued to their phones, but what about those who aren't? Can't they switch this off? Or at least set a custom timer?
This means lots of reboots and constant reminders: iCloud, mobile data. Really annoying. Lastly, the safety measure is nice, but it only works if everyone plays by the rules. As the old adage goes: a sledgehammer is mightier than any cryptography.
But other than that, it's nice and quiet ...
Conclusion
Say what you will about Apple's ecosystem, you do get consistency and reasonable peace. Sure, you pay a higher price, for the most part, but it's a monetary price, and it's in advance, not in the form of a hundred hidden menus and options. That said, with iOS 26, you do get more annoyances. The vast majority of users won't ever notice, because for them, the use of data and cloud and alike is a given, but if you are a bit more frugal or reserved in this space, you will have to handle lots of popups. One every reboot, effectively, and there could be quite a few of those, if you let your phone unattended for a bit. Another impossible scenario in the modern reality, it seems.
Still, the iPhone 11 is quite all right. The best part is the speed, because you don't really get any sense time has passed. If your battery serves you well, you do have a high-quality device, which delivers a solid punch. On top of that, you don't need to fiddle with security and privacy settings too often, or worry if one of your toggles may get "accidentally" untoggled. I may not approve of many of the design choices that go into the iOS, but I sure like the predictability factor. And the peace. So good. Well, there you go. My long-long-term report of this smartphone. There shall be more news soon, so stay tuned.
Cheers.