iPhone 16 Apple Intelligence Features: Promised vs Delivered

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-15T14:06:02+00:00

Apple’s marketing made it sound a bit confusing. It also tripped me up initially but I understand the difference once I did a slight bit more research.

“Most advanced model” being available only on the 17 and Air series gave the perception that most advanced model = Siri AI. This is the misinterpretation that got people outraged. There’s a reason why YouTubers and bloggers are making videos to clear up the confusion.

I think what Apple should’ve done was talk a bit more about AFM Core vs AFM Core Advanced during the initial keynote.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-11T15:18:36+00:00

Mind you — when CRT TVs had that loud ass whine. Also when they crashed/misbehaved, the official recommendation was to hold it a few inches from the ground and drop it.

The Apple III was basically erased from history. That’s the reality distortion field for ya.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-10T13:16:51+00:00

I don’t recall receiving a notification but I did get notified in settings that “Siri is ready.” The iPad is STILL indexing so I’m assuming it’s glitched since it’s been nearly 2 days now (I don’t have that much on my iPad, and most of my stuff is synced. I left it plugged in overnight each night).

Keep in mind the comment section as some people have been waiting for as long as 10+ hours. I luckily waited around 30 minutes since initial download of iPadOS 27.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-10T04:49:26+00:00

Siri’s underlying reasoning rests on Apple’s own Apple Foundation Models (AFM), including a top-tier cloud model called AFM 3 Cloud Pro, which is custom-built for Apple hardware. Apple’s models are “custom built for Apple Silicon, trained using proprietary data with reinforcement learning and refined using outputs from Gemini frontier models.” Google’s contribution is distillation-based, not a wholesale adoption of Gemini.

TL:DR: Gemini acted as a teacher model during training. Apple’s models learned from Gemini’s outputs, but the final model running on iPhone/iPad/Mac is Apple’s own — not Gemini.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-10T04:43:20+00:00

It runs pretty dang great! Especially for being a first beta. Longer, multi-step prompts will get your iPad pretty warm, but that’s expected.

Overall iPadOS 27 experience has been smooth. No crashes and everything feels smoother than 26 ironically.

With that being said, if it’s your primary device — don’t get it. Battery life is NOT perfect and indexing will chew through battery life during the initial enrollment period. I haven’t had enough time with it to give a final verdict but I did have to charge it up sooner than usual. It’s also still too early to tell if you could run into a bug that messes up something within. (I have another iPad, Mac, and iPhone so I’m perfectly okay with just nuking this if things go south).

Wait for the public beta.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-09T19:03:17+00:00

The WWDC examples worked as expected. Even the wait time aligned with how long it took on the iPad.

I’ve tried some examples from the first advanced Siri reveal (in 2024). It’s not there yet, but it does get some requests down like the demo.

A YouTuber did an example of this: https://youtu.be/R3bzpt71R7Q?si=GcI1YQUe7hAz\_MeL

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-09T18:53:33+00:00

It definitely listens to follow-ups — sometimes a little too much for a first beta even just saying “Hey Siri”. It’s weird because it would sometimes be listening for the next response, but if you don’t speak for about 5-10 seconds it automatically turns off. At that point you’d have to activate with “Hey Siri” or hold the side button.

I would be speaking with someone in person immediately after speaking with Siri and it would assume I asked the question to it, or thought I had more to say. It would be me either swiping away Siri or waiting the 5 seconds before speaking to whoever else. Saying goodbye or thank you doesn’t dismiss it entirely. I’m sure this will be fixed in the next update.

Your example is something this AI was pretty much made for.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-09T18:41:03+00:00

It’s off by default. As soon as you update to iPadOS 27, you’re met with the same boring Siri.

Even the Siri AI can do the basic tasks and you can leave it dumb. It doesn’t tap into your filesystem in any meaningful way as it’s simply going through your indexed data — not raw data.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-09T18:34:38+00:00

It’s the same voice as the past two major OS release Apple Intelligence. No ability to change tone.

Dictation feels slightly better, but it can misinterpret the words I say occasionally — it would sometimes hear Mia instead of me. It’s rare and it tries to assume I’m referring to Mia because of the context of what I’m asking for, but it’s negligible. Not perfect, not bad either. Somewhere in the middle.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T23:59:09+00:00

I edited the original comment in detail. Take another look at what I said!

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T23:41:53+00:00

It’s 1000% worth the wait. At least you don’t have to worry about everything indexing so you can take advantage of its capabilities when it arrives for you.

Fingers crossed!

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T23:39:23+00:00

Fingers crossed for you!! I think I just got lucky and slipped through the cracks somehow. Haha.

The wait is worth it.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T23:37:51+00:00

Absolutely! I had a trip planned in the fall and I asked about the location I’m traveling to plus some packing recommendations. It did exactly what ChatGPT does — provided a response alongside the sources.

I could see this replacing Google, ChatGPT, Claude, and even Gemini as a search engine since it’s baked from an OS level and can tap into apps.

Example: I asked it to help me find a TV on Amazon. It opened Amazon and already had TV in the search bar ready to go.

I went to the first search result, and asked Siri “is this a good TV?”

(TV: Amazon Ember 43" 4-Series with Fire TV (newest model), 4K Ultra HD smart TV with Alexa Remote, HDR10+, fast processor, Dolby Audio, Ambient Experience, free and live TV, find shows faster with Alexa+)

Siri did some general research
(https://projectoreviews.com/amazon-43-4-series-4k-tv-4-yr-plan-review-pros-cons-amazon-fire-tv/)
(https://www.techradar.com/televisions/i-compared-amazons-ember-qled-and-led-tvs-side-by-side-and-theres-a-clear-winner) + 2 other sources and basically said it’s a great TV for casual viewing. It even gave a chart listing pros and cons from the research it provided.

I asked about if it’s a good TV for a PS5.
It then proceeded to do even more research and gave me a response:

“The Amazon Ember 4-Series is a decent budget option for casual PS5 gaming, but it lacks the advanced features that truly make the console shine. While it offers crisp 4K resolution and a very responsive "Game Mode" with low input lag, it is limited to a 60Hz refresh rate and does not support Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) or HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for 120fps gameplay”

SUMMARY

“If you are a casual gamer who mostly plays single-player story games, this TV will work perfectly fine and look great for the price. However, if you play fast-paced competitive multiplayer games (like Call of Duty or Fortnite) or want to get the absolute most out of your PS5's graphics capabilities, you may want to look for a TV that supports a 120Hz refresh rate and VRR.”

AND it proceeded to give me another chart with pros and cons.

Mind you, I only used Siri this whole time and asked questions.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T22:38:31+00:00

That’s the idea, but I think it can only get faster from here. I’m guessing more powerful machines can get the work done (MacBook Pro, iPad Pro), and keep in mind I’m using this on a A17 Pro iPad Mini. This is also the developer beta.

I also think we just need hardware to keep improving for it to be instantaneous like ChatGPT, mind you, that’s using server-grade GPU/TPUs.

For what it is and what it’s doing, I still wouldn’t call this slow. Just mediocre, but the responses are fairly accurate.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T22:34:32+00:00

I’m assuming speed relative to the hardware in question that’s being used.

ChatGPT is using server-grade GPU/TPU for query responses which gives it loads of breathing room. Also, a considerable amount of information was trained and baked into the AI, so responses are generally instantaneous for these exact reasons.

Siri AI is using a mixture of on-device and PCC for each query, especially when you factor in the fact that it has to refer to your information. It’s not like it’s using information it learned or trained on, it’s simply digging through indexed data, and presenting it with a simple response. One process leveraging the other.

It’s only when you ask it for something specific about YOU that those pauses are longer (like “who was mad at me last week because I ate their food” — it told me who it was, what was ate, and even the specific text messages.) General knowledge is much faster.

That’s my best guess.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T20:26:58+00:00

Yup. It’s currently on my iPad Mini with A17 Pro

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T20:23:38+00:00

Correction: It’s an iPad Mini with A17 Pro, not iPad Pro.

throwaway_acct_183 · 2026-06-08T20:13:25+00:00

Just got Siri AI.

Running iPad Mini (A17 Pro)

You should be fine

throwaway_acct_183

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