Anyone using public Beta on their main device?

[sjn419]

considering it

 

[Artemiz]

It’s the same as beta 3. Read through the comments in the thread and you can decide for yourself.
Or give it another week and install beta 4.

 

[theapplehead]

I’m doing it now. Will update with any potential bugs/issues/battery drain as it comes up

 

[iCrow]

And indexing... 😊

 

[one more]

Have been using developer betas on my main devices since 9 June, no regrets. ✌️

 

[HouseLannister]

To parody Angelica from Rugrats: If you have to ask, don't.
Resist the FOMO. Even 27.0 GR will have some bugs that just ruin some people's day. It is crunch culture at Apple every year to finish this by the time the new phone launches, but it won't be until 27.1 or 27.2 that I would recommend it for 95-ish% of users.
That said, I don't practice what I preach. But I also have a Pixel 10 Pro as my primary phone and this iPhone 17PM is just for beta testing and nothing on it is important or will be missed if something goes awry.

 

[teeshot44]

Went with developer B3 when it was released on my daily 17 PM. No earth shattering issues. Running pretty smoothly and very acceptable battery life.

 

[nortonandreev]

All good. Don't forget to disable device analytics, if you care about battery life.

Some issues here and there with Apple Music, when listening offline. But, as others have said, go through the Beta 3 thread and decide for yourself.

My verdict is that it is fine as PB1.

 

[HouseLannister]

Don't forget to disable device analytics, if you care about battery life.

Never found that to make a difference. All the same logs are still created on the device. You are just skipping an upload of a very small text file.

 

[nortonandreev]

Never found that to make a difference. All the same logs are still created on the device. You are just skipping an upload of a very small text file.

Gemini:​

How Much Battery Are We Talking About?​

• On Stable iOS: Having analytics enabled uses virtually 0% of your battery in practical terms. The files are tiny text logs compiled in milliseconds and sent in the background.
• On Beta iOS: Depending on how unstable the specific beta build is, the diagnostic logging overhead can easily account for an extra 3% to 8% of battery drain per day. If a specific feature or app keeps crashing in the background of your beta, the system will write massive, repeated crash logs, which causes both battery drain and device warming.

3-8% still doesn't seem like a lot. But, if battery is already draining fast, because the build is still not well-optimised, adding almost 10% drain on top of that doesn't sit well.

Ofc, everyone decides for themselves. I'm just sharing my experience – I have been having it off, because I must have noticed some difference in the past.

 

[iCrow]

And logs can help developers find and fix bugs. Participating in a beta without logs or feedback is pointless.

 

[HouseLannister]

​

• On Beta iOS: Depending on how unstable the specific beta build is, the diagnostic logging overhead can easily account for an extra 3% to 8% of battery drain per day. If a specific feature or app keeps crashing in the background of your beta, the system will write massive, repeated crash logs, which causes both battery drain and device warming.

It doesnt say there that turning off analytics stops crash logs from being generated. They are still there, just not shared to Apple.

 

[adrianlondon]

I've been running the dev betas for years on my main/only device.

Apart from once (I don't remember if it was iOS 14 or 16) when IMAP mails broke on DB1, and I rolled back, it's been fine.

But then (a) I know how to roll back and (b) if I'm without a working phone for a day or two it's fine.

 

[nortonandreev]

And logs can help developers find and fix bugs. Participating in a beta without logs or feedback is pointless.

Everyone decides how and why they run a beta, and saying it’s useless without logs is a bit shallow.

A lot of people just want early access to new features. Others write articles or comment on sites like MacRumors, which Apple definitely monitors for general sentiment and widespread issues.

Even for those who do report bugs, wanting to keep analytics turned off is completely valid. If you actually look at the logs available on your device, the amount of data being continuously collected on a beta profile is massive. You can easily choose not to deal with that constant tracking while still using Feedback Assistant or choosing to send a one-off crash report when an app crashes.

At the end of the day, a beta needs all kinds of testers. It’s not just about providing raw diagnostic data; it’s about real-world usage and feature feedback, too.

 

[zarmanto]

Like some others here, I've been running the dev beta on my primary iPhone since it first dropped -- but this is a bit of an exception to my normal patterns. Usually I wait (ahem) patiently until the public beta drops before dipping my toes in the water.

Fortunately, this hasn't been a bad experience for me at all; I got the chance to experiment with the new Siri a little bit before I would have otherwise, and I have seen very little instability overall.

But yeah... the battery life has absolutely been affected... and the new battery icon does not impress me. (Still worth it.)