iOS 26 arrives on Monday: Find out if your iPhone is eligible for the free update

The Apple iPhone 17 event last week delivered on all of the rumors we read ahead of the show. The company announced the iPhone 17 lineup, the all-new iPhone Air and several other devices. (Check out Engadget's liveblog of the event for full details.) In addition to finally seeing the new hardware, Apple confirmed after the event that we'll be able to download the final versions of iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 on Monday, September 15. (That's when all of Apple's other operating system updates hit, too.)

Coming with those OS updates are substantial changes to your iPhone and iPad's software. You may have already heard about "Liquid Glass," which (intentional or not) is sort of like Apple's take on the old Windows Vista design language. That's the most notable change, but we spent two weeks test-driving many of the other features included ...