September 15, 2024: Apple officially released iOS 27 to the public today.
Notably, one feature is set to delight all mainland China iPhone users—the “Adjustment-Day Alarm” has finally arrived.
Image source: Weibo
This feature—available on Android devices a decade ago—took Apple until 2026 to implement.
That said, while it’s fair to poke fun, the feature remains genuinely useful—especially for Chinese office workers.
Anyone familiar with iPhones knows how unintuitive the previous alarm system was. You could only set alarms to repeat Monday through Friday; holidays and adjustment days threw everything off.
Before a holiday, you had to remember to disable weekend alarms; before returning to work, you needed to re-enable alarms for makeup-work days. Miss just one step, and you’d either wake up unnecessarily on your day off—or oversleep on an adjustment day, arrive late, and lose pay.
iOS 27’s Clock app introduces a new recurring option: “Workdays (Including Adjustment Days).”At the system level, it integrates directly with mainland China’s official statutory holiday and adjustment-day calendar. In short: if the government declares a workday, your alarm rings; if it declares a holiday, your alarm automatically silences.
Image source: Weibo
Apple has explicitly confirmed that this feature is a localized adaptation designed specifically to address Chinese users’ adjustment-day scheduling needs.
Yet something about that statement feels odd—does it mean we’re the only ones in the world who observe adjustment days? Sigh… the more you think about it, the sadder it gets.
Currently, this feature is available exclusively on mainland China–region iPhones. To access it, your device region must be set to Mainland China—and for now, it supports only standard alarms.
Now that we’ve covered the most down-to-earth feature, let’s turn to other highlights of iOS 27.
According to Apple, iOS 27 features a complete overhaul of its underlying scheduling mechanism, resulting in a noticeable boost to overall system smoothness.App cold-launch speeds improve by up to 30%, photo loading accelerates by 70%, and even AirDrop transfer efficiency jumps by 80%.
LeiTech’s primary device is an iPhone Air, and my first impression after updating is simple: it’s fast.
Image source: Weibo
Opening the Photos app and browsing older images—previously requiring a brief loading spin for full-resolution photos—is now nearly instantaneous. Everyday app launching, background switching, and haptic responsiveness feel significantly smoother, and background app termination has noticeably decreased. Users of iPhone 14 or even older models should experience an especially pronounced improvement.
The most visually striking change is the upgraded Liquid Glass effect. This release adds a global transparency slider, allowing users to fine-tune the frosted-glass intensity. Icon contrast has also been optimized, yielding a more refined overall visual experience compared to iOS 26.
Beyond the above, iOS 27 includes several other subtle enhancements:
First, alarm and ringtone volumes can now be adjusted independently. Previously, increasing ringtone volume would also raise alarm volume. Now, you can crank up ringtones to avoid missing calls while keeping alarm volume lower.
Second, the Camera interface now supports customizable toolbars. You can drag frequently used features—such as filters, aspect ratios, and Night mode—to convenient positions instead of navigating multiple menus each time.
Third, Lock Screen time styles are now adjustable. Font weight and stroke thickness can both be customized, enabling richer personalization when paired with different wallpapers.
Having praised the updates, it’s time for some sobering news.
One of iOS 27’s flagship features—the new Siri AI and the full Apple Intelligence suite—remains unavailable to mainland China iPhone users.
Image source: Weibo
To be honest, LeiTech finds this disappointing. We sincerely hope Apple accelerates its rollout—so we won’t have to wait much longer.
Finally, the question everyone’s asking: Should you upgrade?
