I tried Clean Up in the i OS 27 developer beta, and Apple's AI-powered image editing tool is finally worth using — but there's a big caveat | Tech Radar

Overview

News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

Details

Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards.

Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.

Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.

I tried Clean Up in the i OS 27 developer beta, and Apple's AI-powered image editing tool is finally worth using — but there's a big caveat

Clean Up in i OS 27 will give you options — use them

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

For a company that prides itself on delivering polished, functioning hardware and software, Apple dropped the ball with its original AI-powered Clean Up tool.

Not only did this Apple Intelligence feature arrive almost a year after similar tools from Samsung and Google, but by all accounts, it was objectively worse at removing unwanted objects in images than those big-name rivals. We tested Clean Up against Galaxy AI last year, and found that the former “comes incredibly short of the mark when Samsung’s offering is capable of truly achieving what it sets out to do.” Ouch.

But Apple has promised to make things right in i OS 27. At WWDC 2026, the company announced that Clean Up will be faster and more capable in your i Phone’s next software update — and so I put that claim to the test by comparing Clean Up as it exists in i OS 26 against Clean Up as it exists in the i OS 27 developer beta (if you’re keen to try an early version of i OS 27 for yourself, here’s how to download the i OS 27 developer beta).

Before we dive into the image comparisons, an important note: Clean Up is better in i OS 27 because it’s capable of engaging Apple’s powerful Foundation models when needed. Say, for instance, you want to remove an obstruction from your face; your i Phone will employ a ‘High Quality’ version of Clean Up that taps into Apple’s own Private Cloud Compute servers to access these Foundation models. But it doesn’t do this all the time.

For small touch-up jobs, your i Phone employs a ‘Fast’ version of Clean Up that uses Apple's on-device AI models to complete your request, just as it does in i OS 26 (albeit not under this 'Fast' banner). This version is (surprise!) faster than the ‘High Quality’ alternative, but it's also not as effective at removing objects.

I transformed my photos with i OS 27's new Apple Intelligence tools

Spatial Reframing in i OS 27 might finally turn me into a photo pro

The 7 biggest new features coming to your i Phone in i OS 27

In i OS 27, your i Phone defaults to using an ‘Auto’ version of Clean Up that switches between ‘High Quality’ and ‘Fast’ depending on the edit request you’re making, but you can force your i Phone to use one or the other by selecting your chosen mode in a drop-down menu.

The new Clean Up options in i OS 27 (Image credit: Future)

For this comparison, I stuck to ‘Auto’ to test how well my i Phone recognizes when (and when not) to use the more power-intensive ‘High Quality’ version of Clean Up — and because most people will use Clean Up in this default ‘Auto’ mode. I also wanted to see whether ‘Fast’ in i OS 27 — which my i Phone surely used for a few of the photos below — is more effective than it is in i OS 26.

I've added a separate section for comparing ‘Fast’ and ‘High Quality’ results in i OS 27, which is the starkest example of how much Apple's Clean Up tool has been improved.

And, of course, my results are based on the i OS 27 developer beta, not the finished version of i OS 27. There's every chance that Clean Up will be improved further once i OS 27 proper arrives later this year.

In this first example, i OS 26 leaves behind an unnatural smear in place of the dog, while i OS 27 adds a more detailed, natural-looking replacement. The latter looks more like a bush than grass — and the end of the dog's tail is still visible in both examples — but i OS 27 delivers the better overall result.

Congratulations, Apple Intelligence can now effectively generate fake images just like all the other AI and I hope you're happy

Apple WWDC 2026 as it happened: Siri AI, i OS 27, mac OS Golden Gate, and more announcements

Clean Up in i OS 26(Image credit: Future / Axel Metz)