The new Siri with Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 is more conversational, lets you interrupt and offers more contextual intelligence. But how much smarter is it? I put the new Siri on the iPhone 15 Pro Max to the test versus the old Siri on the iPhone 11 Pro Max in a series of questions, from recommending local restaurants and asking about Paris to sports and weather questions. Siri with Apple Intelligence is better, but there’s still room for improvement.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Who did the Jets play this weekend?
00:01Which sport?
00:03Hockey or football?
00:04Hockey's not a real sport.
00:06No, I'm just kidding.
00:07You've probably seen the new glowing Siri
00:09in all of those iPhone 16 commercials.
00:11It's supposed to be more conversational than before.
00:13It's supposed to let you ask follow-up questions,
00:16and you can type to Siri for the first time too.
00:18But how much smarter is it with contextual intelligence
00:21through Apple intelligence?
00:23We're gonna put the new Siri against the old Siri
00:25head-to-head in a series of five questions.
00:28But first, if your iPhone is near,
00:30you might wanna just set it aside
00:32so it doesn't set off when I say that assistant's name.
00:35All right, so for my first one,
00:37I'm gonna make it pretty easy
00:38because I think both Siri's, old and new,
00:40should be able to handle it.
00:41What steakhouses are nearby?
00:44Which one? Which one?
00:46Okay, well, that's actually pretty good,
00:48although the old Siri's actually giving me more options.
00:51Which one?
00:52I don't see more options in your contacts.
00:54Who do you want to message?
00:55I don't have an answer for that.
00:57See, this is what happens
00:58when they start talking to each other.
01:00All right, I'll start with the old one.
01:01Which steakhouses are nearby?
01:05One sec, which one?
01:06A little bit slow.
01:08What are the hours for number two?
01:11One moment, I don't have hours for there.
01:14Oh, can you get me directions?
01:17Can you get me directions?
01:18I had to press the button.
01:19Getting directions to NYCWFF Steak and Whiskey.
01:24Okay, so I would say passing grade.
01:26All right, so now on to the newer Siri.
01:28Is it any better?
01:30What steakhouses are nearby?
01:32Which one?
01:33What are the hours for number two?
01:36It's open today from 11.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.
01:40Can you get me directions?
01:42Getting directions to Hunt and Fish Club.
01:46So the new Siri got the hours, but the old one didn't.
01:50All right, so on to test two.
01:52What's the tallest building on Earth?
01:55The tallest building is the Burj Khalifa Khalifa Tower,
01:58which measures 828 meters, 2,716 feet, six inches tall.
02:04This is from guinnessworldrecords.com.
02:07Good to know.
02:08What's the second tallest?
02:10Shanghai Tower, standing out in the skyline of Shanghai.
02:13Set in Muzhizhou, Pudong, Shanghai, China.
02:16The Shanghai Tower is a 2,073 foot, 632 meter,
02:21tall 128-floor skyscraper that was built in 2013.
02:24The voice is still robotic, though,
02:27and I don't need for it to read me the entire thing.
02:30I can read.
02:30This answer is from worldatlas.com.
02:33Also good to know.
02:34What about in the U.S.?
02:37Since its topping out in 2013,
02:40One World Trade Center in New York City
02:41has been the tallest skyscraper in the United States.
02:45It's actually.
02:45This is from Wikipedia.
02:47What's the second tallest?
02:49K2 is the second highest mountain on Earth.
02:51Ah, we broke it.
02:52It's located on the border between Pakistan.
02:54It didn't think that we were still talking about buildings.
02:57And the Tax Gorgon Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang,
03:00China.
03:01Okay, you failed.
03:02Okay, New Siri, let's see what you got.
03:05What's the tallest building on Earth?
03:08The tallest building on Earth is Burj Khalifa,
03:10which measures 828 meters tall.
03:13It is a skyscraper located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
03:18What's the second tallest?
03:21Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
03:24is the world's tallest building.
03:26Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China,
03:28is the second tallest building.
03:31This is from Kittle Co.
03:32What about in the U.S.?
03:36The Willis Tower is the second tallest building
03:38in the United States.
03:40This answer is from tenmosttoday.com.
03:43So in a way, it's smarter,
03:46but I didn't exactly want the second tallest in the U.S.
03:51I would hope they would go to the tallest first.
03:53So it's almost like too contextual in this case.
03:56So even though we, quote unquote,
03:58broke old Siri eventually,
04:00I kind of liked its answers a little bit better.
04:02All right, next up, let's see what happens
04:04when we want to play tourist.
04:06Tell me about Paris.
04:09Here's some info about Paris.
04:11How big is it?
04:13Paris has an area of 1,102 square miles.
04:17How deep are the catacombs?
04:20A first level of the catacombs
04:21is from 33 to 49 feet below the surface,
04:24with galleries 10 to 13 feet high.
04:26Sometimes there are three or even four levels.
04:30This is from encyclopedia.com.
04:32But is that, are they talking about Paris or in general?
04:39So I think it gave us just a general answer
04:41about catacombs and not the ones that are in Paris,
04:44which is a bummer.
04:46Tell me about Paris.
04:47Here's some info about Paris.
04:49How big is it?
04:50Paris has an area of 1,102 square miles.
04:54How deep are the catacombs?
04:56The Paris catacombs are typically around 25 meters deep,
05:00approximately five stories below the city surface.
05:04This is from biotravelers.com.
05:07What time do they open?
05:09It has closed for the day.
05:11What time do they open tomorrow?
05:14It's open tomorrow from 9.45 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.
05:18Wow, so I could go much further
05:20with the New Siri in this particular case.
05:23And that's another point for New Siri.
05:26On to a sports question.
05:27Who do the New York Jets play this weekend?
05:29The Jets play the Steelers on Sunday, 8.20 p.m.
05:33Who's favorite to win?
05:36I found this on the web.
05:38Yeah, that's a fail.
05:40Who do the New York Jets play this weekend?
05:43The Jets meet the Steelers on Sunday at 8.20 p.m.
05:46Who's favorite to win?
05:49I'm hearing that the Jets are favored
05:51to defeat the Steelers by two points.
05:54What's the over-under?
05:57The over-under for the Jets.
05:58Steelers' game is 38.5.
06:01Okay, that's pretty good.
06:03Who's the quarterback?
06:05Here's what I found.
06:08It's such a basic question.
06:10It's good that we got all of those
06:11follow-up questions right,
06:12but I should be able to say who's the quarterback
06:14and hear Aaron Rodgers.
06:16But still, New Siri wins.
06:19All right, let's get into some trivia and science.
06:21How far is the moon?
06:23The average distance between Earth and the moon
06:25is 238,856 miles.
06:28How long would it take to drive there?
06:30One sec.
06:31Historically, most crewed lunar missions
06:33have taken about three days to reach the moon.
06:36This is from HowStuffWorks.com.
06:39But that's not driving, that's flying.
06:41All right, New Siri, you're up.
06:43How far is the moon?
06:45The average distance between Earth and the moon
06:48is 238,856 miles.
06:52How long would it take to drive there?
06:55On average, the moon is 238,900 miles,
06:59384,472 kilometers from Earth.
07:03If you could drive a car at 60 miles per hour,
07:0695 kilometers per hour,
07:08through space to the lunar surface,
07:10it would take you about six months
07:11to arrive at your dusty moon destination.
07:15This answer is from HowStuffWorks.com.
07:18I guess that's where the dusty comes from.
07:19I'd probably go at least 80,
07:20because there's no cops.
07:22So another victory for New Siri.
07:25All right, so what about knowledge of the iPhone itself?
07:28How do I record my screen?
07:30Here's what I found.
07:32Okay, links off to the web.
07:34Not that helpful.
07:35How do I record my screen?
07:38Here's how to record your screen.
07:40First, go to Settings, then Control Center,
07:43then tap next to Screen Recording.
07:45Second, open Control Center, tap,
07:48then wait for the three-second countdown.
07:50Okay, you got it, you got it.
07:51And third, to stop recording,
07:53tap the red circle at the top of the screen, then tap.
07:56I tried to interrupt, but it didn't work.
07:59Gave you more insight, obviously,
08:01in step-by-step instructions,
08:02but it might be cool to actually walk you
08:04through the steps on your iPhone itself,
08:06maybe for version two.
08:07Let's talk about the weather.
08:09What's the weather gonna be this weekend?
08:11Expect some clear skies this weekend.
08:14When's the next chance of rain?
08:17It doesn't look like it's going to rain today.
08:20What about for the next 10 days?
08:22Looks like there will be partly cloudy skies
08:25and clear skies between today and next Saturday.
08:27How about in Chicago?
08:30Expect some clear skies in Chicago, Illinois this weekend.
08:33What's the 10-day?
08:34Expect cloudy skies, partly cloudy skies,
08:37and clear skies in Chicago, Illinois
08:39between today and next Saturday.
08:41That's pretty good for old Siri.
08:45What's the weather this weekend?
08:48Should be sunny this weekend.
08:50Is there a chance of rain?
08:52It doesn't look like it's going to rain today.
08:55What about for the next 10 days?
08:57There's a slight chance it'll rain on Thursday.
09:00How about in Chicago?
09:02It doesn't look like it's going to rain today.
09:05What about for the next 10 days?
09:07It doesn't look like it's going to rain
09:08through October 26th in Chicago, Illinois.
09:12Pretty good.
09:12So I would give like a slight edge to the new Siri
09:15because it not only switched automatically to the new city,
09:18it also kept the presence or the persistence
09:21of the 10-day forecast.
09:22Overall, I think it's clear that the new Siri
09:24is the winner with Apple Intelligence.
09:26There's some areas where it fell down,
09:28but overall, it won more rounds
09:30and I think it has better contextual intelligence.
09:32I also like the fact that you can ask follow-up questions
09:35and it's also persistent to let you know
09:36that it's still listening, which I think is a good thing.
09:39There's still a lot more that Apple needs to add
09:41in terms of being able to, for example,
09:43voice control your apps
09:44and I think it'll get better over time,
09:46but I think if you are able to get the new Siri,
09:49which means you need to have a new iPhone 15 Pro or newer,
09:52it may be worth the upgrade for you.
09:54For more, make sure you go to tomsguide.com
09:57and follow us on our socials at Tom's Guide
09:59across YouTube, TikTok, and more
10:01to just learn more about what Siri brings to the table
10:04and the new iPhones.
10:05For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhour.
10:08What time do they open?
10:08It has closed for the day.
10:11What time do they open?
10:12I don't have hours for there.
10:14But you just told me when they closed.