Postgres 18 Beta introduces several notable features aimed at improving performance and operational efficiency, including a new asynchronous I/O subsystem that allows for parallel reads, significantly enhancing throughput and reducing CPU wait time, particularly with the io_uring method on Linux. The update also brings enhancements in major version upgrades by retaining planner statistics, reducing performance degradation, and offering options for parallel execution and directory swapping to minimize downtime. Observability improvements include more detailed EXPLAIN output and extended statistics for vacuum and analyze operations, while the addition of UUIDv7 generation supports ordered inserts. The beta also introduces OAuth authentication, providing an extensible method for integrating with identity providers. Postgres 18 Beta is available for testing, with Neon planning to offer support on its serverless platform upon the final release.