The potential of improving the magnetic properties of non‐oriented electrical steels has been gradually depleted by the conventional method, whereas the new process of α → γ → α transformation annealing can be used to further improve magnetic properties in the steel sheets with different chemical components. In present paper, compared with the recrystallized sheets of Fe–0.82%Si–1.37%Mn steel, the magnetic induction and iron loss are upgraded by surface effect induced transformation. Iron loss value P15/50 drops by about 40% and magnetic induction value B50 increases about 0.050T, mainly because of the decrease of the {111} texture component greatly. Besides, 0.35 mm thick cold‐rolled sheets are annealed under different transformation annealing parameters, and the results indicate that the process parameters have obvious effects on the formation of columnar grains. However, it is difficult to obtain the sharp {100} transformation texture as those of very low Si content or 3%Si alloys.