Is iOS6 on a 3GS worth it?

Heb 7:4 said:

My dad's 3GS runs a little sluggish. Is iOS6 going to make it any slower? Maps was a big issue for him holding off, but is it worth upgrading on a 3GS in any case?

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I can't answer from personal experience but have a look at this thread. Also, there are other threads you can checked as well.

From the many people I've talked to. iOS 6 has sped up the 3GS slightly. Your mileage may vary

iOS 6 runs better than iOS 5 on my 3GS

If you're on 5.1.1, stay there.

iOS 6 runs fine on the 3GS, but I think there's hardly any compelling feature to upgrade for. Unless you like Apple Maps

I have a 3GS that runs sluggishly: performance wise I didn't really notice any difference between iOS 5 and iOS 6, as people have already said you'll miss out on a lot of the biggest features but things like the Facebook integration, shared photo streams and call features are quite nice to have!

One thing that did help my 3GS performance, by the way, was disabling spotlight search. Hope that helps

I upgraded my iPhone 3GS to iOS 6 and although it runs alright, I still regret it. The performance isn't the issue, it's just a rubbish iOS. The new music app looks horrible, the new app store and itunes store apps are ugly and hard to navigate, the colour scheme throughout the phone is inconsistent. And of course you lose Google Maps and the old YouTube app. It just plain sucks.

If you do decide to upgrade, make sure you have your SHSH blobs backed up so you can downgrade if you don't like it.

I would stay with 5.1.1. You'll see little, if any improvement with 6.0.2.

John T said:

I would stay with 5.1.1. You'll see little, if any improvement with 6.0.2.

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Especially since 6.0.2 isn't out for 3GS.

It does seem like more people that run iOS 6 on a 3GS seem to say that for the most part it works somewhat better than iOS 5, even if it doesn't provide much of anything really new for the 3GS.

C DM said:

Especially since 6.0.2 isn't out for 3GS.

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Aha! Should have said 6.0.1

The absence of a YouTube app shouldn't matter. There's a much better one out there called jasmine. It's a gorgeous, ad free app.

I'd probably stick with iOS 5 on an older device like the iOS 3GS. iOS6 really doesn't bring you much more functionality, plus Apple Maps being the default maps app would not be that great, especially to someone used to the reliability and usability of Google maps.

TacticalDesire said:

The absence of a YouTube app shouldn't matter. There's a much better one out there called jasmine. It's a gorgeous, ad free app.

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Absolutely! It even has the facility to switch between Apple and Google Maps.

Heb 7:4 said:

My dad's 3GS runs a little sluggish. Is iOS6 going to make it any slower? Maps was a big issue for him holding off, but is it worth upgrading on a 3GS in any case?

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iOS 4.3.x, iOS 5.x, and iOS 6.x seem to run about the same speed on my iPhone 3GS.

iOS 6.x brings compatibility with more apps (some developers have made their apps iOS 6+ already), and adds a lot of new features. If you use Facebook or Twitter you will notice there are new widgets for those in the Notification Center.

There are a few issues with iOS 6 on any device:

- The default Maps app of course works different. Not just map data, but the interface and everything else about it. In some ways it is better, in some ways it is worse.

- If you have a lot of apps on your account (500+?), the App Store may not be able to show you your Purchased app history any more. This has been unfixed now for the past year.

IOS6 does bring facebook integration, passbook (admitably a dud feature), do not disturb, call-decline, shared photostream and supposedly faster safari to a 3GS. Youtube and a vastly improved google maps is available for download.

I would say to upgrade, because unless your sole purpose in owning a phone is for the maps, the average user would gain more features than he potentially stands to lose.

So far, my impression is that things happen noticeably slower on my 3GS in 6.0.1 than in 5.1.1. It does work, however, and it's not like you can just stay on old software forever. The longer you wait, the more apps are left behind, so if you're using an older phone like this, you might as well keep up until it becomes obsolete, right?

Well, after a few days with iOS 6 on my 3GS, I can report that I should have left it on 5.1.1. I use the Music app most of the time, and it's frustratingly slow and laggy. The rest isn't that bad, but geez, I hate how difficult it is to navigate my music now.

Guess it's all part of the planned obsolescence scheme.

wonderspark said:

Well, after a few days with iOS 6 on my 3GS, I can report that I should have left it on 5.1.1. I use the Music app most of the time, and it's frustratingly slow and laggy. The rest isn't that bad, but geez, I hate how difficult it is to navigate my music now.

Guess it's all part of the planned obsolescence scheme.

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Yeah I realised it's quite laggy when scrolling through the long list. Not to mention the UI looks so ugly compared to that of iOS 5.

Don't really see how its worth it.

I mean iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 are basically missing the best features

-Maps (debatable lol)
-Siri
-FaceTime over cellular

Also some people have said that iOS 6 just makes the 3GS slower like how iOS 5 made the iPad 1 slower for some.

Beeplance said:

Yeah I realised it's quite laggy when scrolling through the long list. Not to mention the UI looks so ugly compared to that of iOS 5.

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Awkward screen grab owing to the recent news surrounding Ian Watkins.

Heb 7:4 said:

My dad's 3GS runs a little sluggish. Is iOS6 going to make it any slower? Maps was a big issue for him holding off, but is it worth upgrading on a 3GS in any case?

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from my experience, it's so so so much faster. 5.1.1 ran like crap for me, but iOS6 is nearly lag free! Granted, it's not as good as iOS3, but there's a ton of new features that make it 100% worth it!