Are animations better in 4.3.3?

My choppy animations were resolved by closing all the apps in the recently used app list and restarting my phone back in 4.0. I do that now every few days and no longer having any issues.

I doubt they did any major optimizations to the OS to fix any slowdown/animation issues.

This was basically a patch rushed in reaction to the location buzz from last week.

kre62 said:

Yeah, thats not it bro. Thanks for giving it a shot though.

This has nothing to do with running programs. Animations are significantly choppier and sometimes wont even display regardless of the number of programs running as of 4.3.

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Animations suck on my phone when I have too many things open. I don't know what you're talking about.

kre62 said:

Yeah, thats not it bro. Thanks for giving it a shot though.

This has nothing to do with running programs. Animations are significantly choppier and sometimes wont even display regardless of the number of programs running as of 4.3.

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Gotcha. For awhile my Angry Birds looked like Frogger.

kre62 said:

Wondering before I update.

Would prefer to hear from people who are actually familiar with the issue (e.g. Weegiemac etc) not someone who simply doesn't notice and says "yeah all good for me". Please only respond if you previously were annoyed/affected by choppy animations and the status of them on 4.3.3.

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Seems to me I'm the only one who understands what you are talking about!
The answer is NO! Animations are still crappy, choppy, laggy or whatever you want to call them. This really sucks! It's been like this ever since 4.3.x. I really don't understand how this doesn't annoy anyone else. I guess I'm OCD or something but I prefer having a fast phone to a few features I don't use anyway.
I reversed to 4.1. the other day. It was like getting an iphone 5 or something. On 4.1 my iphone 4 is fast, responsive just as it should be.
Try 4.1 if you can.

Don't update to 4.3.3 or anything 4.3.x!

I used 4.3.3 all day today. Animations are still stupid, and half arsed. Battery life is the same as 4.3.2.

Back on 4.01 for me. I think i officially give up.

I restored my iPhone 4 to 4.3.3 yesterday evening and loaded my usual set of "must have" apps (Sky News, Sky Sports, Engadget, TUAW, WhatsApp, Camera+, Facebook, etc).

Initially I thought the opening/closing animations of stock apps (Safari, iPod, App Store, Photos) etc was a bit smoother and even when using the device in day-to-day conditions (standing on the train to work right now, switching between Safari, iPod controls, and SMS), general navigation of the device feels a little smoother.

You still sometimes get that pause when you open Messages or Phone, where it seems like it's dragging itself through the initial animation then springs open.

However, third party apps still don't show the opening animation on first launch, but that's got to be a problem with non-optimised code surely, since Apple's own stock apps launch as normal first time.

Either way I find a slight improvement in general smoothness while using the device, app switching, etc. It's nowhere near 4.0 or 4.1, and it never will be. I didn't save SH blobs when I JB at 4.1, and my phone has been replaced since then anyway, so no downgrade options for me.

iOS5 on iPhone 4 is going to be "fun".

The entire feel of my iphone 4 went in the crapper going from 4.2.1 to 4.3.x.

Some people may not notice the added lag that 4.3.x brought to the entire phone, but I certainly do.

It really feels like they lowered the clock rate or added waitstates all over to slow things down.

Agreed. Animations are choppy here on my new white iPhone 4. I cant remember when they were fluid, but it still seems like the phone lags, etc because of the animations. Oh well...

Damn, coming from a 3gs to a 4 recently i was thrilled with the speed bump. With the faster hardware i was even able to set fakeclockup to a higher setting and still have thing be smooth. I couldnt possibly deal with the stock animations anymore, first i picked it up i was like whats wrong with this thing?

kre62 said:

Thanks Weegie, and the others who actually knew what I was talking about. Sounds like I'll stick with 4.0. Its amazing how smooth 4.0 is. If Apple keeps this trend up, I'll have to jump to WinPho. Its amazing to me that the one thing the iPhone has going for it, liquid smooth UI, is now being killed.

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No worries, Kre.

It's annoying, and to some the iPhone 4 WILL be smooth (especially anyone coming from a 3G right now), but this is not the same fluid OS that I had on 4.0 when I left the Apple store the day after launch. And it's not down to "getting used to the speed" of the newer phone compared to when it was brand new, as others have suggested in previous threads.

iPhone 4 on 4.3 feels like the iPhone 3G did on 3.x ... very usable, but nothing on 2.x, and after seeing what 4.0 did to the iPhone 3G, I DO believe Apple add something in the code (the earlier shout of wait states is a good one), to make the device feel slower. That makes the new, super dooper iPhone feel even faster.

I'll be watching every iOS5 video on YouTube that shows an iPhone 4 running it and listening to views here before I upgrade, although I DO have my SH blobs saved for all 4.3.x releases just in case.

I too have noticed the crappy animations and it definitely bothers me. I assumed that it was something jb-related but it sounds like that's not the case. Scrolling is where it's most noticeable to me - it used to be so smooth and it's herky-jerky now.

Yes, this is what apple does. They trick you into updating your firmware to the latest and greatest little by little, they make it slower and slower. It almost like they think you wont notice. And theyn by the time you hit 4.3.3, (just an example) its about time for the new iphone to come out. And you're looking at yours like, man, i need to upgrade.

It doesnt make any sense to me why it would run the way it does now. Its not like they added something different in the user interface, or some other graphical enhancement. its been the same crap for 4 years! Yet its smooth initially, then degrades....

a 3G on 4.2.1 will make you hang yourself.

No change for me...they are fine.

So even after major tweakage, disabling lots of daemons including the new tethering one found in iOS 4.3 and some other ones. Language packages removed, shadows removed, phone restarted, fresh install... Nothing works, indicating it is indeed something in the OS that is triggering it.

After the first launch of third party apps things MOSTLY tend to be fluid.
After some more messing around, there are still a few stock Apps that miss animations as well. Notes, and Game Center. (But I've noticed Notes has had this glitch as far back as 3.1.2, but not as bad as in 4.3)
All isn't lost though, they do fix some glitches I've noticed from 4.2.1.

They fixed the landscape orientation glitch. (Open an app like Notes, Calculator, iPod, etc, then put the phone in landscape. Close the app. Put your phone back in portrait, and open the app. The app will now launch with the missing animation. To fix it, you just close the app from the MT tray. That only happens if you ever put the app in landscape.)

Camera app. After about the second launch of the camera, it become very jittery when opening. This is something I've noticed since iOS 4.0, on iPhones on display at the Apple Store, and my own. My guess used to be how much processing power is used to launch the camera, but in iOS 4.3, it's nearly non-existant. Each substantial update from 4.0>4.1>4.2.1>4.3, I've noticed it became less buggy and buggy. In fact, 4.3 has a very smooth lens shutter animation!

Now a very weird thing I noticed is the Settings app. Excluding Messages and Camera app, Settings is the only stock app that never truly stays in a saved state. After a certain amount of time in the MT tray, it's the only app that constantly reloads.

Anyhow... There is really no true perfect iOS by far, in animation terms. iOS 4.3, I admit, does have slightly improved transitions in some places. But the launch of 3rd party apps leaves much to be desired. 4.2.1 has the landscape glitch where once you place an app in landscape even one time, it will open with the "instant launch."

So I guess it's up to personal preference. I chose to stay on 4.2.1. It's too early for the phone to be acting in that way. I'll just wait for the next update, even though the Safari was sort of nice. Since I don't want to use Ping, and tethering, there was really no reason for me to upgrade in the first place. But hey, I'm content now.

I just thought I'd point out my nitpick findings for those that care. As stated above 4.3.3 will not address the main issue at hand, even though I wish it did.

This is silly!

Yesterday I gave it another shot and updated to 4.3.3 to see if I was imagining things about the choppy animations and slowness. I wasn't!
This is really silly, ios 4.1 is almost a year old and feels and looks great on my iPhone 4. I'm back and won't be updating if they don't fix thing but they probably won't release another update of ios 4 before releasing ios 5.
If you guys have your shsh saved go back to 4.1, you won't regret it.

There is no denying that the original 4.0 was the smoothest running OS.

The iphone 4 ran like a dream.

I just restored my 3Gs a couple times on 4.2.1 and 4.3.3 and I noticed that the latest one gives a very bad impression the first couple times you open folders, menus and change screens etc. After the first time things are very smooth. To me that means it is fairly visible that it is only loading into memory what it needs and has to fetch something the first time. After fidgeting around with the phone for five minutes everything was smooth and worked great.

Hasn't changed.

And this isn't just a matter of apps not "zooming" open, although that's part of it. Many times when you tap on an app icon, it'll freeze for about 3-4 seconds before suddenly appearing on the screen...so it's not the same, it actually is slower.

Not only that but scrolling is choppy, folder opening, the multitasking bar sliding up, etc. are too.

I don't remember when it started, I think it was 4.2.x maybe.

It doesn't do it on the 3GS either, which is rather sad.

rorschach said:

Hasn't changed.

And this isn't just a matter of apps not "zooming" open, although that's part of it. Many times when you tap on an app icon, it'll freeze for about 3-4 seconds before suddenly appearing on the screen...so it's not the same, it actually is slower.

Not only that but scrolling is choppy, folder opening, the multitasking bar sliding up, etc. are too.

I don't remember when it started, I think it was 4.2.x maybe.

It doesn't do it on the 3GS either, which is rather sad.

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I have a 3GS and have none of these issues. Disturbing.