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iPad Shall I take the ios8.1.1 plunge with my iPad Air?

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Benjobox

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 2, 2014
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I'm still running ios7 on my year-old Air and thinking of upgrading it. Surely the device should be able to run it - it's got the same RAM (and a very similar chip) to the iPhones of this year, which ship with 8.

But I've heard several conflicting sources on this - some saying that ios8 has rendered Airs unusable, or extremely laggy and jittery.

What do you guys think?
 
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Dented

macrumors 65816
Oct 16, 2009
1,119
899
It's fine. I don't think it impacts on the Air's performance at all (nor should it). You might find the odd bug but probably less than the Air 2 is suffering on the same OS tbh.
 
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Benjobox

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 2, 2014
9
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Thanks guys. Am I right in thinking that if I don't upgrade my iPad any further (and hence keep it on ios8.1.1 ad infinitum,) it will stay at its current level performance-wise?)
 
thadoggfather

thadoggfather

macrumors P6
Oct 1, 2007
15,548
16,279
I personally wouldn't.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. 8.1 is ok but 7.1.2 was perfect on my rMini.

I like sms forwarding and handoff is interesting. That's really it.
 
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RebornProphet

Suspended
Nov 3, 2013
989
494
No.

There are several areas where the UI simply isn't up to speed compared to iOS 7.1.2.

The main one first and foremost is the keyboard delay. I had my iPad Air on iOS 8.1 replaced at the Genius Bar by citing slow WiFi issues (which I had, another wonderful side effect of iOS 8).

My replacement is on iOS 7.1.2 and there is no way I am updating. Typing this message now on my iPad Air the keyboard is a joy to use, every key is responsive, there's no delay or feeling like the letters on screen struggle to keep up with the speed I press the keys. On iOS 8.1 there was.

The UI is a little slower, the five finger pinch to home animation has a slight delay which gives the feeling of the device being slower. The animation when the apps return to the home screen when using the five finger pinch gesture can sometimes stutter at the last part of the animation.

On Safari when you are on a website and tap the current address in the address bar, there is noticeable lag in the animations where the address highlights grey and slides left to reveal the entire address (keyboard and favourites box come on screen at same time). The same thing is super smooth on iOS 7.1.2 although there's no big translucent favourites box (on iOS 7 the entire background goes semi transparent white with favourites rather than drop down a big box like in iOS 8).

There are simply lots of little UI quirks in iOS 8 which make the iPad Air that little bit less enjoyable to use compared to iOS 7.1.2.

Again, some people won't notice these things and see iOS 8's performance on iPad Air as acceptable. That's fine, but these issues exist and I wish I couldn't notice dropped frames and stutter with the naked eye, but alas I do.

Keep it on iOS 7.1.2, unless you want the Metal API for games (for the record VainGlory and Asphalt 8, the two biggest Metal titles thus far, run and look fantastic on iPad Air with iOS 7.1.2 anyway), want to use interactive notification for iMessage, or enable cross OS X/iOS notifications/handoff features then there's no reason to upgrade to iOS 8 on iPad anyway.
 
sanke1

sanke1

macrumors 65816
Nov 9, 2010
1,067
436
RebornProphet said:
No.

There are several areas where the UI simply isn't up to speed compared to iOS 7.1.2.

The main one first and foremost is the keyboard delay. I had my iPad Air on iOS 8.1 replaced at the Genius Bar by citing slow WiFi issues (which I had, another wonderful side effect of iOS 8).

My replacement is on iOS 7.1.2 and there is no way I am updating. Typing this message now on my iPad Air the keyboard is a joy to use, every key is responsive, there's no delay or feeling like the letters on screen struggle to keep up with the speed I press the keys. On iOS 8.1 there was.

The UI is a little slower, the five finger pinch to home animation has a slight delay which gives the feeling of the device being slower. The animation when the apps return to the home screen when using the five finger pinch gesture can sometimes stutter at the last part of the animation.

On Safari when you are on a website and tap the current address in the address bar, there is noticeable lag in the animations where the address highlights grey and slides left to reveal the entire address (keyboard and favourites box come on screen at same time). The same thing is super smooth on iOS 7.1.2 although there's no big translucent favourites box (on iOS 7 the entire background goes semi transparent white with favourites rather than drop down a big box like in iOS 8).

There are simply lots of little UI quirks in iOS 8 which make the iPad Air that little bit less enjoyable to use compared to iOS 7.1.2.

Again, some people won't notice these things and see iOS 8's performance on iPad Air as acceptable. That's fine, but these issues exist and I wish I couldn't notice dropped frames and stutter with the naked eye, but alas I do.

Keep it on iOS 7.1.2, unless you want the Metal API for games (for the record VainGlory and Asphalt 8, the two biggest Metal titles thus far, run and look fantastic on iPad Air with iOS 7.1.2 anyway), want to use interactive notification for iMessage, or enable cross OS X/iOS notifications/handoff features then there's no reason to upgrade to iOS 8 on iPad anyway.
Click to expand...

Fantastic summation of my thoughts. Even I am keeping my iPad Air on 7.1.2 till these especially Safari annoyances are sorted out.
 
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darknyt

macrumors 6502a
Sep 17, 2009
604
98
Just make sure everything you want to use will still work under 8.1. Certain, very specific things might not. :cool: But you probably don't care about those things. . .

I'm not taking the plunge due to those very specific things . . . :D
 
mtneer

mtneer

macrumors 68040
Sep 15, 2012
3,179
2,714
Ask yourself why would you want to upgrade? Are there specific features that you will utilize (continuity etc.?) If not, then just keep trucking with what you have. If you are an owner of older Apple hardware, be double or even triple sure that you would want the new iOS before upgrading.

Many times, Apple does not allow the newest features on iOS's installed on older hardware; yet burdens the older devices with a lot of lag and slowness. Whether that is due to incompetent OS engineers at Apple or a deliberate strategy to push an upgrade - is up in the air, but nevertheless it is always wise to go into Apple's OS upgrade process with your eyes wide open and a known reason why.
 
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Benjobox

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 2, 2014
9
0
Okay guys, I went for it and am now running ios8.1.1.

There is probably a delay of around a thousandth of a nanosecond when doing the five-finger pinch to return to the home screen. But this is something I think I'm able to live with.

Provided I don't upgrade my ios any further and don't damage it any way - will the iPad run at this speed for the rest of its life or will it be likely to slow down in future years?
 
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mhdena

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2009
593
172
if there is no difference between 7.1.2 there is no reason to go to 8 anything.
I won't on my air.
 
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Dented

macrumors 65816
Oct 16, 2009
1,119
899
Shall I take the ios8.1.1 plunge with my iPad Air?

Don't forget latest iOS = latest security updates and best compatibility with current apps and services regardless of what features are available on your particular device. The fact is Apple expect you to stay current and only ever officially support the latest os available for your iPad; if you run an older version it's quite possible that even existing features may stop working, as some iOS 6 holdouts discovered last year when they lost FaceTime support due to a security patch (those with older hardware that couldn't run iOS 7 got a fix and could still FaceTime from iOS 6, those with newer hardware had the choice of iOS 7 or nothing).

To me the people that insist on staying a version behind are like King Canute, they think they're achieving something but actually they just end up getting wet.
 
Night Spring

Night Spring

macrumors G5
Jul 17, 2008
14,613
7,791
Benjobox said:
Provided I don't upgrade my ios any further and don't damage it any way - will the iPad run at this speed for the rest of its life or will it be likely to slow down in future years?
Click to expand...

I think now that you are on 8.1.1, upgrading to any 8.x release shouldn't affect performance. Just don't update to iOS 9.

As for possible future slow downs, it depends on what you put on it. If you fill up your storage, that can lead to slow performance, and some apps can be resource hogs. But such slow downs happen gradually, so you probably wouldn't notice it. Just relax and enjoy your iPad, any slow downs it gets over the course of its life is probably already exceeded by the amount of time you just spent posting about it here and reading all the replies. ;)
 
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RebornProphet

Suspended
Nov 3, 2013
989
494
Benjobox said:
Okay guys, I went for it and am now running ios8.1.1.

There is probably a delay of around a thousandth of a nanosecond when doing the five-finger pinch to return to the home screen. But this is something I think I'm able to live with.

Provided I don't upgrade my ios any further and don't damage it any way - will the iPad run at this speed for the rest of its life or will it be likely to slow down in future years?
Click to expand...

Go to Safari, visit any website.

Tap the address in the address bar and watch the animation as the address goes grey and slides to the left to reveal the full address. Horrible.

The slight drop in UI animation smoothness leaps out at me like a smack to the head. It may be acceptable to some, which is fair enough, but I won't put software on my device that adds little and takes away performance ... no matter how slight.

Even the animation when you press Cancel on the Spotlight screen to go back to the home screen isn't 100% smooth but then that's down to the stupid full screen blur effect the added in iOS 8 behind the keyboard on Spotlight. On iOS 7.1.2 the home screen isn't blurred behind the keyboard.

If iOS 8 is acceptable to you then great, but the features add nothing of any real significance if you don't have the Yosemite/iOS 8 ecosystem for handoff (and if you're running an older Mac you won't be able to use certain features anyway), and Metal adds some pretty effects to updated games but again it's not something to specifically upgrade for (unless extra rain effects on the Tokyo track of Asphalt 8 is a priority).
 
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Dented

macrumors 65816
Oct 16, 2009
1,119
899
Shall I take the ios8.1.1 plunge with my iPad Air?

RebornProphet said:
Go to Safari, visit any website.



Tap the address in the address bar and watch the animation as the address goes grey and slides to the left to reveal the full address. Horrible.



The slight drop in UI animation smoothness leaps out at me like a smack to the head. It may be acceptable to some, which is fair enough, but I won't put software on my device that adds little and takes away performance ... no matter how slight.



Even the animation when you press Cancel on the Spotlight screen to go back to the home screen isn't 100% smooth but then that's down to the stupid full screen blur effect the added in iOS 8 behind the keyboard on Spotlight. On iOS 7.1.2 the home screen isn't blurred behind the keyboard.



If iOS 8 is acceptable to you then great, but the features add nothing of any real significance if you don't have the Yosemite/iOS 8 ecosystem for handoff (and if you're running an older Mac you won't be able to use certain features anyway), and Metal adds some pretty effects to updated games but again it's not something to specifically upgrade for (unless extra rain effects on the Tokyo track of Asphalt 8 is a priority).
Click to expand...


I've just tried what you've suggested (on 8.1.1) and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. It's not that I find any drop in anything "acceptable" or that I'm tolerating some head smacking flaw that you cannot, it's simply that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I don't know if your experience was from an earlier release or whether there's something not right with your particular iPad, but the issue you're trying to conjure does not exist where I'm sitting.

If you *do* have a Mac with Yosemite - even one from 2009 like mine that can't support handoff - continuity is still well worth the update by itself. Then you have extensibility which, depending on your workflow and the apps you use, can make a big difference too. Metal, the option of new keyboards, these may be nothing to you but they're worthwhile to others.

The real point though is that iOS 8 is now. It will improve over the next few point releases as they always do, but to throw your toys out and stick on iOS 7 just because you detected a dropped frame rate somewhere is just cutting off your own nose to spite your face IMHO. You will be left behind, and that resentment you're already feeling will only build, trust me.
 
R

RebornProphet

Suspended
Nov 3, 2013
989
494
Dented said:
I've just tried what you've suggested (on 8.1.1) and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. It's not that I find any drop in anything "acceptable" or that I'm tolerating some head smacking flaw that you cannot, it's simply that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. I don't know if your experience was from an earlier release or whether there's something not right with your particular iPad, but the issue you're trying to conjure does not exist where I'm sitting.

If you *do* have a Mac with Yosemite - even one from 2009 like mine that can't support handoff - continuity is still well worth the update by itself. Then you have extensibility which, depending on your workflow and the apps you use, can make a big difference too. Metal, the option of new keyboards, these may be nothing to you but they're worthwhile to others.

The real point though is that iOS 8 is now. It will improve over the next few point releases as they always do, but to throw your toys out and stick on iOS 7 just because you detected a dropped frame rate somewhere is just cutting off your own nose to spite your face IMHO. You will be left behind, and that resentment you're already feeling will only build, trust me.
Click to expand...

Every single iPad Air running iOS 8.1.1 does it. It's a sluggish animation, it happens, I notice it, it's unacceptable when it doesn't happen on iOS 7. I has my iPad Air replaced because of iOS 8, it wasn't acceptable compares to iOS 7 in terms of performance and I stood in the Apple Store testing multiple iPad Air models. The fact is that the iPad Air is still a powerful and capable device but Apple won't sell many Air's if when side by side both are identical in smoothness. So iOS 8 is the way to do that.

People like to spout the nonsense that it "must be your iPad" but as I've said numerous times in threads like this, some people can't see the difference between 30 and 60fps and I've sat with a work colleague who couldn't see the difference in smoothness between an iPhone 4s and iPhone 5s on iOS 8.

Some people don't see it, or what they do see is smooth enough that it's acceptable, it's that simple.

On Safari on iOS 8.1.1 when you tap the address bar and the animation kicks in where the full address slides left, it's sluggish. Disable transparencies and then try it again, you'll see the iOS 7 smoothness kick in.

And then there's the lag when typing. Oh God, it's unbearable. On iOS 7 right now, touch typing on this thing is a dream. No waiting on the letters catching up, no delay in pressing the keys and the letters appearing. Super smooth.
 
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Dented

macrumors 65816
Oct 16, 2009
1,119
899
RebornProphet said:
People like to spout the nonsense that it "must be your iPad" .
Click to expand...


That's because it's your iPad. Seriously. You can believe what you like but I will believe what I see on the screen in front of me, which is a perfectly smooth animation with no issues whatsoever.
 
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