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CB1234

macrumors 6502a
Sep 20, 2012
784
491
Dubai, UAE
I am using iOS 9.1 on my iPad 2 which i use daily.. The performance is much smoother then previous version of iOS 9.

It is slower then what it used to be on iOS 7 and previous versions, but I understand my iPad is old and will run slower.

I am just happy that I can run latest software on my old iPad.

I have a 4s, but I haven't yet tried iOS 9 on it yet..
 
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leon771

macrumors regular
Sep 17, 2011
213
56
Australia
I have an old 4S which I've kept as an iPod. To be honest all versions of iOS 9 have been slow and laggy. I can't tell of any improvements to speed at all. Everything is slow.
 

Frosties

macrumors 65816
Jun 12, 2009
1,079
209
Sweden
I am still on 8.4.1 on my 4S. My advice stay there until 9.4 as it stands now. No big new features or serious security risks demand the upgrade of yet. Let's be honest regarding the 4s, it will not ever be faster, only as slow as it is now.
 
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stantead

macrumors newbie
Oct 23, 2015
1
0
IOS 9.1

Is someone testing it ?
Are performance better ?

DON'T RISK IT!!!!! I had been running 8.4.1 on my iPhone 4s with the only issue being an occasional overheat/battery dive, and updated to 9.1 after restoring factory settings to prepare to give the device to a family member. Now on iOS 9 it has recurring, unpredictable Wifi disconnects both at home and trying it at work. Tried to revert to iOS 8.4.1 but it's no longer allowed by Apple! Reverted back to 9.0.2 and still no dice. Tried everything published on the web: Forget Network, Reset Network, Turn of Wifi and turn back on, Restart, Restore to Factory. It may work for minutes / hours and then disconnect without warning in the middle of something. After disconnecting it often won't even see any Wifi networks, or fails after entering the wifi password. Apple forced an update on me that turned my formerly dependable smartphone into junk. This is the sort of hell that Microsoft used to put its users through - and Mac devotees would say, "see this is why you should switch to Apple". Apple needs to let us revert back to iOS 7 or iOS 8.
 

nifta

macrumors member
Nov 17, 2014
65
32
My iPod touch 5g (basically a 4S with a bigger screen) is a little better under iOS 9 than the versions of 8 I recall. Memory management seems a little better (I can multitask again to a small degree without apps reloading!) and Safari is a little more stable and pages seem to finish loading/processing a little faster. Not as good as iOS 7 was but better than 8.
 

philipyoungg

macrumors regular
Sep 17, 2015
241
156
Jakarta Capital Region
DON'T RISK IT!!!!! I had been running 8.4.1 on my iPhone 4s with the only issue being an occasional overheat/battery dive, and updated to 9.1 after restoring factory settings to prepare to give the device to a family member. Now on iOS 9 it has recurring, unpredictable Wifi disconnects both at home and trying it at work. Tried to revert to iOS 8.4.1 but it's no longer allowed by Apple! Reverted back to 9.0.2 and still no dice. Tried everything published on the web: Forget Network, Reset Network, Turn of Wifi and turn back on, Restart, Restore to Factory. It may work for minutes / hours and then disconnect without warning in the middle of something. After disconnecting it often won't even see any Wifi networks, or fails after entering the wifi password. Apple forced an update on me that turned my formerly dependable smartphone into junk. This is the sort of hell that Microsoft used to put its users through - and Mac devotees would say, "see this is why you should switch to Apple". Apple needs to let us revert back to iOS 7 or iOS 8.

You can downgrade to iOS 8.4.1 now with OdysseusOTA 2 now. And you can even revert to iOS 6.1.3 with the same procedure ;)
 
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Cobold

macrumors 6502a
Sep 16, 2014
711
1,031
Dieburg, Germany
I just updated my aunt's iPad Mini 1st Gen (thats also an A5-powered device) to iOS 9.1.
I cannot say that it runs ultra-smooth but in my opinion better that iOS 8.4.1 did! Absolutely OK with reduced transparency and reduced motion activated (was activated on iOS 8, too).
 
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neteng101

macrumors 65816
Jan 7, 2009
1,148
163
I still have an iPad 2 that I upgraded from 8.4.1 straight to 9.1, while its no screamer, it does seem to be doing a bit better. Still has slowness though, it can't compare to how well it still managed when it was on iOS 7.
 

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
I still have an iPad 2 that I upgraded from 8.4.1 straight to 9.1, while its no screamer, it does seem to be doing a bit better. Still has slowness though, it can't compare to how well it still managed when it was on iOS 7.
When it was on the last version of iOS 7 (basically 7.1.x) or the initial versions of iOS 7 (basically 7.0.x)?
 

neteng101

macrumors 65816
Jan 7, 2009
1,148
163
When it was on the last version of iOS 7 (basically 7.1.x) or the initial versions of iOS 7 (basically 7.0.x)?

That's a long time back - but I upgraded pretty early to iOS 7 and never had much trouble with it.
 

v04bvs

macrumors member
Oct 10, 2012
35
19
I suggest everyone with iPhone 4S to revert to iOS 6. It really changes device to lightning fast beast. It works faster than iPhone 6S.
 

viperGTS

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2010
1,560
941
I suggest everyone with iPhone 4S to revert to iOS 6. It really changes device to lightning fast beast. It works faster than iPhone 6S.

iOS 6 is super old. It just looks nice and performs slightly better; that's not worth losing all the new features and app support. I've been using my 4S on iOS 6 for nearly a month now and I'm itching to update to 9.1.

It's so much easier to tell someone to downgrade to iOS 6 than it is to actually use it. It's old, outdated software, that comes with tons of compromises.
 

newellj

macrumors G3
Oct 15, 2014
8,127
3,030
East of Eden
iOS 6 is super old. It just looks nice and performs slightly better; that's not worth losing all the new features and app support. I've been using my 4S on iOS 6 for nearly a month now and I'm itching to update to 9.1.

It's so much easier to tell someone to downgrade to iOS 6 than it is to actually use it. It's old, outdated software, that comes with tons of compromises.

...and won't let you upgrade tons of apps, nor install quite a lot of apps. There are trade-offs, and keeping a device on an earlier version of iOS is not a no-brainer. I speak from personal knowledge, having had a 4S on 6.whatever until about a year ago, and still having a Touch 5 on 7.1.2.
 
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eyeseeyou

macrumors 68040
Feb 4, 2011
3,383
1,591
Both my ipad 2 and 4s are being used my pre teens. They work perfectly fine for what they're being used for.
 

uhaas

macrumors 6502
Aug 31, 2012
409
198
Boston, MA
There isnt a single iOS device out there which runs better on 9 than on iOS 8
My iPad 3 does. iOS 8 would take time to respond to home button, wake up and multitask switcher lag. Safari was slower.

iOS 9 fixed a lot ofmios 8 issues for me. YMMV, but your statement as an absolute is incorrect.
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
34,222
23,963
Gotta be in it to win it
There are three Ars tests that would be of interest. There's one specifically on each of the iPad 2 and the iPhone 4S, and there's a multi-device performance test in the main iOS 9 review.
I took out my trusty iphone 4 (which is now a glorified ipod) on 7.1.2, as it essentially has the same hardware as an ipad2 sans a cpu. I use the i4 to stream music to bluetooth speakers and listen to music when I don't want deplete the battery on my main device.

I opened up MR in safari. On the bottom of the page is a button labeled use forum theme. Clicking on it results in a safari crash every time. -1 for 7.1.2.

Then for yucks I fired up the ipad 2 on 9.1 and starting opening apps that are essentially as consistent as possible. Surprisingly the iphone 4 beat the ipad 2 by a slim margin in some things, while in others the ipad 2 was clearly faster. While it wasn't an apples to apples comparison (so to speak), my main takeaway, is that safari on 9.1 has come a long way and 7.1.2 is just antiquated at this point as is ios 6.
 
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