IOS 6 was the best iOS when it comes to stability and performance. IOS 7 was the worst
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iPad Apple has supported the iPad 2 for 2000 days
- Thread starter masotime
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In fairness, I think that has to do mostly with new iOS redesign rather than iPad 4 hardware. The iPhone 5s and iPad Air didn't fare so well on iOS 7, either. Too much eye candy, I think. I had to enable "Reduce Motion" when that option became available to reduce the microstutters. I reckon enabling "Reduce Transparency" should also help but that just makes the UI so ugly.
I agree the A6/iOS 6 combo had the smoothest performance. However, I feel iOS 8 is worse than 7. At least that was the case on my iPad 3. Horrible, horrible, horrible typing lag. I'd finish typing long sentences before any of the characters even show on screen.
Cudos to apple for supporting it that long given That several Samsung tablets I have own'd have never seen major updates by them just small security updates.
But there is one primary factor that kept the iPad two alive and that was the education market.
But there is one primary factor that kept the iPad two alive and that was the education market.
Looks like it's still a problem on A5 devices with just 512MB RAM. I think there was another user with iPad mini who has the same issue. iOS 9 fixed it on my iPad 3 (1GB RAM).
I'm actually a bit surprised that Apple didn't enable iOS 10 for the older iPads. The animations are so much smoother in iOS 10, almost approaching iOS 6 levels. I don't own an older iPad, but it would have been nice if Apple had released iOS 9.4 which added just the animation speedups.
It bothers me that Apple never addressed the animation smoothness earlier. It may sound cliche'd, and I wouldn't normally say this, but Steve Jobs would never have allowed it to go on for so long.
It bothers me that Apple never addressed the animation smoothness earlier. It may sound cliche'd, and I wouldn't normally say this, but Steve Jobs would never have allowed it to go on for so long.
I have an iPad 3 and while there is stuttering, it is still usable and works well. Was my first iPad and I tried to sell it when I got the air 2, but people wanted it for so low I just keep it as a backup.
To be honest, I haven't done extensive typing on one. I'm judging based on the overall responsiveness of the UI and apps opening/switching.
IOS 8 is worse than 7 for A5 devices. IOS 8 slowed down IPhone 4s, it made it unusable, with iOS 9 made it more unusable. Ipad 2 slowed down in IOS 7, slowed more in IOS 8, and more on IOS 9. I had an experience last week using an iPad 2 and believe it's so slow!!! Even when u do simple tasks , like open iTunes ,iBooks , photos app. Man, it's so slow!! It's unusable. It's lagging everywhere. Clearly, they are no conditions to run IOS 10. A6 devices are usuable, IPad 4 on IOS 10 is amazing, fast . Way better than IPad 2. 512 GB of RAM. Makes difference in real usage
What about the iPad mini, which is basically a tiny iPad 2. It got way less love than the 4s.
If the reason why animations are much smoother in iOS 10 is because iOS now uses more RAM for caching images, that would explain why the iPad 2 isn't supported. (I don't know if that is how they achieved it, but if it is, that explains it)
Something to keep in mind, the A6X was like ~2x CPU and ~2x GPU performance compared to the iPad 3. That gave it enough headroom for iOS updates without turning into a lagfest.
Personally, given the option, I'd downgrade A5 devices to iOS 6. They just don't have the horsepower to deal with the more taxing iOS 7 and higher firmware.
Besides, iirc, iOS has always used RAM to cache animation.
IOS 7 had a major redesign. And clearly, the A5 processor wasn't ready for it . That's why since iOS 7 these devices slowed down. New graphics which demands more of the processor, new effects (parallax effect). Look how crap the iPhone 4 run iOS 7.single core device , a4 chip. The only reason apple supported A5 devices is because they are dual core. That the only reason they update it for so long.However, it has 512mb of RAM the same as IPhone 4
iPhone 4 has the same 512 mb of RAM as iPhone 4s , only difference:dual core processor in the 4s. Which is the main reason they supported so long . IOS 7.1.2 is the last usuable IOS version for iPhone 4s and A5 devices .
Still using my ipad 2 on ios 9.3.5 as a daily driver. iOs 6 was perfect, but lots of apps i use doesn't support that anymore so I had no choice to upgrade to 9, which i regret. It's still useable, but slow af. Especially opening and browsing Safari, typing in general, opening and using Spotify. I think it's time to replace it with a new one. Most likely one of next year's ipads.
iPad 1 wasn't supported too long . 900 days . In comparison, IPad 2 was supported 2000 days. . Why does the first gen iPad which has the A4 processor didn't receive iOS 6 ,while the IPod touch 4 with the same processor did receive iOS 6? I don't understand?
Same 256MB RAM but the iPad had 1024x768 display while the iPod Touch only had 960x640.
Honestly, iOS 6 performed pretty poorly on the iPod Touch. If you compare the iPhone 4 (A4/512MB) and iPod Touch 4th gen (A4/256MB), the Touch frequently experienced more out of memory crashes on iOS 5. The iOS 6 update just made it worse. I think the iPhone 4 went on and got iOS 7 but man it was not a pretty sight. My cousin had one and I couldn't stand the lag.
Personally, for good performance, I wouldn't go beyond the following:
iPod Touch 4th gen: iOS 4
iPhone 4: iOS 5
iPhone 4S: iOS 6
iPad 2: iOS 6
iPad 3: iOS 6
I'm pretty impressed with longevity of the A6 (iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 4). Even now on iOS 9, it's still doing pretty well and has maintained decent performance. After 3 major iOS updates, the older devices would be really slow and laggy already.
Every iOS update will feel like a crapshoot, but iOS 10 might be the first release where it feels faster than the previous version. But even then, I won't be updating my iDevices two versions ahead of the OS that it originally launched with. As much as the new features and bling bling look good, I cannot compromise a split second slowness in the responsiveness of the OS.
Previous OS versions will still have the core features of what you use your phone for, and still support a great majority of the apps. And if the Apple way is doing a select few features exceptionally well, then sticking with the launch-date OS is the way to go.
I hope they have a hard reset option where you can restore to the original OS.
Previous OS versions will still have the core features of what you use your phone for, and still support a great majority of the apps. And if the Apple way is doing a select few features exceptionally well, then sticking with the launch-date OS is the way to go.
I hope they have a hard reset option where you can restore to the original OS.
Apple's refusal to do that (or allow any downgrading) is one of those things that lend credibility to the "planned obsolescence" argument.
There seems to be confusion among many regarding what "support" means. Most look at "the ability to install the latest version of iOS" as "supporting" it. That's a reasonable definition but not one that I find helpful.
Because Apple doesn't allow downgrading iOS, IMO they have a responsibility to ensure that performance/stability isn't compromised when allowing a device to upgrade. What good (from a customer's perspective) is it to allow a device to be upgraded that results in a sluggish stuttering mess?
I know that some will say that it's just too complicated for Apple to allow downgrading to any previous versions of iOS (it's not), but at the very least there should be a "factory reset" option that sets the device back to the same level of iOS that it shipped with.