Apple's Claims of Improved Performance on iPhone 4s and iPad 2 With iOS 8.1.1 Put to the Test

[till213]

"without making other areas worse"

Puh! Lucky us! These days you have to be very grateful to hear that Apple did not **** up another thing during an update!

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If you saved your blobs on older iOS/Devices you still can.

This is plain wrong: even if you stored any given iOS install image anywhere you still have to go through iTunes installation process - and that is the time where iTunes goes online and checks the signature of that install image.

And guess what: Apple won't accept install images older than iOS 8. So you cannot even "restore" an iDevice running on iOS 7 to a clean iOS 7.

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If you already have the apps you need you may be fine, but if you sell or gift the device to someone else they will have a crippled device with an artificially restricted selection of apps.

There is a well-known "trick" though to install previous versions of apps (which were still running on that older iOS you want it for), even if you did not purchase (or get for free) them previously:

* you simply get the latest version through iTunes.
* At this point you get the latest of greatest version of the app (possibly only running on iOS 8)
* The net result is: that app now "belongs to you"
* Now you start the App Store on your actual iDevice running a lower (non-supported) iOS version and try to install that very app
* A message will tell you that the latest app is not available for you iOS version, but you can install an older version of that app (if available!)

 

[LadyGarden]

Apple's Claims of Improved Performance on iPhone 4s and iPad 2 With iOS 8.1.1 Put to

I have a 4S running 8.1.1 and it works just fine.

 

[Spectrum]

Off the *option* of iOS7

All APple need to do is offer the *OPTION* of reinstallling iOS7. They don't need to throw any further resources at the problem. It is really really stupid.

I have an iPhone 4S, 6 months old. It runs iOS7 and I am very very happy with the performance. I am sick of being asked by pop-ups if I want to upgrade to iOS8, since I am aware that performance will SUCK. ON A MODEL THAT *BOUGHT NEW* IS LESS THAN A YEAR OLD.

I find that totally unacceptable, and if I did accidentally upgrade, I would fight tooth and nail to get an upgrade from Apple for the terrible performance I'd be suffering, which IS NOT PRESENT as purchased.

Essentially I would no longer have a phone that performed as purchased.

While the same is often true of newer desktop OSs, at least there you have the option of reinstalling the original software that came with your computer. I don't honestly see how Apple are allowed not to provide a way of reinstalling earlier iOS versions. It is really really anti-consumer.

 

[0x100]

Delete

 

[I7guy]

I'm not sure how to explain this video of the iPad 2 running iOS 8.1. It looks faster than mine running iOS 7.1.2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTQAtjrskE

8.1.1 seems to have smoothed out the rough edges of IOS 8. Running 8.1.1 on ipad2 and 5s.

 

[Spectrum]

This is plain wrong: even if you stored any given iOS install image anywhere you still have to go through iTunes installation process - and that is the time where iTunes goes online and checks the signature of that install image.

And guess what: Apple won't accept install images older than iOS 8. So you cannot even "restore" an iDevice running on iOS 7 to a clean iOS 7.

I agree so much with this quote. I find it completely unacceptable that Apple does not allow you to reinstall the software on your device that you PURCHASED IT WITH.

If I bought a phone with iOS 6 or 7 on it, I think it makes no sense whatsoever that I cannot reimage it like that in the future. An over-the-air software update should not be like receiving a Hardware downgrade that cannot be removed!

 

[Tech198]

I like this...

Although isn't this prolonging the inevitable ??

Maybe it's time to update that phone .... I can understand users running older devices wanna run the latest and greatest, but Apple must know its not gonna perform as fast as an iPhone 5 onwards... Yet, they still continue to push this to older devices.... thus, users want more speed that may not be always possible..within limitations.

Apple's always about non-compatibility, They don't sign older iOS versions, so u can't downgrade, yet they allow older devices to run the latest, because Apple wants the userto stay up to date with fixes ?

If user want to run older OS's/iOS'es, just let em, and do what MS does..

Stop supporting these with updates....

 

[rmendol1]

Only when it comes to RAM. The A series SoC is consistently ranked near the top of its class every year when comes to performance.

Right because 2 cores are better than 4 cores especially when paired with 2-3 GB Ram

Android based phones have always had much better hardware but were mostly crippled by the unevenness of the OS and fragmenting. iOS provided a better package dealing with some of these shortfalls since the hardware and firmware were also developed for one another.

 

[Devvy]

8.1.1 is not THAT bad.
Actually its performance reminds me of 7.x, which is good. The only thing I notice is that apps or safari pages are quickly swapped away when multitasking. Given the 512 MB ram I can understand that.

 

[AppleHater]

I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer that to an irreversible OS upgrade that renders the device substantially slower. Especially considering they give you un-dismissable red badges and push notifications telling you to upgrade.

iOS fragmentation is a real problem in my house. I have devices running 4 different versions of iOS.

iOS 5: iPad 1
iOS 6: 2 iPhone 4's
iOS 7: wife's iPhone 5 (will eventually upgrade to 8), iPad 3 (on the fence about upgrading to 8)
iOS 8: my iPhone 5, iPad mini 2

That's not to mention the two AppleTVs that are now running 2 different versions of the AppleTV OS.

iPad 1 should never have been allowed to upgrade to iOS 5. It's unusably slow, which it wasn't when I bought it. Same goes for the iPhone 4, which I'm sure glad I never upgraded past 6.

My inlaws all have 4s's and I've advised them not to upgrade to iOS 8.

I'm sorry but you've got old devices with slow CPUs. Still, I would prefer option to update rather than no option.

 

[the8thark]

My iPhone 3GS laughs in the face of this "test" #

My 2G iPhone 1 laughs even harder with it's whole 8GB of SSD space.

 

[sundragon]

All this complaining about 4 year old devices not being as fast as they were when they were new is absurd. This is how technology works. The performance of Mobile devices are orders of magnitude improving year to year (much more than desktop/laptops) and thus it shows when they update the OS.

People would be complaining if Apple didn't provide an update and cry foul.

Please show me ONE Android phone from 2011 that gets Android 5.0 Lolipop?

YEP NONE!!!

Hell, show me one device from 2012 other than Google's Nexus that gets Lolipop?

YEP NONE!!

Android devices from 2012 are lucky to get updates...

no bug fixes, no security patches, nothing.

Don't even get me started on Windows Mobile devices, hahaha...

People, a fraction of second slow down isn't going to kill you; If it will kill you, buy a new device...

/first world problems

/end IT guy rant

 

[MrX8503]

I love my iPhone, but compared to high-end Samsung phones, the iPhone is drastically underpowered, especially when it comes to RAM.

What iPhone do you have? 4S or 6?

If 4S...
duh, it's a 3yr old phone.

else if 6
No, it's not drastically underpowered. A8 > Snapdragon 805

else
I bet a 3 year old Samsung phone is "drastically" underpowered to a high end iPhone 6.

 

[MarkCollette]

My iPhone 4s on iOS 6 runs smooth as butter and is rock stable. Too bad it just sits in a drawer while I use my Galaxy S5.

I may reconsider an iPhone someday -- when Apple allows you to run any version of the OS you want, which will happen several years after hell freezes over. Apple's updates screw up your iToy, and you're stuck, you can't go back without jailbreaking. That's beyond pathetic.

If I were you I would sell my iPhone 4s with 3.5" screen and iOS 6 for tonnes of cash to one of those people who prefer a small screen and a nimble OS.

 

[MarkCollette]

All this talk of planned obsolescence... I don't think that people realise just how hard it is to add new functionality without consuming more resources, especially on a resource constrained device like a smartphone.

People, this isn't even comparable to making software for a desktop, which has 4+ GB of RAM instead of 0.5-1 GB in the phone, hundreds of GB of disk instead of tens of GB of storage, and much more electrical power availability. And even then it's common for newer software to get slower on desktops. Apple usually releases a newer desktop (or laptop) model when it's 20% faster than the previous one, whereas mobile devices are 50-100% faster each year, so a couple year old device is drastically lower spec'd than the current generation.

Even with infinite RAM, the CPU only has so much cache, so when you add more code, it obviously fills the CPU cache sooner. And considering how optimised iOS was to begin with, there's no lo hanging fruit for optimising the pre-existing code to be smaller/faster.

Considering the fact that the OS and apps can support being for tablets and phones of various sizes, retina or not, 32 bit or 64 bit, using cellular data and wifi and bluetooth, doing cutting edge multimedia as good as a desktop, it's amazing it works so well.

 

[Oracle1729]

a

 

[neteng101]

8.1.1 is not THAT bad.

I don't remember page scrolling being that bad in 7.1.2... in 8.1.1 if you load up any site with some complex content (eg. try Anandtech), then scrolling down that single page is one bad refresh mess, as it constantly tries to keep up/redraw and falls behind your scrolling while you stare at an empty screen.

 

[Oracle1729]

All this talk of planned obsolescence... I don't think that people realise just how hard it is to add new functionality without consuming more resources, especially on a resource constrained device like a smartphone.

As long as Apple won't let you load an older version of their own OS, it's pretty obvious all they care about is getting older iToys in the landfills as fast as possible.

The upgrade button may as well be a "brick this device" button.

 

[Morac]

I don't remember page scrolling being that bad in 7.1.2... in 8.1.1 if you load up any site with some complex content (eg. try Anandtech), then scrolling down that single page is one bad refresh mess, as it constantly tries to keep up/redraw and falls behind your scrolling while you stare at an empty screen.

I'm still on 7.1.2 and it's not any different. Complex pages take forever to load and refresh constantly as images and videos load.

 

[neteng101]

I'm still on 7.1.2 and it's not any different. Complex pages take forever to load and refresh constantly as images and videos load.

Maybe its not as bad then - I only recently upgraded from 7.1.2 to 8.1.1 but haven't been using it much recently - I have it assigned to me from work but have my own Air 2 for a month now, and have totally lost touch on how the older device performs it seems.

The Air 2 is just insanely quick!

 

[Max(IT)]

I'm happy about the 512 Mb optimization: it will result in a better experience on our 1 Gb devices.
Regarding iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, well, they are just aging....

 

[Tubamajuba]

All this talk of planned obsolescence... I don't think that people realise just how hard it is to add new functionality without consuming more resources, especially on a resource constrained device like a smartphone.

People, this isn't even comparable to making software for a desktop, which has 4+ GB of RAM instead of 0.5-1 GB in the phone, hundreds of GB of disk instead of tens of GB of storage, and much more electrical power availability. And even then it's common for newer software to get slower on desktops. Apple usually releases a newer desktop (or laptop) model when it's 20% faster than the previous one, whereas mobile devices are 50-100% faster each year, so a couple year old device is drastically lower spec'd than the current generation.

Even with infinite RAM, the CPU only has so much cache, so when you add more code, it obviously fills the CPU cache sooner. And considering how optimised iOS was to begin with, there's no lo hanging fruit for optimising the pre-existing code to be smaller/faster.

Considering the fact that the OS and apps can support being for tablets and phones of various sizes, retina or not, 32 bit or 64 bit, using cellular data and wifi and bluetooth, doing cutting edge multimedia as good as a desktop, it's amazing it works so well.

Exactly. Either quite a few people don't understand how technology works, or they're being intentionally obtuse.

As long as Apple won't let you load an older version of their own OS, it's pretty obvious all they care about is getting older iToys in the landfills as fast as possible.

The upgrade button may as well be a "brick this device" button.

Or, there are actual reasons why they don't let you load an older version of iOS, reasons that have been discussed many times before on other threads?

Not at all saying that your viewpoint is wrong, but you're jumping to a conclusion without fully understanding the situation.

 

[Max(IT)]

I love my iPhone, but compared to high-end Samsung phones, the iPhone is drastically underpowered, especially when it comes to RAM.

Not even close to that.
Samsung phones just need resources to be wasted by an unoptimized operative system and a bloated UI ....

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In 2015 Apple needs to:

1. make all iOS and Mac devices they sell retina
2. Touch ID on all iOS devices they sell
3. Eliminate A5. All iOS devices they sell should be A7 or greater.

Yep. It would be a good plan

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My iPhone 4s on iOS 6 runs smooth as butter and is rock stable. Too bad it just sits in a drawer while I use my Galaxy S5.

I may reconsider an iPhone someday -- when Apple allows you to run any version of the OS you want, which will happen several years after hell freezes over. Apple's updates screw up your iToy, and you're stuck, you can't go back without jailbreaking. That's beyond pathetic.

You lost any credibility the moment you defined iPhones like iToys.
Especially from a galaxy S5 user ....

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Not really 7.1 was much better on my 5s. This new os is a joke

Nothing wrong with iOS 8.1 on my 5S. Actually it's better than iOS 7.1 in almost every aspect.

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I think the RAM issue has already being debunk. Yes, I am want more RAM as way to future proof your purchase but just because Android devices have 2-3g don't assume all of it is available to the device.

see below,
"So 1GB for iOS results in more performance than 3GB for Android."

http://www.quora.com/How-come-the-i...an-2-GB-RAM-of-Android-phones/answers/7061202

Very few people here can understand that.
They keep comparing apples to oranges, because that's what Samsung want.
In the Android world is all about specs, and nothing about optimization. They just add more ram, more cores, more GHz, trying hard to differentiate themselves from the others otherwise identical devices.

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This is bad apple 4S was sold until a month ago and basically it was outdated and slow when you then bought it.

It still is a product from 2011 .....

 

[Max(IT)]

I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer that to an irreversible OS upgrade that renders the device substantially slower. Especially considering they give you un-dismissable red badges and push notifications telling you to upgrade.

iOS fragmentation is a real problem in my house. I have devices running 4 different versions of iOS.

iOS 5: iPad 1
iOS 6: 2 iPhone 4's
iOS 7: wife's iPhone 5 (will eventually upgrade to 8), iPad 3 (on the fence about upgrading to 8)
iOS 8: my iPhone 5, iPad mini 2

That's not to mention the two AppleTVs that are now running 2 different versions of the AppleTV OS.

iPad 1 should never have been allowed to upgrade to iOS 5. It's unusably slow, which it wasn't when I bought it. Same goes for the iPhone 4, which I'm sure glad I never upgraded past 6.

My inlaws all have 4s's and I've advised them not to upgrade to iOS 8.

If you like to use such an old device like and original iPad or an iPhone 4, it's your call. Don't blame Apple if performances in late 2014 are poor.
You are creating your own fragmentation. Not Apple.

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Oh, right 550ppi.. This is a god damn pentile screen. So, 550ppi equals about 380-400ppi for a lcd in quality first. That'S the same density as the 6+!!

Second, it is as underperpowered GPU for the size of its screen, so hey! Battery life is very blah btw. In actual benchmark and even use it doesn't beat the 6+.

Its not really a phone, if you see people actually holding it, they crossed way into ridiculous territory there. That's what every review is saying.

It has a very different and original look. For that alone they should be commended (they didn't copy Apple for once). But, how useful is that look?

If you want to be seen with something unique and rarely do voice call, It's an OK buy, otherwise its just another device in the whole slew of device Samsung releases in a year.

Its not cheap compared to Apple and not a fantastic device as you claim (just unique in look). So, why is this good in your mind? I Don't see it. If you thrive on novelty, it is an OK buy, otherwise your not getting much more usefulness out of it.


BTW, even on a 6 foot high quality high screen made for watching video material with the best least compressed sources (something your not getting on your phone), people barely see the difference in watching a 4K movie... So, why on earth would you want to watch one on a phablet! That says all about how you judge things!! The difference between 1080P and 4K is already very hard to see in a static images on a tablet, for moving images... forget about it.

Absolutely correct.
It really amaze me how people are fooled buy Samsung's marketing gimmicks.

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I have a 4S running 8.1.1 and it works just fine.

I had the opportunity, some days ago, to play a little bit with an iPhone 4S running iOS 8.1
Well I wouldn't define it as snappy, for sure, but it's a perfectly acceptable device from 2011. I can't really understand most of the complains.

 

[matthewcornell]

These were so fast on iOS 6...

I think Apple should rewrite iOS in swift...

iOS 6 was awesome - snappy on my 4S, a pleasure to use. iOS 7 was crap (interface, speed, bugs, etc), and adding insult to injury is that I am prohibited from going back. Now iOS 8 adds to the crappiness. Apple has gone off the rails a little on iOS, I think. My next gadget will definitely not be an Apple one.