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iPhone 6(S)/Plus iOS 11 on iPhone 6 - How well does it perform/work?

J

Jimbo Limbo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 13, 2015
141
137
Toronto
Hi,

My wife has an older iPhone 6 (64Gb Space Grey). I was wanted to hear about performance running iOS 11 before I updated it for her.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.
 
Jimbo Limbo said:
Hi,

My wife has an older iPhone 6 (64Gb Space Grey). I was wanted to hear about performance running iOS 11 before I updated it for her.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I was wondering the same as I have exactly the same phone. I have had this phone since 18 February, 2015, the longest I have ever owned the same phone lol

I used to replace my phones every 12 months or so, but given how expensive these phones have become, and that i'm bored with them now, I'm not bothered about replacing it anytime soon. For now, I'm leaving mine running iOS 10! If you do update it's firmware, let us know. :)
 
Works perfectly fine for me. I feel like the battery life may have taken a bit of a hit though, but performance seems just as fast as ever.
 
I have an iPhone 6 running iOS 11.0.1 & my phone has slowed down compared to 10.3.3 - I still recommend the update for security because I do use banking apps on my phone.

I turned the motion off & that improved the speed. The phone is fully functional & works well. There is a 2-3 second lag when opening apps like the Starbucks app.
 
Jimbo Limbo said:
Hi,

My wife has an older iPhone 6 (64Gb Space Grey). I was wanted to hear about performance running iOS 11 before I updated it for her.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Runs terrible on mine. Freezes, gets stuck in landscape, safari freezes, after pressing the home button to unlock there is a delay before the icons appear. Also, battery life seems worse on iOS 11.

Edit: putting my tin foil hat on here but I’ve always personally thought Apple does this on purpose to older iPhones once a major launch comes out.
 
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Most apps for me take 6-7 seconds to open, pretty bad. I even wiped the phone, clean installed and restored. Still 6-7 seconds. No battery drain issues, but GOD, the app boot times are killing me. App -> home screen -> same app is instantaneous, but use a different app for a while and back to original app, you guessed it, 6-7 seconds. Nov 3rd can't get here soon enough. (I want to assume my 3am efforts will pay off with a fast iPhone X)
 
chazcron said:
Most apps for me take 6-7 seconds to open, pretty bad. I even wiped the phone, clean installed and restored. Still 6-7 seconds. No battery drain issues, but GOD, the app boot times are killing me. App -> home screen -> same app is instantaneous, but use a different app for a while and back to original app, you guessed it, 6-7 seconds. Nov 3rd can't get here soon enough. (I want to assume my 3am efforts will pay off with a fast iPhone X)
Click to expand...

That’s crazy! I’ve never seen any iPhone perform so slowly.

As I said above, my 6 is functioning as well as ever on iOS 11.01, other than battery life seeming to have diminished somewhat.
 
joeblow7777 said:
That’s crazy! I’ve never seen any iPhone perform so slowly.

As I said above, my 6 is functioning as well as ever on iOS 11.01, other than battery life seeming to have diminished somewhat.
Click to expand...

I am seeing the same thing on my 6. Wish I left it alone. Come on X.
 
I don’t know why, but I’ve never had problems running the latest software on any of my devices.

I assume that everyone is remembering to keep their apps up to date as well? During the first few days after I upgraded to 11, I swear every app on my phone and iPad must have updated at least twice to ensure compatibility and smooth performance.
 
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I found for me with iOS 11 on my 6 is that is functionally equivalent to iOS 10. Runs the same. Not great nor bad.
 
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Thanks for your input folks. Will keep my iPhone 6 on iOS 10! My battery performance isn't the best as it is, need a new battery I'm sure.
 
Works perfectly fine for me, though my battery for some reason is still in pristine condition. But either way not noticing any battery life difference with before.
 
Just to add another: I would hold off unless you have a good reason to upgrade. I have the same iPhone 6 64GB and upgraded to iOS 11 because I wanted watchOS 4 on my Apple Watch.

My iPhone 6 was already a bit sluggish on iOS 10. It could take the camera 5 seconds or more to be ready to take a photo, the phone would sometimes freeze for a second when switching apps or launching apps (especially those that use the camera. Battery life was already not the best, but I could usually make it through the day unless I used the phone a lot. I usually top off the charge while I'm at work.

iOS 11 seems to have exacerbated the existing issues a bit, but it could be my imagination. It seems like the phone freezes for a second more frequently, and some apps take longer to refresh than before. It's most frustrating when you are in a situation when you need your iPhone to work quickly: Trying to take a photo, a quick calendar or weather check, send a quick email, etc. I can check my calendar or the weather much faster on my Apple Watch, but i open the calendar app when I want to view more calendar details and entries into the future.

I will be upgrading to the X (or to the 8+, depending on X reviews). I've been an iPhone user since the 3G, and in the past I've had old iPhones perform better with new operating systems. It was the new/updated apps designed for faster hardware that would make my previous iPhones feel slow. This time it seems to be the OS.

By contrast, my Series 0 Apple Watch Sport runs watch OS 4 just fine. Batter performance is even improved over watchOS 3.

Sean
 
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Thanks Sean. Having just checked my battery stats, my design capacity is down to 72% when fully charged. I just ordered a replacement battery for my iPhone 6 from iFixit. Try and get another year or two out of this phone lol
 
enfield said:
I have an iPhone 6 running iOS 11.0.1 & my phone has slowed down compared to 10.3.3 - I still recommend the update for security because I do use banking apps on my phone.

I turned the motion off & that improved the speed. The phone is fully functional & works well. There is a 2-3 second lag when opening apps like the Starbucks app.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I've read that there are two accessibility settings that are supposed to improve performance:
  • Enable Reduced Motion (I left Auto-Play message effects enabled)
  • Enabled Reduce Transparency (under the Increase Contrast setting)
It does seem like browsing the interface is snappier. You can also do other things like disabling background app refresh. I already disable background refresh for apps that seem to abuse the privilege by consuming a lot of battery and data. I wouldn't want to disable it for apps I rely on throughout the day, or my Apple Watch Series 0 will not be up to date.

Sean
 
GoofyCyborg said:
Thanks Sean. Having just checked my battery stats, my design capacity is down to 72% when fully charged. I just ordered a replacement battery for my iPhone 6 from iFixit. Try and get another year or two out of this phone lol
Click to expand...

It should do just fine as long as you are patient with the occasional pause and sluggish response. Most of the time, and for most of the things I use my iPhone for, it works just fine. My wife doesn't use her iPhone nearly as much as I use mine. She will probably stick with the 6 for the foreseeable future. The only thing that frustrates her is the time it takes for the camera to be ready. We have small children and sometimes you want to capture a moment quickly. I have dedicated cameras for that, but sometimes the iPhone is the only camera I have with me. That's really the main reason I want to upgrade to an 8+ or an X. I really want the better/more responsive camera and dual lenses. If I wasn't interested in the camera upgrade, I'd probably stick with my 6 and upgrade my Series 0 Apple Watch :)

Sean
 
Every iOS version seems to make older devices a little bit slower but it's as usable as it was with iOS 10. I'm satisfied with performance on my iPhone 6+, and my wife hasn't complained at all with her iPhone 6.
 
Last edited:
Jimbo Limbo said:
Hi,

My wife has an older iPhone 6 (64Gb Space Grey). I was wanted to hear about performance running iOS 11 before I updated it for her.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I installed the tvios beta profile on my wife and my moms iPhone 6 64GB that's on 10.3.3 to prevent it to updating to iOS 11. It's just too slow.
 
Terrible.

My brother has an iPhone 6 and both battery drain and performance are not good. Unlike me, he doesn't care much about his phone, the speed, or the features, and even he's been bitching non-stop about it.

Stay on 10.3.3.
 
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