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iOS 6 performance on iPhone 3GS?

T

terminatorp

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 23, 2012
19
0
Hello all,

iOS 6 has been released as we all know, but it's a pleasant surprise to see the 3GS in the supported list. What's even more, the 3GS (as of the beta 3) now pretty much has all of the supported features of iOS 6 as the iPhone 4, with the exception of the offline reading list. The 3GS has had 4 whole OS releases over it's lifespan, which is quite a feat.

However one thing I was curious about is the performance of the 3GS on iOS 6. I googled it, looked around in many forums, searched youtube, and was amazed to see pretty much nothing commentating the performance of iOS 6 on the 3GS. I've seen iPhone 4 and 4S threads, but literally none on the 3GS.

For me, iOS 4 was slower compared to OS 3.0, but iOS 5 brought forth a decent performance boost (app launching times did slow down, but overall smoothness of the OS was amazing, and was more enjoyable to use). I am hoping iOS 6 would be the same, but I would like some input from the users on this forum! How is iOS 6 performance compared to iOS 5 on the iPhone 3GS? Is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks to all in advance!
 
Last edited:
terminatorp said:
Hello all,

iOS 6 has been released as we all know, but it's a pleasant surprise to see the 3GS in the supported list. What's even more, the 3GS (as of the beta 3) now pretty much has all of the supported features of iOS 6 as the iPhone 4, with the exception of the offline reading list. The 3GS has had 4 whole OS releases over it's lifespan, which is quite a feat.

However one thing I was curious about is the performance of the 3GS on iOS 6. I googled it, looked around in many forums, searched youtube, and was amazed to see pretty much nothing commentating the performance of iOS 6 on the 3GS. I've seen iPhone 4 and 4S threads, but literally none on the 3GS.

For me, iOS 4 was slower compared to OS 3.0, but iOS 5 brought forth a decent performance boost (app launching times did slow down, but overall smoothness of the OS was amazing, and was more enjoyable to use). I am hoping iOS 6 would be the same, but I would like some input from the users on this forum! How is iOS 6 performance compared to iOS 5 on the iPhone 3GS? Is it worth the upgrade?

Thanks to all in advance!
Click to expand...

Download geekbench and test it out, and compare it to iOS 5 / 4 scores on same device?
 
gladoscc said:
Download geekbench and test it out, and compare it to iOS 5 / 4 scores on same device?
Click to expand...


Geekbench should return the same numbers (or very close to same) regardless of the firmware. And currently, I don't have my iPhone running iOS 6 because I don't have a developer's account. It's on iOS 5.1.1 :(

Is there anyone using a 3GS running iOS 6 here??
 
terminatorp said:
Geekbench should return the same numbers (or very close to same) regardless of the firmware. And currently, I don't have my iPhone running iOS 6 because I don't have a developer's account. It's on iOS 5.1.1 :(

Is there anyone using a 3GS running iOS 6 here??
Click to expand...

I'm putting it on my old and unused 3GS tonight, I'll keep you updated.
 
terminatorp said:
That would be great! Thanks! I can't wait :p
Click to expand...

I made a video.


It was late and kind of hasty and on the spot haha so I'm sorry for that, but I hope you like it.

One thing to note, the Music app takes FOREVER to open from a clean start, if it's not already suspended in the background. It literally took around 10 seconds when I did it just now. But the rest of the phone runs as you see it in the video.

EDIT: Oh, and Shared Photo Streams are there. For me, sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't, and it didn't for whatever reason while I was filming this.
 
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pk7 said:
I made a video.

YouTube: video

It was late and kind of hasty and on the spot haha so I'm sorry for that, but I hope you like it.

One thing to note, the Music app takes FOREVER to open from a clean start, if it's not already suspended in the background. It literally took around 10 seconds when I did it just now. But the rest of the phone runs as you see it in the video.

EDIT: Oh, and Shared Photo Streams are there. For me, sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't, and it didn't for whatever reason while I was filming this.
Click to expand...

Very good video :)
 
pk7 said:
I made a video.

YouTube: video

It was late and kind of hasty and on the spot haha so I'm sorry for that, but I hope you like it.

One thing to note, the Music app takes FOREVER to open from a clean start, if it's not already suspended in the background. It literally took around 10 seconds when I did it just now. But the rest of the phone runs as you see it in the video.

EDIT: Oh, and Shared Photo Streams are there. For me, sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't, and it didn't for whatever reason while I was filming this.
Click to expand...

Thanks, i can live with: foerever == 10 seconds... ;)

I think I will wait for 4 or 5 for my 3GS, since it is my personal phone. Pretty stable for my iPad3 (dev and leisure)
 
any one kind enough to do a review on the performance of iOS 6 specifically on the iPhone 4? Compared to the 3GS it is sluggish on iOS 5 in terms of fluidity and smoothness et cetera. :eek:
 
pk7 said:
I made a video.

YouTube: video

It was late and kind of hasty and on the spot haha so I'm sorry for that, but I hope you like it.

One thing to note, the Music app takes FOREVER to open from a clean start, if it's not already suspended in the background. It literally took around 10 seconds when I did it just now. But the rest of the phone runs as you see it in the video.

EDIT: Oh, and Shared Photo Streams are there. For me, sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't, and it didn't for whatever reason while I was filming this.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your video! It's great to see you follow up on what you said. I really do hope though, that the 3GS doesn't perform as laggy as it would in the GM version. But lets hope it's a symptom of the beta software. Really though, I guess I should just be thankful Apple decided to even support the 3GS :)
 
GenesisST said:
Thanks, i can live with: foerever == 10 seconds... ;)

I think I will wait for 4 or 5 for my 3GS, since it is my personal phone. Pretty stable for my iPad3 (dev and leisure)
Click to expand...

I think I've been spoiled by the near-instant times on my current 4S :p

terminatorp said:
Thank you very much for your video! It's great to see you follow up on what you said. I really do hope though, that the 3GS doesn't perform as laggy as it would in the GM version. But lets hope it's a symptom of the beta software. Really though, I guess I should just be thankful Apple decided to even support the 3GS :)
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for your feedback on my videos, I appreciate it a lot. I, too, am hoping that the 3GS speeds up somewhat in the final version, as mine is unlocked and still useful should I travel abroad! Being able to run 4 versions of iOS is quite astounding.
 
pk7 said:
I think I've been spoiled by the near-instant times on my current 4S :p



Thanks a lot for your feedback on my videos, I appreciate it a lot. I, too, am hoping that the 3GS speeds up somewhat in the final version, as mine is unlocked and still useful should I travel abroad! Being able to run 4 versions of iOS is quite astounding.
Click to expand...

Haha sure! One thing I noted in your videos was that you noticed the lower framerates in the animations of the iPhone 4 versus the 3GS. I thought it was only myself who thought that , because I have a CDMA iPhone 4 which I have lying around the house (my brother uses it for apps only) , and I noticed that on iOS 5, it was more stuttery than the 3GS. It's good to see someone else notice that too! It kind of sucks that Apple used the same graphics card in the iPhone 4, because that's pretty much stuffing old tech into a new box...and it's evident, especially seeing that the 3GS gets pretty much all the features of iOS 6 as the iPhone 4 (which is to say, limited). I am guessing iPhone 4 owners might be pissed, as they got only a partial release of a 3rd OS update, whereas 3GS owners got all features from 3 OS updates, and most of them from a 4th major update :p

And yes, I also put importance on the 3GS mainly because it's unlocked for worldwide use as well. My iPhone 4 only works on the Verizon network in the US (locked & its CDMA)
 
terminatorp said:
It kind of sucks that Apple used the same graphics card in the iPhone 4, because that's pretty much stuffing old tech into a new box...
Click to expand...

That's one thing that the even numbered iPhone generations all have in common. They are basically last models' internals in a new pretty box. The iPhone 3G was extremely similar to the iPhone 2G on the inside. The iPhone 4 is very much like the 3Gs. The 6th generation iPhone will likely have internals along the lines of the 4S, but in a different box.

As for my 3Gs, I've found it copes with iOS 6 fairly well. Much better then the iPod Touch 4 I use for developing.
 
Intell said:
That's one thing that the even numbered iPhone generations all have in common. They are basically last models' internals in a new pretty box. The iPhone 3G was extremely similar to the iPhone 2G on the inside. The iPhone 4 is very much like the 3Gs. The 6th generation iPhone will likely have internals along the lines of the 4S, but in a different box.

As for my 3Gs, I've found it copes with iOS 6 fairly well. Much better then the iPod Touch 4 I use for developing.
Click to expand...

Ah that does make sense, good points. Concerning your 3GS on iOS 6, does it's performance look better or worse than iOS 5? I know it's a beta, but I hear people saying that the beta is much more polished than was iOS 5 beta. And are the animations for going in/out of apps smooth and refined? And have you had any low memory errors on the device?
 
The animations are less jumpy on the 3Gs then the iPod Touch 4. About the same as on iOS 5. The 3Gs will always have low memory errors because it has a finite amount of ram as will the iPhone 4S and the iPad 3. Nothing at all to worry about.
 
Is it possible that the number of apps on the phone will affect the performance? I noticed that in the video, the 3GS had alot of folders with like hundreds of apps. My 3GS only has like 14 apps(yea I know it's little!), & it runs iOS 5 quite smoothly. Maybe iOS 6 did affect the performance, but I was just wondering if the number of apps made a difference there...
 
It's been awhile, so bump?

Thanks to all the others who posted on this thread for their experiences. It's been more than a month since I initially created this thread, so I'd like to hear from more recent experiences with later beta versions on the 3GS. Is there anyone out there using a 3GS on iOS 6 beta? If you use an iPhone 4, post your experience here too, as the 3GS and 4 are relatively similar in performance.
 
I would be very interested to read some performance feedback now that we are nearing the end of the beta programme for iOS 6 to see whether opinions changed/crystallised with the later versions.

My sister has a 3GS and is always looking to me for recommendation where technology is concerned. Would those who have experienced the performance already recommend a move to version 6, or should she stay on 5.1.1?

Thank you.

PS – @pk7 by pure coincidence it seems I may have asked this question on your YouTube video yesterday.
 
CallOfDuty said:
any one kind enough to do a review on the performance of iOS 6 specifically on the iPhone 4? Compared to the 3GS it is sluggish on iOS 5 in terms of fluidity and smoothness et cetera. :eek:
Click to expand...

The iPhone 4 is sluggish on iOS 5 compared to the 3GS?

That's the way I picked up your comment quoted above.

I don't have my 4 anymore, sold it and got a 4S three months ago, but iOS 5 is not slower on the 4 compared to the 3GS.
 
WeegieMac said:
The iPhone 4 is sluggish on iOS 5 compared to the 3GS?

That's the way I picked up your comment quoted above.

I don't have my 4 anymore, sold it and got a 4S three months ago, but iOS 5 is not slower on the 4 compared to the 3GS.
Click to expand...

I meant the UI performance. In terms of raw performance, the iPhone 4 still does things much faster than the 3GS. What I'm having problems is with the UI performance. The iPhone 4 seems pretty choppy in the UI animations and fluidity compared to the 3GS.
 
I've been testing Beta 4 on a 3GS too, and it seems a little faster than iOS 5 on the same phone. So I would definitely upgrade. Haven't tested it on an iPhone 4 though.

On a 4S it's of course much faster.
 
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