iOS 6 performance on iPhone 3GS?

[WeegieMac]

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.

Sorry, they're not smoother on the 3GS vs 4. I've stood with my old iPhone 4 side by side with a 3GS in the Apple store in Glasgow when I was considering an iPhone for my wife, and the performance of the 3GS in the UI kit department was abysmal. It seemed slower, like turning on FakeClockUp and setting it to one setting BELOW the norm. I ended up getting my wife the 4, even though she didn't need the features of the 4, but I wasn't putting her through the hell of using a phone THAT slow.

I found the best way to make an iPhone 4 as smooth as a 4S in the UI kit was to only use 3 rows of icons (3 rows + 1 app on the 4th row was ok) and restrict folders to 4 apps per folder.

But the 3GS isn't smoother than the 4 on iOS 5, and it sure as hell won't be the case with iOS 6. I actually have no idea why the 3GS is being given iOS 6 given that the feature set is further reduced. Just get the new stock wallpaper using a Google search and away you go, because that's as much as you get that's worthwhile.

Thankfully the 3GS will be killed off on Wednesday.

 

[Eddy Munn]

It works well, much better than iOS 5, on par to iOS 4, but I'm finally making the step up to a new smartphone this week, depending on what Apple bring to the table.

 

[kannesss]

Do 3GS's even run everything from the app store without crashing?

 

[viperGTS]

Sorry, they're not smoother on the 3GS vs 4. I've stood with my old iPhone 4 side by side with a 3GS in the Apple store in Glasgow when I was considering an iPhone for my wife, and the performance of the 3GS in the UI kit department was abysmal. It seemed slower, like turning on FakeClockUp and setting it to one setting BELOW the norm. I ended up getting my wife the 4, even though she didn't need the features of the 4, but I wasn't putting her through the hell of using a phone THAT slow.

I found the best way to make an iPhone 4 as smooth as a 4S in the UI kit was to only use 3 rows of icons (3 rows + 1 app on the 4th row was ok) and restrict folders to 4 apps per folder.

But the 3GS isn't smoother than the 4 on iOS 5, and it sure as hell won't be the case with iOS 6. I actually have no idea why the 3GS is being given iOS 6 given that the feature set is further reduced. Just get the new stock wallpaper using a Google search and away you go, because that's as much as you get that's worthwhile.

Thankfully the 3GS will be killed off on Wednesday.

Sorry, but the 3GS you were using at that Apple Store must've been faulty.

There's no escaping the fact that the 3GS pretty much outperforms the 4 in graphics all around. 3GS and 4 use the same graphics.

Quite the ignorant thing to say that the 3GS is getting nothing but a new wallpaper. If you did some research you would know that the 3GS is actually getting quite a bit of new features.

 

[Intell]

There's no escaping the fact that the 3GS pretty much outperforms the 4 in graphics all around. 3GS and 4 use the same graphics.

Quite true. The 3Gs out preforms any A4 based iDevice when tested against each other in real world and benchmark graphical tests. In some cases, the 3Gs out preforms the iPhone 4 as much as three times better and the iPad 1 as much as six times.

 

[WeegieMac]

Sorry, but the 3GS you were using at that Apple Store must've been faulty.

There's no escaping the fact that the 3GS pretty much outperforms the 4 in graphics all around. 3GS and 4 use the same graphics.

Quite the ignorant thing to say that the 3GS is getting nothing but a new wallpaper. If you did some research you would know that the 3GS is actually getting quite a bit of new features.

The 3GS is not smoother than the 4.

I am aware they use the same graphics chip, but the 4 has double the RAM and a far faster CPU.


And I didn't say the 3GS was only getting a new wallpaper. I said you might as well just put the new wallpaper on your 3GS because the lack of meaningful iOS 6 features combined with the ones you will get which will run slowly means you'd be better off just sticking with the wallpaper. That's called cynicism.

People need to let go of the 3GS, anyone sticking with it and defending it to the hilt is almost embarrassing. An iPhone 4 will drop to free in the US and the 3GS booted come Wednesday, no excuse not to upgrade to something newer somewhere along the iPhone line up.

----------

Quite true. The 3Gs out preforms any A4 based iDevice when tested against each other in real world and benchmark graphical tests. In some cases, the 3Gs out preforms the iPhone 4 as much as three times better and the iPad 1 as much as six times.

Yes, in benchmark tests that's quite true. On paper.

But using iOS day in and day out, saying that the 3GS is smoother when scrolling pages, the app opening/closing animations, opening folders, etc is wrong because it's simply not the case.

 

[wharzhee]

Now the thread is benchmarking iPhone 3GS on iOS6 with iPhone 4, huh?

I'm just dumbfounded at the extent it will go.

 

[KeanosMagicHat]

Now the thread is benchmarking iPhone 3GS on iOS6 with iPhone 4, huh?.

It's a worse tangent than that wharzhee, it's iOS 5 that's being debated.

Anyway, thanks to pk7, MythicFrost, Intell, ManuCH & Eddy Munn it seems that not only can the iPhone 3GS handle the upgrade to iOS 6, it is actually performing better than it did on iOS 5.1.1

 

[Intell]

Yes, in benchmark tests that's quite true. On paper.

But using iOS day in and day out, saying that the 3GS is smoother when scrolling pages, the app opening/closing animations, opening folders, etc is wrong because it's simply not the case.

And real world. In most graphical games, the 3Gs gets much better framerates than the 4. In 98% of the GUI animations, better framerate. Double the RAM doesn't help the GPU at all. Neither does an extra 200Mhz. Then there's the iPod Touch 4G and the iPad 1, the 3Gs beats it out in every graphical test. They both show that the faster CPU does not equate to better framerates. The iPhone 4 shows that more RAM and a faster CPU doesn't equate to faster framerates either.

 

[WeegieMac]

And real world. In most graphical games, the 3Gs gets much better framerates than the 4. In 98% of the GUI animations, better framerate. Double the RAM doesn't help the GPU at all. Neither does an extra 200Mhz. Then there's the iPod Touch 4G and the iPad 1, the 3Gs beats it out in every graphical test. They both show that the faster CPU does not equate to better framerates. The iPhone 4 shows that more RAM and a faster CPU doesn't equate to faster framerates either.

The 3GS is not smoother than iPhone 4 in terms of iOS UI animations. Use one side by side, the 3GS does not make the 4 look stuttering or slow.

Anyway, why the hell do I care, I have a 4S now. To those who still have them, enjoy your 3GS's.

 

[Intell]

The 3GS is not smoother than iPhone 4 in terms of iOS UI animations. Use one side by side, the 3GS does not make the 4 look stuttering or slow.

Anyway, why the hell do I care, I have a 4S now. To those who still have them, enjoy your 3GS's.

iOS animations is one of the higher framerate things on the 3Gs. And remember, higher framerate doesn't always mean smoother. The 3Gs displays its frames faster, but the 4 has more frames per animation because of the retina screen. The end result is a smoother look on the 4, but faster frame drawing on the 3Gs.

I do love my old bootrom 3Gs. Untethered on every iOS version the day it drops. Can't wait to have one of the few untethered iOS 6 jailbreaks. With real boot logos and verbose boot.

 

[CallOfDuty]

Sorry, they're not smoother on the 3GS vs 4. I've stood with my old iPhone 4 side by side with a 3GS in the Apple store in Glasgow when I was considering an iPhone for my wife, and the performance of the 3GS in the UI kit department was abysmal. It seemed slower, like turning on FakeClockUp and setting it to one setting BELOW the norm. I ended up getting my wife the 4, even though she didn't need the features of the 4, but I wasn't putting her through the hell of using a phone THAT slow.

I found the best way to make an iPhone 4 as smooth as a 4S in the UI kit was to only use 3 rows of icons (3 rows + 1 app on the 4th row was ok) and restrict folders to 4 apps per folder.

But the 3GS isn't smoother than the 4 on iOS 5, and it sure as hell won't be the case with iOS 6. I actually have no idea why the 3GS is being given iOS 6 given that the feature set is further reduced. Just get the new stock wallpaper using a Google search and away you go, because that's as much as you get that's worthwhile.

Thankfully the 3GS will be killed off on Wednesday.

That's what I did on my iPhone 4 - I simply had 4 rows but however the 4th row only had 1 app. This makes the UI animations and the transitions as you go in and out of any app smoother. Anymore apps on the homescreen more than that equals to a visible UI stuttering as compared to the 3GS.

I personally do own an old 3GS and I'm able to test it out by myself. Same iOS version, same number of apps and the same backup and the 3GS is pretty much smoother in the UI fluidity department. Quitting apps back to the folders screen when you launch the app from folders is way more fluid on the 3GS than the 4.

I guess the iPhone 4 owners are pretty much BUMMED by many problems, including myself. That includes the overblown antenna gate (its still a problem, though), the home button, and for me, the fluidity of iOS on it. Initially, it wasn't a big problem up until iOS 4.2 when the problem peaked. iOS 5 'kind of' addressed the problem a little but you still can notice the differences.

That's why one of my first threads on MR forums that I've posted quite long ago is to ask others whether they've experienced the same problem and whether it will be solved in iOS 6. I strongly hope and believe that all Apple needs to do is to tweak the UI and the codes a little bit and this will solve the problem for the iPhone 4. Of course, by then, I would be preparing to line up and buy the new iPhone 5.

 

[WeegieMac]

That's what I did on my iPhone 4 - I simply had 4 rows but however the 4th row only had 1 app. This makes the UI animations and the transitions as you go in and out of any app smoother. Anymore apps on the homescreen more than that equals to a visible UI stuttering as compared to the 3GS.

I personally do own an old 3GS and I'm able to test it out by myself. Same iOS version, same number of apps and the same backup and the 3GS is pretty much smoother in the UI fluidity department. Quitting apps back to the folders screen when you launch the app from folders is way more fluid on the 3GS than the 4.

I guess the iPhone 4 owners are pretty much BUMMED by many problems, including myself. That includes the overblown antenna gate (its still a problem, though), the home button, and for me, the fluidity of iOS on it. Initially, it wasn't a big problem up until iOS 4.2 when the problem peaked. iOS 5 'kind of' addressed the problem a little but you still can notice the differences.

That's why one of my first threads on MR forums that I've posted quite long ago is to ask others whether they've experienced the same problem and whether it will be solved in iOS 6. I strongly hope and believe that all Apple needs to do is to tweak the UI and the codes a little bit and this will solve the problem for the iPhone 4. Of course, by then, I would be preparing to line up and buy the new iPhone 5.

As I said, I sold my 4 three months ago and got a 4S on contract. So it's not like my comments are some kind of vendetta from a 4 owner in denial.

I knew the 5 was coming, but I wouldn't get a 5 for free on O2 with unlimited minutes and texts to all UK landlines and networks as well as 1GB of data, all for £36pm.

And I also ended up with £270 in my back pocket.

 

[pk7]

Looking back on that video I'm embarrased by the terrible quality and camerawork. I'll probably remove it soon anyways to load up the final release on the 3GS and review that as it's the one that will be making its way to people's phones soon. And I'll do it properly this time

 

[terminatorp]

Farewell to the 3GS

Looking back on that video I'm embarrased by the terrible quality and camerawork. I'll probably remove it soon anyways to load up the final release on the 3GS and review that as it's the one that will be making its way to people's phones soon. And I'll do it properly this time

Don't delete the old video! But do a new one if you can I plan on doing one as well, with the release of iOS 6. But of course, I will be lining up to get an iPhone 5 (or whatever it is called) as well.

It seems that rumors state that the 3GS will be discontinued tomorrow. This means that pretty soon, software support will be dropped for it as well. It will be a sad day when that happens, but unfortunately, it will be necessary for the sake of mobile advancement.

Farewell to the 3GS, possibly the greatest phone built by Apple, in terms of hardware, which for more than 3 years, have remained quite timeless. Being able to play Infinity Blade 2, while the previous gen iPhone 3G couldn't even play Infinity Blade 1, is amazing. The 3GS shall be missed, and forever remembered.

Despite not being sold by Apple from tomorrow, I am strongly certain we will be seeing 3GS's lying around for at least a year or two more, in the hands of the youth and the elderly, still serving it's purpose.

 

[terminatorp]

Sorry, they're not smoother on the 3GS vs 4. I've stood with my old iPhone 4 side by side with a 3GS in the Apple store in Glasgow when I was considering an iPhone for my wife, and the performance of the 3GS in the UI kit department was abysmal. It seemed slower, like turning on FakeClockUp and setting it to one setting BELOW the norm. I ended up getting my wife the 4, even though she didn't need the features of the 4, but I wasn't putting her through the hell of using a phone THAT slow.

I found the best way to make an iPhone 4 as smooth as a 4S in the UI kit was to only use 3 rows of icons (3 rows + 1 app on the 4th row was ok) and restrict folders to 4 apps per folder.

But the 3GS isn't smoother than the 4 on iOS 5, and it sure as hell won't be the case with iOS 6. I actually have no idea why the 3GS is being given iOS 6 given that the feature set is further reduced. Just get the new stock wallpaper using a Google search and away you go, because that's as much as you get that's worthwhile.

Thankfully the 3GS will be killed off on Wednesday.

That might be in your experience. The 3GS has been widely reported by most users across forums to have smooth experience on iOS 5.

As far as feature set goes in iOS 6, the 3GS does get a lot of features left out, but so does the iPhone 4. Infact, at this point, the 3GS is only missing one feature from iOS 6 that the iPhone 4 has, and that is offline reading lists. For a 3 year old device, that is amazing support. For the iPhone 4, being a 2 year old device, that is actually quite miserable support, given Apple's support for the 3GS.

The 3GS's hardware is more than capable of handling it's weight, while the 4's hardware is just enough in some cases.

----------

Do 3GS's even run everything from the app store without crashing?

Pretty much all the apps on the app store list the 3GS as the minimum requirement for downloads (meaning iOS 4.3 or 5). If an app does crash, it will crash on the iPod Touch 4th gen and iPad 1 first, before it does on the 3GS, since those devices are more ram-constrained than the 3GS, even though they are newer.

 

[Purant]

iOS animations is one of the higher framerate things on the 3Gs. And remember, higher framerate doesn't always mean smoother. The 3Gs displays its frames faster, but the 4 has more frames per animation because of the retina screen. The end result is a smoother look on the 4, but faster frame drawing on the 3Gs.

Mmmm.... No.

The 4 struggles a lot because it has fillrate problems. Having the same GPU as the 3GS was really cheapskating from apple. The device is really struggling to manage all those pixels most of the time.

 

[CallOfDuty]

As I said, I sold my 4 three months ago and got a 4S on contract. So it's not like my comments are some kind of vendetta from a 4 owner in denial.

I knew the 5 was coming, but I wouldn't get a 5 for free on O2 with unlimited minutes and texts to all UK landlines and networks as well as 1GB of data, all for £36pm.

And I also ended up with £270 in my back pocket.

Wow. The iPhone is free while you pay about like 36 euros? That is some crazy deal carriers have over at europe. I guess the market there is too competitive and saturated that they had to do this. I really hope AT&T would have something like that too.
*Extreme Envy*

 

[Intell]

Mmmm.... No.

The 4 struggles a lot because it has fillrate problems. Having the same GPU as the 3GS was really cheapskating from apple. The device is really struggling to manage all those pixels most of the time.

Have you ever looked at iOS' animations frame by frame? The retina animations have 2-3 times the amount of frames that need to be rendered. That's why they may look smoother, but also take slightly longer. Having the underpowered GPU doesn't help either.

 

[Purant]

Have you ever looked at iOS' animations frame by frame? The retina animations have 2-3 times the amount of frames that need to be rendered. That's why they may look smoother, but also take slightly longer. Having the underpowered GPU doesn't help either.

It's no more than 60fps either way...

 

[pk7]

Don't delete the old video! But do a new one if you can I plan on doing one as well, with the release of iOS 6. But of course, I will be lining up to get an iPhone 5 (or whatever it is called) as well.

It seems that rumors state that the 3GS will be discontinued tomorrow. This means that pretty soon, software support will be dropped for it as well. It will be a sad day when that happens, but unfortunately, it will be necessary for the sake of mobile advancement.

Farewell to the 3GS, possibly the greatest phone built by Apple, in terms of hardware, which for more than 3 years, have remained quite timeless. Being able to play Infinity Blade 2, while the previous gen iPhone 3G couldn't even play Infinity Blade 1, is amazing. The 3GS shall be missed, and forever remembered.

Despite not being sold by Apple from tomorrow, I am strongly certain we will be seeing 3GS's lying around for at least a year or two more, in the hands of the youth and the elderly, still serving it's purpose.

Haha, I thought I was the only one who would actually miss the 3GS. Glad to see that I'm not alone. It was actually a marvel that it lasted 3.5 years and got as many updates as it did.

In the future, I think all iPhone models will be on the shelves for 3 years and receive 3 major iOS updates, due to the new selling strategy by Apple. The 3GS was the one that set the trend though. Very innovative.

The iPhone 3GS was probably my favorite iPhone that I've ever owned. Not only did I get one out of pure chance, but it was such a step up from the 3G that I had in every imaginable aspect, and it greatly increased my respect for Apple because of how they handled the situation. Basically what happened was that they couldn't find a replacement for my 3G, so they gave me a free step up to the 3GS. And it still runs perfectly to this day.

I may sound like such a hardcore nerd right now. While I don't value a phone over human beings and life in general, as a fan of Apple products, it was great to see the 3GS's long ride.

It was a moment seeing this on Wikipedia for the first time in 3 years:

 

[Zmijutin]

Just installed iOS 6 on 3Gs, and I have to say it's a bit slower than iOS 5. Not by much. Biggest problem is lack in RAM. 256MB is really not that much.

 

[shulingling]

Installed iOS 6 GM on iPhone 3gs. quit sluggish but manageable.

 

[terminatorp]

Haha, I thought I was the only one who would actually miss the 3GS. Glad to see that I'm not alone. It was actually a marvel that it lasted 3.5 years and got as many updates as it did.

In the future, I think all iPhone models will be on the shelves for 3 years and receive 3 major iOS updates, due to the new selling strategy by Apple. The 3GS was the one that set the trend though. Very innovative.

The iPhone 3GS was probably my favorite iPhone that I've ever owned. Not only did I get one out of pure chance, but it was such a step up from the 3G that I had in every imaginable aspect, and it greatly increased my respect for Apple because of how they handled the situation. Basically what happened was that they couldn't find a replacement for my 3G, so they gave me a free step up to the 3GS. And it still runs perfectly to this day.

I may sound like such a hardcore nerd right now. While I don't value a phone over human beings and life in general, as a fan of Apple products, it was great to see the 3GS's long ride.

It was a moment seeing this on Wikipedia for the first time in 3 years:

Coincidentially, I wrote the bottom half of that Wikipedia article, concerning continued support on iO6 6 And yes, it was a sad thing to see that, and also, seeing that there is no longer a product page for the 3GS on the apple website

I hope my iPhone 5 lasts as long as my 3GS support wise, as this isn't an "S" model, so it's performance isn't probably as big of a step up from the 4S than was from the 4.

----------

Just installed iOS 6 on 3Gs, and I have to say it's a bit slower than iOS 5. Not by much. Biggest problem is lack in RAM. 256MB is really not that much.

By sluggish are you talking about app launching times or are you talking about animations and navigation? Please make it more specific, as this doesn't sound very encouraging to me to upgrade to iOS 6 Might as well stick with my jail broken iOS 5

If anyone else installs the GM, be sure to talk in more depth on the performance , as it seems that this is the only thread on the web at this point (seems like to me) that is talking specifically on performance of iOS 6 on the 3GS.

 

[Beeplance]

Found a video on youtube about iOS 6 GM build on the iPhone 3GS. It's not in English though, but if anyone wants to see the smoothness of the final build software, this might be a pretty good gauge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=298FKYi5owM