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iPad 3 on iOS 8.1- How is it?

lovewd

lovewd

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 28, 2013
314
244
The title says it all. I'm wondering whether I should update my iPad from 7.1.2 or not

Edit- I updated and it's fine. Some people have been having issues, but I guess I'm exempt from those issues.
 
Last edited:
Safari is still slow for me. Chokes up every so often Also. There's slight lag a whilst typing this post. I wish I could go backs to iOS 7
 
Yeah iOS 8 was very slow on the 3 and almost unbearable. I was hoping they made some improvements on 8.1 for the 3.
 
It's ****. As was iOS 8.0 and 8.0.2 and even iOS 7. They aren't going to make any improvements for a 3 gen old iPad
 
2IS said:
It's ****. As was iOS 8.0 and 8.0.2 and even iOS 7. They aren't going to make any improvements for a 3 gen old iPad
Click to expand...

Yes it sucks. But it's not just iPad 3 that is still laggy in iOS 8.1. iPad mini 2 is also still laggy and choppy in transition animations in iOS 8.1. Apple didn't address any performance issues. They'll probably take like 6 months since iOS 8 release date to make it smoother, just like they did for 7.1.
 
Mine sucked right after the update. But I reserved comment and judgment until after Spotlight had a few hours to do its thing. It ran like a dog rigght away.

About 5 hours after the update, my VZW LTE iPad is running 8.1 just fine on LTE or wifi. I'm a happy camper. FWIW, I also own a VZW iPad Air - both are quite usable.
 
8 slowed the device and wifi sucked. Would get 3 mBits/second out of 12 DSL. Did the 8.1 and am getting 12 now. I have the ability to answer the phone and use SMS text relay. I would upgrade.
 
Just upgraded my 3Gb wifi +3g. ~67Mb download.
It now seems more fluid to me, and I'm happy with the result. But then... I do have a new Ipad Air 2 128Gb in a truck heading my way ;-)))
 
One word: Acceptable
Although, the keyboard lags unacceptably sometimes. I've just fiddled with some convenience settings to see if I can reduce this.
 
Ledgem said:
Compared to iOS 8.0 and 8.02, 8.1 feels a bit smoother and more responsive.
Click to expand...

That's the placebo effect they added to 8.1

That said, if you turn the option on to reduce transparency, it improves performance a nice bit on iPad 3. It's uglier, but more usable.
 
2IS said:
That's the placebo effect they added to 8.1
Click to expand...
Animations such as returning to the home screen don't stutter like they used to (which was seemingly all the time), and the iPad now properly adjusts the screen when you change orientation. Previously, it would either take forever, or I had to flick the orientation lock on and then off again.
 
This is weird. First of all, iOS 8.0.2 was horrible on my iPad 3. I "tried" to upgrade to 8.1 today. But both times, it started the upgrade process (download and verify update etc) but it didn't actually install 8.1.

So I'm still on 8.0.2 but I tried updating twice. But my iPad 3 is WAY more usable now before I attempted the update to 8.1. No idea what happened but iPad 3 is now working fine on 8.0.2 when previously the lags were driving me crazy.
 
FIX! Got the Safari keyboard lag to near acceptable. :)
When on a Java page with lots of text fields, when typing in one it would lag by seconds.

I exited Safari
Went to Settings > Safari > Advanced and turned off Java
I then removed Safari from the task switcher
Restarted Safari and Exited
Removed Safari again from the task switcher
Went to Settings > Safari > Advanced and turned on Java
Restarted Safari
(the above steps may possibly be reduced)

Now my iPad 3 is typing noticeably faster in Safari (not quite snappy though.)
 
It's really better than iOS8.0.2.
Safari has been improved (faster, smoother, no stall when touching a link).
There are lags, it's not butter smooth and slower than iOS7.1, but it's a real improvement compared to iOS8.
 
So far 8.1 on my iPad 3 feels okay (updated through iTunes). Unless you A/B 2 actual iPads with different OS versions, it seems like it can be hard to tell for sure the difference. It wasn't perfect before on iOS 7, so if/when I get some lag on iOS 8 I don't know if it's much worse than before, or about the same.


Just for kicks, I just did an 'Erase all settings'. We'll see, but so far I am fine with iOS 8.1.
 
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