iPad Air 8.1.1 Performance Tip (Reduce Transparency)

[_Refurbished_]

Performance on my iPad Air has always been "slightly" slower than my previous 5s and my 6. iPads have to render more pixels than iPhones, so this is no surprise.

I decided to do a clean install of iOS 8.1.1 to regain some of the speed I was missing.

While playing with various settings, I decided to turn on "Reduce Transparency". To my delight, I've noticed a boost in OS animations. Here are some examples:

- I can now click Safari's omnibar and there is a clean transition to my available bookmarks. Previously, there would be a slight delay and a jerky animation.

- Messages scrolling seems quicker

- Safari scrolling seems, eh, snappier

- The keyboard appears more quickly and I experience less "typing lag"

- Spotlight search is now seamless

I have a meticulous eye for this kind of stuff, so don't be alarmed if you don't notice a difference. I, for one, am happy I experimented with my settings to figure this out. My iPad feels similar to the iPad Air 2 I toyed with at the Apple Store.

Anyone else notice an improvement with Reduce Transparency? I haven't tried, but I'd bet this works on other iOS 8 variants.

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

While I do experience notably better performance turning off transparency on my iPhone 4s, I really don't like the look of it.

 

[XTheLancerX]

While I do experience notably better performance turning off transparency on my iPhone 4s, I really don't like the look of it.

This. I have known of the performance benefits related to reduce transparency for a while now, I just have always hated the butt-ugly look of it. I've tried to live with it on my mini 2 in order to get a nice and smooth experience but I just can't do it.

 

[Paddle1]

It's not worth it, if Apple designed the OS to have resource-intensive blur they need to make hardware that can handle it.

 

[steve62388]

Performance on my iPad Air has always been "slightly" slower than my previous 5s and my 6. iPads have to render more pixels than iPhones, so this is no surprise.

I decided to do a clean install of iOS 8.1.1 to regain some of the speed I was missing.

While playing with various settings, I decided to turn on "Reduce Transparency". To my delight, I've noticed a boost in OS animations. Here are some examples:

- I can now click Safari's omnibar and there is a clean transition to my available bookmarks. Previously, there would be a slight delay and a jerky animation.

- Messages scrolling seems quicker

- Safari scrolling seems, eh, snappier

- The keyboard appears more quickly and I experience less "typing lag"

- Spotlight search is now seamless

I have a meticulous eye for this kind of stuff, so don't be alarmed if you don't notice a difference. I, for one, am happy I experimented with my settings to figure this out. My iPad feels similar to the iPad Air 2 I toyed with at the Apple Store.

Anyone else notice an improvement with Reduce Transparency? I haven't tried, but I'd bet this works on other iOS 8 variants.

Hmm. This is an interesting tip. You should provide instructions on how to make these changes.

 

[asleep]

Hmm. This is an interesting tip. You should provide instructions on how to make these changes.

You can turn it off in Settings>General>Accessibility>Increase Contrast>Reduce Transparency>Switch to On.

 

[steve62388]

You can turn it off in Settings>General>Accessibility>Increase Contrast>Reduce Transparency>Switch to On.

Which brings me to my next point. iOS settings have got more complicated with each release. I consider myself a geek but I start to lose track with every new revision.

Are there any user interface experts here? How do simplify all this stuff and keep everyone happy? Or is it just a case of setting the defaults and be done with it?

 

[oldmacs]

I think its ridiculous that the iPad Air needs settings turned off to run iOS 8 well.

My iPad 2 needed this for iOS 7 when it was initially released but by iOS 7.1 it ran equally as well with contrast + motion turned on or off. (Of course now in iOS 8 it helps a lot).

Hopefully 8.2 fixes these problems!!

 

[Paddle1]

Which brings me to my next point. iOS settings have got more complicated with each release. I consider myself a geek but I start to lose track with every new revision.

Are there any user interface experts here? How do simplify all this stuff and keep everyone happy? Or is it just a case of setting the defaults and be done with it?

The Settings app is a bit confusing but if you memorize the locations of various things it's okay. Also this isn't new, Increase Contrast was added in iOS 7.0.

 

[RebornProphet]

Unacceptable, but glad to meet someone else with this "meticulous eye" that I also have for UI fps and fluidity.

I had my Air on 8.1 replaced by Apple for an Air with 7.1.2. I cited slow WiFi which I had, but the reality was that I couldn't handle the occasional slow animations and stutters.

There are numerous transparencies on iOS 7.1.2 and the Air handles them fine. For me Apple want to gimp the Air so that side by side with the Air 2 in store you notice a difference when in reality there's very little between both tablets in terms of performance RIGHT NOW. That's not to say there won't be in a years time when developers begin targeting the A8X chip, but run any of the recent apps on both tablets and they're identical bar a second or two quicker loading time.

I won't update this Air to iOS 8 any time soon. Delighted to be back on 7.1.2 and the smoothness that goes with it.

 

[Imory]

It's just terrible coding, or a dose of obsolescence. Whatever they'd like to call it, it doesn't excuse the fact that it runs worse than it should. You shouldn't have to resort to that, but I guess people will appreciate any advice they can get to make their device run better.

An atrociously bad release by Apple and there are no excuses for it. So much for keeping that 60 fps experience. It all went down the drain with iOS 8.

 

[afsnyder]

It's just terrible coding, or a dose of obsolescence. Whatever they'd like to call it, it doesn't excuse the fact that it runs worse than it should. You shouldn't have to resort to that, but I guess people will appreciate any advice they can get to make their device run better.

An atrociously bad release by Apple and there are no excuses for it. So much for keeping that 60 fps experience. It all went down the drain with iOS 8.

Apple has never released an OS that was bug free or nearly bug free. iOS 4 had major issues, 5 did too. 6 less, but there was hardly much added and there was Apple Maps.... 7 ofc and 8 just as much although most were squashed in a month following the iPad releases.

 

[Imory]

Apple has never released an OS that was bug free or nearly bug free. iOS 4 had major issues, 5 did too. 6 less, but there was hardly much added and there was Apple Maps.... 7 ofc and 8 just as much although most were squashed in a month following the iPad releases.

Not as bad as iOS 8. I can't ever remember them releasing a brand new phone delivered with a new iOS which actually lags and drops frames. It's by far one of the worst releases they've ever had and we are still in December, with those issues.

 

[deviant]

Not as bad as iOS 8. I can't ever remember them releasing a brand new phone delivered with a new iOS which actually lags and drops frames. It's by far one of the worst releases they've ever had and we are still in December, with those issues.

mine doesn't. what are you talking about

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I think its ridiculous that the iPad Air needs settings turned off to run iOS 8 well.

it doesn't need that. you just can do that.

 

[Imory]

mine doesn't. what are you talking about

There are a couple of examples. The easiest one to replicate would be the weather app which is a lagfest. Switching between detailed view and list view between several cities will significantly drop frames on all devices. Never happened on iOS 7.

 

[oldmacs]

mine doesn't. what are you talking about

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it doesn't need that. you just can do that.

For decent performance you do. I was using an iPad Air with the animations on yesterday and it was lag-fest. Pages would pause for a second before loading, gesture closing apps would stutter. THERE SHOULD BE NO STUTTERING. iOS 8 is simply a poorly coded OS, particularly on Retina iPads.

 

[deviant]

For decent performance you do. I was using an iPad Air with the animations on yesterday and it was lag-fest. Pages would pause for a second before loading, gesture closing apps would stutter. THERE SHOULD BE NO STUTTERING. iOS 8 is simply a poorly coded OS, particularly on Retina iPads.

mine doesn't do that and doesn't lag. it actually feels faster than iOS 7. but i noticed that a lot of times the same hardware doesn't really behave the same way, at least according to this forum.

 

[jonnyb098]

It's not worth it, if Apple designed the OS to have resource-intensive blur they need to make hardware that can handle it.

Yeah it's called an iPad air 2

Pretty smooth

 

[fiveainone]

Yeah it's called an iPad air 2

Pretty smooth

Still not buttery smooth like iOS 7. Spotlight rotation is acceptable but not traditional iOS fluidity.

 

[Dino F]

Performance on my iPad Air has always been "slightly" slower than my previous 5s and my 6. iPads have to render more pixels than iPhones, so this is no surprise.

I decided to do a clean install of iOS 8.1.1 to regain some of the speed I was missing.

While playing with various settings, I decided to turn on "Reduce Transparency". To my delight, I've noticed a boost in OS animations. Here are some examples:

- I can now click Safari's omnibar and there is a clean transition to my available bookmarks. Previously, there would be a slight delay and a jerky animation.

- Messages scrolling seems quicker

- Safari scrolling seems, eh, snappier

- The keyboard appears more quickly and I experience less "typing lag"

- Spotlight search is now seamless

I have a meticulous eye for this kind of stuff, so don't be alarmed if you don't notice a difference. I, for one, am happy I experimented with my settings to figure this out. My iPad feels similar to the iPad Air 2 I toyed with at the Apple Store.

Anyone else notice an improvement with Reduce Transparency? I haven't tried, but I'd bet this works on other iOS 8 variants.

I have to agree with your recommendation above and I will also add, that improvement is greatly increased (certainly on MY iPad 2), if you also follow the below:

• Select the 'Reduce Motion' option(turns off all the zooming in/out of folders/apps animations)
  
• Turn off 'Background Refresh'

 

[oldmacs]

I have to agree with your recommendation above and I will also add, that improvement is greatly increased (certainly on MY iPad 2), if you also follow the below:

• Select the 'Reduce Motion' option(turns off all the zooming in/out of folders/apps animations)
  
• Turn off 'Background Refresh'

I find reduce motion helps more than transparency...

Also turn off as many notifcations + location services as possible (Especially pointless system ones)

 

[jonnyb098]

Still not buttery smooth like iOS 7. Spotlight rotation is acceptable but not traditional iOS fluidity.

Spotlight is the only thing not buttery smooth. Control center, notifications, quick reply, rotating keyboard in messages, Safari are all damn near or buttery smooth for me.

 

[afsnyder]

Not as bad as iOS 8. I can't ever remember them releasing a brand new phone delivered with a new iOS which actually lags and drops frames. It's by far one of the worst releases they've ever had and we are still in December, with those issues.

Go back in time dude

 

[seble]

Spotlight is the only thing not buttery smooth. Control center, notifications, quick reply, rotating keyboard in messages, Safari are all damn near or buttery smooth for me.

Weather too.

 

[Imory]

Go back in time dude

I stand by my statement. You're welcome to mention one example where Apple released a new iPhone that suffered from severe lag with the iOS it came with.