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iPhone 5 is still useful

eyoungren said:
I would too. I set my son's 4S up with 9.3.5 and there's no way I'd use it myself.

My son, on the other hand not having used an iDevice from iOS 5 up to iOS 9 has no idea so he's perfectly happy with it. :rolleyes:
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I guess he is just happy to have an iPhone. My 6S has been acting up in the past 3 days, so I've been using my 4S and I don't really miss any speed differences, because iOS 6 runs so well.

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ThunderMasterMind said:
I guess he is just happy to have an iPhone.
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Yes. And that was the point. It's an iPhone and it does for him what we need it to do. I need him to be focused on schoolwork and getting good grades while not being a nuisance to his teachers. The limitations of the iPhone 4s and his data plan do that effectively for us.

And we can get a hold of him if we need to.

At the same time there is enough room for him to use a few apps he really likes, take pictures and email and text his friends. I wanted to give him at least some joy. Otherwise, we'd have just found some cheapo flip phone and that'd be the end of it.

He also maintins some shred of credibility amongst his peers. It may be an older iPhone, but it IS an iPhone. It won't embarass him too much. :D
 
Iphone 5 in slate color was my first iPhone and i still use it. Caseless since the beginning, it now has a personal patina, and is like a good old friend. In fact i could imagine using it for the next 10 years, as i dont´ see any big new technology coming to smartphones in the future i really need.
Remember the days when the most advanced cellphones where the ones that were the smallest and lightest? On smarthpone side, i think the iphone 5 design was the peak here.
 
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davidrichter said:
Iphone 5 in slate color was my first iPhone and i still use it. Caseless since the beginning, it now has a personal patina, and is like a good old friend. In fact i could imagine using it for the next 10 years, as i dont´ see any big new technology coming to smartphones in the future i really need.
Remember the days when the most advanced cellphones where the ones that were the smallest and lightest? On smarthpone side, i think the iphone 5 design was the peak here.
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Yeah, really nothing all that innovative is coming to smartphones. The iPhone 5 was everything. The only back holder I guess was 32-bit instead of 64-bit on the next model after that.
 
The 5 has one of the best cameras and image processors. The later image processors(5S and up) introduced lots of noise correction that blurred the image, gave it a watercolor effect. Love the 5.
 
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In my experience, the limiting factor for iPhone 5 seems to be the amount of RAM (1GB). The apps I use are re-springing more than they used to under iOS 8 and 9, and the constant reloads make the phone feel slower.

The interface responsiveness is mostly good, with some jitters here and there. It was the same way with iOS 9 at initial release, but iOS was very smooth on the 5 after 9.1 from what I can remember.
 
Retired Cat said:
In my experience, the limiting factor for iPhone 5 seems to be the amount of RAM (1GB). The apps I use are re-springing more than they used to under iOS 8 and 9, and the constant reloads make the phone feel slower.

The interface responsiveness is mostly good, with some jitters here and there. It was the same way with iOS 9 at initial release, but iOS was very smooth on the 5 after 9.1 from what I can remember.
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iPhone 5s and 6 also have 1 GB of RAM and don't really experience reloads to a large enough degree to be bothersome.
 
Retired Cat said:
In my experience, the limiting factor for iPhone 5 seems to be the amount of RAM (1GB). The apps I use are re-springing more than they used to under iOS 8 and 9, and the constant reloads make the phone feel slower.

The interface responsiveness is mostly good, with some jitters here and there. It was the same way with iOS 9 at initial release, but iOS was very smooth on the 5 after 9.1 from what I can remember.
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My iPhone 5 is on 9.0.1 and it does really well. Haven't noticed any respringing or reloading. That seems to happen more on my 6s+ running 9.0.2.

That said I don't have a lot of apps running on my iPhone 5 all the time nor anywhere near as many background processes as I do on my 6s+ so there's that.
 
My iOS 10 iPhone 5 Silver 16 gig is surprisingly alive and running pretty well considering all the torture it has undergone the last 4 years! After several falls from various heights and surfaces, bottom right of display has finally cracked (still perfectly usable!) and it has so many scuffs, scratches and dings that the Aluminium iPhones are famous for.
Battery and headphones replaced under warranty once, but even the replaced battery has degraded now after 2 years, apparently has done 750 + cycles and capacity is down to about 1200 mAh / 1440 mAh. Over Wifi battery life is still very good- about 6 hours usage, but on 3G its horrible (2.5 hrs!). Its still pretty fast unless you are used to the modern iPhones.
Personally the best OSes for the iPhone 5 were 6.1.3, 7.1.2, 8.4.1 (coincidentally the last versions of each gen!) in terms of performance, smoothness and battery life balance. Except battery life and some stuttering in the widget screen (if you have lots of them) in iOS 10, its still a very usable phone.
Also have 'vintage' iPhone 3G thats also alive! Though it tops out with iOS 4.2.1, its doing pretty well after 8 years!
I have to admit Apple makes some incredible hardware and so glad that the iPhone 5 still supports the latest (maybe the last) iOS.
 
Just yesterday evening I set up an old 5C for my mother to use. She has had an iPhone 4 for so long now I just couldn't watch her struggle with it anymore. Obviously she was quite happy with the 4, but I think it pained me more than her.

Anyway, I was actually very pleasantly surprised at how well iOS 10 runs on the 5C. Everything seemed to be working well, and that was right post-install and setup, so I imagine it will have been even better today. Obviously comparing the 5C to the newer models there are striking differences regarding performance, but nothing all that jarring.
 
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Mefisto said:
Just yesterday evening I set up an old 5C for my mother to use. She has had an iPhone 4 for so long now I just couldn't watch her struggle with it anymore. Obviously she was quite happy with the 4, but I think it pained me more than her.

Anyway, I was actually very pleasantly surprised at how well iOS 10 runs on the 5C. Everything seemed to be working well, and that was right post-install and setup, so I imagine it will have been even better today. Obviously comparing the 5C to the newer models there are striking differences regarding performance, but nothing all that jarring.
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Yes it seems to run very will on the older platform. This is what I really like about Apple - they care about current users and not getting new ones.
 
Yup, had a 2012 iPhone 5 before upgrading to this new 7+. Operating system still works super fast for me. If it wasn't for the battery I wouldn't have upgraded to the 7+; battery would be dead by lunchtime so I was always tethered to an outlet.
 
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