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iPhone 5 users: iOS 7 vs 8.1

I really wish I wouldn't have missed the cutoff window for 7.1.2! All around performance was so much smoother.

In 8.1 there is still the occasional lag from right when you touch an app to open. It will hesitate for a good half second before the app will open. This never happened in 7.1.2. And it's still hanging around with 8.1. It's usually 3rd party apps that haven't been opened yet.

Do you like how safari is now? Be prepared to be insanely annoyed at how slow it is now! I don't know what they did but there is big hesitation before anything is displayed. If you don't believe me use them side by side.

When your device is locked plug it in. Oh wait. (Second or two goes by) What oh there now it has reacted and says it's charging. The chime and notification that it was charging was always instant before 8 and 8.1.

Not a huge deal but watch your battery percentage go down from 61% to 59% and 31% to 29% EVERYTIME.

Overall the performance isn't a whole lot different in most apps but definitely a regression in polish I've noticed and theres still the annoying lingering bugs.
 
DO NOT UPDATE TO IOS 8.1 ON AN IPHONE 5.

And yes I'm SHOUTING! We've had nothing but problems with battery decreasing fast and we've even changed the battery. I wish I could downgrade back to 7.1.2.
 
bransoj said:
Not as far as i can tell although you may have a keener eye than me but i see nothing to detract from using the app. I've got two places in there.
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I see. Well it happens when you swipe between cities, use the list view then pick a city where the animation will once again drop frames. Those 60 fps are gone. Quite frankly, that old argument that iOS always used to have 60 fps unlike Android doesn't really apply anymore with iOS 8.
 
Immedately after performing OTA update to 8.1, yeah I had that hesitating Safari glitch. On both WiFi and LTE. Restarted Safari and the phone, didn't really help. But this morning, Safari loads pages immedately again.

And battery meter does appear to drop faster during usage. But will hold out to see full day usage. But noticed yesterday evening, phone runs warmer when charging with 8.1.
 
When I was on iOS 7 my iPhone 5 did pretty well, I still liked iOS 6 but I got use to 7 and it was smooth, then I upgraded to 8.0 and it was bad, then 8.0.2 still bad. It was laggy when scrolling (and I even did a full restore) what I hated most on 8.0.2 was the lag and pressing the home button to minimize an app took several hits of the home button it would not always take it the first hit, then when I plugged in the Apple charger the battery icon took like 2-3 secds to register, more lag.

Last night I upgraded to 8.1 through iTunes and every thing went great, I was really amazed how much faster every thing is working, the lag is gone and when I plug in my Apple charger it registered the tone and battery icon immediately, I've also noticed when pressing the home button it registers immediately, no lag. Even when I put my pin code in it just works faster and no hesitation at all. It hasn't been a full day but battery looks to be the same so far. I'm really impressed with iOS 8.1 on my iPhone 5.
 
imagineadam said:
Do you like how safari is now? Be prepared to be insanely annoyed at how slow it is now! I don't know what they did but there is big hesitation before anything is displayed. If you don't believe me use them side by side.
.
Click to expand...

I agree, I've compared an iPhone 5 running 7.1.2 to an iPhone 6, side by side. Safari on the iPhone 5 was considerably faster at rendering web pages.
 
I have an iPhone 5 with 8.1 and it runs great. No lag at all...and no, I am not trolling.
 
MrGuder said:
When I was on iOS 7 my iPhone 5 did pretty well, I still liked iOS 6 but I got use to 7 and it was smooth, then I upgraded to 8.0 and it was bad, then 8.0.2 still bad. It was laggy when scrolling (and I even did a full restore) what I hated most on 8.0.2 was the lag and pressing the home button to minimize an app took several hits of the home button it would not always take it the first hit, then when I plugged in the Apple charger the battery icon took like 2-3 secds to register, more lag.

Last night I upgraded to 8.1 through iTunes and every thing went great, I was really amazed how much faster every thing is working, the lag is gone and when I plug in my Apple charger it registered the tone and battery icon immediately, I've also noticed when pressing the home button it registers immediately, no lag. Even when I put my pin code in it just works faster and no hesitation at all. It hasn't been a full day but battery looks to be the same so far. I'm really impressed with iOS 8.1 on my iPhone 5.
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I think the lag when plugging in is mostly gone when the device is awake and unlocked but leave your device locked for a good 5 minutes then come back to it with it still locked and plug it in and see if you get the lag. That's when I've noticed it.
 
8.1 is working very well on my iPhone 5.

I don't perceive any speed differences compared to 7.1.2 or 8.0.2.
 
no issues with my iPhone 5. To me the performance has been the same as it was on iOS 7
 
blacksurfer said:
DO NOT UPDATE TO IOS 8.1 ON AN IPHONE 5.

And yes I'm SHOUTING! We've had nothing but problems with battery decreasing fast and we've even changed the battery. I wish I could downgrade back to 7.1.2.
Click to expand...
Doesn't seem like that's the case for most, by far.
 
iPhone 5s Updated to 8.1 10/20/2014 Things I have noticed...

1. Contact photos went back to small size when calls come in on iPhone 5s like on iOS 7. On both the lock screen and the main screen. Call contact photos were back to big on 8.0.2 but now small again in iOS 8.1. I though this could be due to the iMac continuity on Yosemite as the small photos appear in the notification when the call comes in on the iMac.

Solution:
I connected the iPhone5s with the usb cord to my iMac running Yosemite, did not open any apps on the iMac and was only charging the phone. After the recharge, I unplugged my phone from the usb, and then did a manual power down on the iPhone 5s. Then I did a power up, when the iPhone 5s finished, I used my office land line phone to call my iPhone 5s and now the photos are back to being large on both the lock screen and main screen when the call comes in. Yeah!!!

2. Texting in messaging on iPhone 5s with 8.0.2 I had a small photo of the contact (on the left) next to the conversation like they said would be displayed on the iPhone6 and 6+. I was happy. However, after upgrading to iOS 8.1 the small contact photo next to the conversation is gone. Tried landscape mode and still no photos. Tried unselecting larger text and going back to normal in settings accessibility and still no go. Tried removing the bold text and still no go. I tried these modifications thinking iOS 8.1 needed more real-estate.

I guess I was just lucky in iOS 8.0.2 for a short time. I was hoping with 8.1 and the continuity with the iMessage in Yosemite, the iPhone5s might be consistent, at least when the iPhone 5s was messaging in landscape mode.

Updated to iOS 8.1 was done OTA and went smoothly on my 16gb iPhone 5s.

I am not saying #1 & 2 above are problems with iOS 8.1 they are just observations. I really like the SMS integration on iMessage on Yosemite. Very nice work and very usable.
 
32GB iPhone 5 on Verizon. Works great, just as fast and smooth as the previous major iOS versions - new features are working as expected too.

:cool:
 
So after 1 full day of using 8.1 on my iPhone 5 and I must admit, it's been great, I can't believe how fluid it feels, everything is a lot more smoother, really happy with 8.1 and I think this is what should have been released the first time, not 8.0
 
It amazes me how different the experiences have been so far. Some users claim iOS 8.1 is great, definitely better than iOS 8 and even as “smooth” as 7.1.2.

On the other hand, we have lots of users saying it's as bad as version 8 or 8.0.2, and not even nearly as fluid as 7.1.2.

I have an iPhone 5 too, but I'm hesitant to jump from iOS 7.1.2 to 8.1. I got shocked after the iOS 6-to-iOS 7 transition.

Now, I really want some of the new features, but I don't want the terrible experience of having to wait more seconds in order to open up a simple app, or browsing the web as if I was using 56K.
 
It's alright except the keyboard sometimes lags when I type.
Otherwise 8.1 is butter smooth on this 2012 phone!
 
iRock1 said:
It amazes me how different the experiences have been so far. Some users claim iOS 8.1 is great, definitely better than iOS 8 and even as “smooth” as 7.1.2.

On the other hand, we have lots of users saying it's as bad as version 8 or 8.0.2, and not even nearly as fluid as 7.1.2.

I have an iPhone 5 too, but I'm hesitant to jump from iOS 7.1.2 to 8.1. I got shocked after the iOS 6-to-iOS 7 transition.

Now, I really want some of the new features, but I don't want the terrible experience of having to wait more seconds in order to open up a simple app, or browsing the web as if I was using 56K.
Click to expand...

Stick with 7.1.2. I really wish I would have. 8.1 didn't really change anything much from 8.0.2. There are still annoying bugs and they probably won't be fixed for a few months. The people who say it's fine and just as fast really don't actually notice or havent used 7.1.2 and 8 side by side. It's a night and day difference on the 5. I just did a full restore as new today because I'm getting ready to jailbreak and I'm still really annoyed by the animation hiccups, Safari lag and battery percent glitches. The new features aren't worth the performance degradation. Hopefully 8.2 polishes up this turd of an iOS. I wish the jailbreak team would have held off till then!
 
imagineadam said:
Stick with 7.1.2. I really wish I would have. 8.1 didn't really change anything much from 8.0.2. There are still annoying bugs and they probably won't be fixed for a few months. The people who say it's fine and just as fast really don't actually notice or havent used 7.1.2 and 8 side by side. It's a night and day difference on the 5. I just did a full restore as new today because I'm getting ready to jailbreak and I'm still really annoyed by the animation hiccups, Safari lag and battery percent glitches. The new features aren't worth the performance degradation. Hopefully 8.2 polishes up this turd of an iOS. I wish the jailbreak team would have held off till then!
Click to expand...


Thanks for your insight. I was sure that I wouldn't update my iPad Air from 7.1.2 to 8.1, as it's a fact that the experience there is simply terrible. However, I was hoping the case was a little different on the iPhone side. Now, after reading your post and many others, I've decided to simply wait a few more iterations (maybe I'd have to wait until iOS 9, who knows).

Regarding the new features, actually the only thing that keeps me super excited and wanting to update is the possibility for third parties of having deeper access to the camera hardware. With Camera+ now I could change shutter speed, ISO and stuff like that, which, for an amateur photographer like me, would be a great thing. Other than that, the new features are nice but kind of meh.
 
imagineadam said:
Stick with 7.1.2. I really wish I would have. 8.1 didn't really change anything much from 8.0.2. There are still annoying bugs and they probably won't be fixed for a few months. The people who say it's fine and just as fast really don't actually notice or havent used 7.1.2 and 8 side by side. It's a night and day difference on the 5. I just did a full restore as new today because I'm getting ready to jailbreak and I'm still really annoyed by the animation hiccups, Safari lag and battery percent glitches. The new features aren't worth the performance degradation. Hopefully 8.2 polishes up this turd of an iOS. I wish the jailbreak team would have held off till then!
Click to expand...

I agree, stick with 7.1.2 . I have a 5s running 8.0.2, my wife has an iPhone 5 still running 7.1.2 . Her phone seems faster, smoother and an overall better user experience than my 5s does now. I compared her iphone 5 to an iphone 6 and safari was faster on the iphone 5. Really regret upgrading to 8.0.2, would rather have 7.1.2 back on my 5s than a iphone 6. Hesitant on getting a new ipad this week cause I really like performance of 7.1.2 on my iPad 4.
 
About the same as 8.0 for me. Safari still crashes, and closes. I still get lag throughout using the device.

I really miss iOS 6 on my iPhone 5 and 1st Gen Mini. :(
 
Performance wise - everything is the same, in a good way. Battery - not so much. iOS 8 drained it quite fast, so I did restore and setup as new, everything was back to normal.

Updated to 8.1 and it's all over again, short battery life, so I am restoring it again as we speak.
 
Haven't noticed any difference in performance on my iPhone 5 on 8.1. I always use iTunes to update if that means anything.
 
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