I genuinely cannot believe this still hasn't been addressed by Apple. We have an app that's been on hold for launch for months because this issue severely kills performance on XS models.
We have bug reports filed and DTS cases with Apple where they have acknowledged this is a bug that needs fixing but no timeline or apparent effort to actually resolve it.
Below is a video of the test case we sent to Apple back in October.
This video demonstrates one of the most basic UIKit operations running on an iPhone XS. It uses < 1% CPU and nigh on nothing else. (It should not stutter!)
For developers: This is simply a CADisplayLink with a target FPS of 60.0 adjusting the frame of a series of opaque UIViews by a fixed value every update. Frame drops are not registered when profiling with Instruments but they are clearly visible and reproducible.
This only happens when using CADisplayLink, when using Spritekit animations are smooth.
CADisplayLink is the foundation for UIScrollViews, UITableViews and most other basic iPhone operations, this is why users are seeing problems with scrolling in apps and video playback stutters among other things.
We've tested each iPhone down to iPhone 4 with this code and they run smoothly with no stuttering. So what's going on inside the XS?
Why isn't this getting more coverage? Our game has been frozen as a result of this and I've seen many examples of games already live on the store that are affected by this. (Basically any game that relies on CADisplayLink for its updates).
What frustrates me most is support for these issues is being directed at App Developers and not Apple, see attached Spotify image. There is not much Spotify can do about this as the problem is baked into the fundamentals of what Apple allow a developer to access.
Without trying to sound overdramatic or alarmist, this really is disastrous from Apple.