Warning: iOS 8 Horribly Slow on iPhone 4S

[Equation Train]

I read the arstechnica page discussing performance on the 4S before installing, but I really feel people should be more suitably warned! That review, and probably others, could easily be down played or totally ignored.

It's not just a case of apps taking 30-40% longer to load, everything is slower and certain operations are at least 2 or 3 times slower.

I performed an upgrade via iTunes and did a forced reboot after the install, so I don't think this is just a switch off and on again affair. Nor do I feel it needs to settle in.

- Safari struggles to keep 1 page loaded. Previously I could have at least 1 or 2 'intensive' sites open in tabs, now it often won't open a SINGLE page. I had to quit all apps and quit and relaunch Safari just to view Macrumors home page.

- Again, with Safari, once it starts loading a page it takes a huge amount of time longer to display. Loading Macrumors on iOS 7 took maybe 5 seconds, before it all displayed fluidly. Now, it takes 10+ seconds to get the first story to display and another 30 seconds to load the rest of the home page. I am not over emphasising/exaggerating.

- Mail is about 2 times slower. Refreshing google inbox takes about 5 seconds, where as before it took 1 (almost instant). My work email (exchange) took about 30 seconds to refresh (check for mail...) rather than 1-5 seconds. Going to any inbox displays an empty page with line breaks for about 3 seconds rather than being instant.

- General GUI/navigation is much slower. Coming out of standby is noticeably choppy and the iPhone will 'pause' after entering passcode.

I suspect I will discover more slowness as I go.

I am not sure at this point if there is a serious bug/memory leak that could be fixed, Apple have purposely introduced delays/lag to force an upgrade or if this OS is genuinely much more demanding on RAM/CPU.

I am so glad I have an iPhone 6 on the way, otherwise i'd be pretty pissed off at this moment. Yes, I get that Android handsets often don't even get the option to upgrade (my gf has a 10 month old HTC that can't have KitKat) but I really feel this one should come with a warning or perhaps shouldn't even be available for the 4S.

 

[Brian Y]

I read the arstechnica page discussing performance on the 4S before installing, but I really feel people should be more suitably warned! That review, and probably others, could easily be down played or totally ignored.

It's not just a case of apps taking 30-40% longer to load, everything is slower and certain operations are at least 2 or 3 times slower.

I performed an upgrade via iTunes and did a forced reboot after the install, so I don't think this is just a switch off and on again affair. Nor do I feel it needs to settle in.

- Safari struggles to keep 1 page loaded. Previously I could have at least 1 or 2 'intensive' sites open in tabs, now it often won't open a SINGLE page. I had to quit all apps and quit and relaunch Safari just to view Macrumors home page.

- Again, with Safari, once it starts loading a page it takes a huge amount of time longer to display. Loading Macrumors on iOS 7 took maybe 5 seconds, before it all displayed fluidly. Now, it takes 10+ seconds to get the first story to display and another 30 seconds to load the rest of the home page. I am not over emphasising/exaggerating.

- Mail is about 2 times slower. Refreshing google inbox takes about 5 seconds, where as before it took 1 (almost instant). My work email (exchange) took about 30 seconds to refresh (check for mail...) rather than 1-5 seconds. Going to any inbox displays an empty page with line breaks for about 3 seconds rather than being instant.

- General GUI/navigation is much slower. Coming out of standby is noticeably choppy and the iPhone will 'pause' after entering passcode.

I suspect I will discover more slowness as I go.

I am not sure at this point if there is a serious bug/memory leak that could be fixed, Apple have purposely introduced delays/lag to force an upgrade or if this OS is genuinely much more demanding on RAM/CPU.

I am so glad I have an iPhone 6 on the way, otherwise i'd be pretty pissed off at this moment. Yes, I get that Android handsets often don't even get the option to upgrade (my gf has a 10 month old HTC that can't have KitKat) but I really feel this one should come with a warning or perhaps shouldn't even be available for the 4S.

Downgrade back to iOS 7 while they're still signing it.

 

[Richardgm]

We know.

 

[C. Robert]

Made my iPad mini first gen almost unusable.

 

[username:]

my 4s is fine, no problems. I also noticed the camera app has a timer now!

 

[yeah]

iOS 8 is probably the worst iOS update, in terms of performance/battery. My 5S takes about two seconds to even turn the screen on (after initial unlock of the phone), has text appearing after it should appear (lock screen, settings) and the App Store bounces around to the "Featured" tab if you try to head to a different tab right when you open the App Store.

Don't get me started on the battery life...

 

[Equation Train]

We know.

I appreciate there have been threads from beta testers, the arstechnica review and probably other sources, but I don't think it's quite enough attention/warning.

As I said, I am getting an iPhone 6 so it won't be a problem for me but I think if other users are experiencing the same this should probably make a front page appearance - for the sake of other people that might not do research first and end up with a half crippled device. People shouldn't be expected to search for reviews for a supported OS.

 

[MattMJB0188]

I will never understand why everyone and their freaking mother is always in a rush to upgrade to the latest OS the second its released. Wait for the guinea pigs to thoroughly test it.

 

[Equation Train]

my 4s is fine, no problems. I also noticed the camera app has a timer now!

I've seen this comment a few times and it makes me wonder if some people did a fresh install, have more free storage space or have somehow avoided a bug/install issue?

There is no way I could consider the performance difference just a bit of lag or post install background tasks - This is a whole world of slowness.

----------

I will never understand why everyone and their freaking mother is always in a rush to upgrade to the latest OS the second its released. Wait for the guinea pigs to thoroughly test it.

I agree. I only upgraded this quickly because I knew I was getting an iPhone 6 in the next few weeks. But it's not fair on Jo Public who really don't pay much attention to Apple rumours sites or blogs.

 

[username:]

I've seen this comment a few times and it makes me wonder if some people did a fresh install, have more free storage space or have somehow avoided a bug/install issue?

Not sure mate. I didn't do anything special. I plugged my iPhone into my MBA this morning, backed it up, downloaded iOS 8 and then installed it. Sorry about yours, Im glad you are getting an iPhone 6 soon.

 

[C DM]

I appreciate there have been threads from beta testers, the arstechnica review and probably other sources, but I don't think it's quite enough attention/warning.

As I said, I am getting an iPhone 6 so it won't be a problem for me but I think if other users are experiencing the same this should probably make a front page appearance - for the sake of other people that might not do research first and end up with a half crippled device. People shouldn't be expected to search for reviews for a supported OS.

Seems like essentially a front page article from MacRumors is a fairly good place for that: https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/17/ios-8-iphone-4s/

 

[Equation Train]

Seems like essentially a front page article from MacRumors is a fairly good place for that: https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/17/ios-8-iphone-4s/

Saw that, think it's a start but it does down play the performance difference a little much. We're not talking about a few extra features needing a bit more RAM, slightly higher requirements, a bit more of a CPU, incompatible 3rd party apps, reboot a couple of times etc etc - iOS 8 on iPhone 4S from what I can tell so far is absolutely terrible to the point where its crippling (i.e Safari can't even load ONE page).

 

[C DM]

Saw that, think it's a start but it does down play the performance difference a little much. We're not talking about a few extra features needing a bit more RAM, slightly higher requirements, a bit more of a CPU/RAM, etc etc - iOS 8 on iPhone 4S from what I can tell so far is absolutely terrible to the point where its crippling (i.e Safari can't even load ONE page).

Perhaps what you are describing isn't something that exists to that extreme of a degree for most others with 4S phones?

 

[username:]

... iOS 8 on iPhone 4S from what I can tell so far is absolutely terrible to the point where its crippling (i.e Safari can't even load ONE page).

sounds like something went wrong with your installation

 

[smokesletsgo]

No it's not. It's working fine, just like iOS 7 if not better. Probably some crappy apps clogging your iPhone. Stop jumping to conclusions so fast because you're spreading nonsense.

 

[cynics]

I'm on a 4S and it's what I expected.

My mail loads the same unlike mentioned.

Safari tab reloading is noticeably worse.

New features struggle. Like clicking "details" in the message app. You get a find my friends window and that loads slow and is very jerky for a few seconds.

I don't notice apps loading any slower than they already were.

Definitely need to use it for a few days before I give my full opinion though.

 

[AnorexicPig]

No it's not. It's working fine, just like iOS 7 if not better. Probably some crappy apps clogging your iPhone. Stop jumping to conclusions so fast because you're spreading nonsense.

This, I am currently using a 4S while I wait for my iPhone 6 to arrive, and I am finding it totally usable, a little slowdown during some tasks, but still perfectly usable.

 

[moonman239]

As they say, "your mileage may vary." Some people will experience horrible slowness with an iPhone 4S, others won't.

 

[Equation Train]

No it's not. It's working fine, just like iOS 7 if not better. Probably some crappy apps clogging your iPhone. Stop jumping to conclusions so fast because you're spreading nonsense.

Alright, I will try a full restore and then give it a few more days. Maybe something has gone badly wrong or I need a .1 update.

Just because it's 'working fine, just like iOS 7' for you, please try and at least imagine that's not necessarily the case for everyone else. I'll try and calm down, though I don't think anything i've said so far has been nonsense.

 

[Oohara]

I'm on a 4S and it's what I expected.

My mail loads the same unlike mentioned.

Safari tab reloading is noticeably worse.

New features struggle. Like clicking "details" in the message app. You get a find my friends window and that loads slow and is very jerky for a few seconds.

I don't notice apps loading any slower than they already were.

Definitely need to use it for a few days before I give my full opinion though.

Do you have Chrome on it and if so would you mind testing it to see how it works now?

 

[IJBrekke]

Rinse and repeat, every year

This is almost word-for-word how the iPhone 4 ran when updated to iOS7. I don't think it's a coincidence that Apple's oldest hardware is "allowed to upgrade" one last time to a software that it can barely support. Apple's ecosystem is strong enough that, rather than turn customers away, this helps to push them into buying their newest products.

If there were amazing new features to the software I would conclude that the hardware is simply outdated. But there's not; the hardware struggles at doing basic tasks that it's always able to do. I'm convinced this has "planned obsolescence" written all over it.

Take a look, nearly one year ago from Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/09/new-lease-on-life-or-death-sentence-ios-7-on-the-iphone-4/

 

[LordQ]

Nope, everything is running perfect for me. Install it again and don't restore from iCloud backup... #

 

[toneloco2881]

I had this revelation a few days ago after installing the iOS 8 GM on my iPad 2. It was horrible. This was after a clean install btw. I made sure I downgraded to iOS 7 while it was still being signed last night. I can't imagine the performance on the 4S seeing as how the specs between the iPad 2 and 4S are nearly identical with the iPad being even higher clocked!

 

[RoboWarriorSr]

I've seen this comment a few times and it makes me wonder if some people did a fresh install, have more free storage space or have somehow avoided a bug/install issue?

There is no way I could consider the performance difference just a bit of lag or post install background tasks - This is a whole world of slowness.

----------



I agree. I only upgraded this quickly because I knew I was getting an iPhone 6 in the next few weeks. But it's not fair on Jo Public who really don't pay much attention to Apple rumours sites or blogs.

When I updated to iOS 8 on my 4s, it got a lot better after 24 hours, when all the indexing and what not is done. I noticed better memory mangement especially with safari and multitasking though there were some dropped framerates compared to ios 7 (hoping those will get fixed in a future update). Only reason I downgraded was due to the fact that several apps I use have features that are broken and am waiting for the app developer to update them.

 

[bigpoppamac31]

This is exactly why I'm not installing iOS 8 on my 4S. I may be getting an iPhone 6 anyways so I don't mind waiting.