Warning: iOS 8 Horribly Slow on iPhone 4S

[sunking101]

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.

To be expected really, didn't you see what iOS7 did to the iPhone 4?? The 4S is now the oldest phone getting the new iOS...
I would have swerved this update if I were you. Bigtime.

 

[XTheLancerX]

My iPod 5 (essentially a 4S) is worse than 7.0, but not THAT bad. I haven't used it that much, but performance has *for sure* taken a pretty decent hit. Leaving apps for me lags and stutters at 20-30 FPS, my iPad mini with Retina does the same, but not as bad. Only does it with messages app so far though. From what I have seen, my iPod is still at least usable.

 

[deviant]

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

Well, i've seen comments about iPad Airs being slow as hell, but my girlfriend's is now even better than it was under ios7. I don't know what it is, but something, somewhere, somehow really must've gone wrong. I'm not updating my 4s though. I mean, it's 3 years old. It can't possibly be any good. Waiting on the new 6.

 

[Segun]

I downloaded iOS 8 on my 4s, it managed to bork it, so it forced the phone into DFU mode. Had to re-download on iTunes and install fresh. First time I've ever had to do that on an update.

With regards to performance, it seems reasonable for the update.

Personally I'd stick with iOS 7.

 

[OSXMavericks]

iOS 8 needs a lot more work. I think they released it too early. It needed more time.

 

[Jayson A]

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...

You, my friend, have a botched install. I have an iPhone 5s and it's a tad bit faster than iOS 7.

You definitely have something strange going on because it's not like that at all for me.

 

[C DM]

My iPod 5 (essentially a 4S) is worse than 7.0, but not THAT bad. I haven't used it that much, but performance has *for sure* taken a pretty decent hit. Leaving apps for me lags and stutters at 20-30 FPS, my iPad mini with Retina does the same, but not as bad. Only does it with messages app so far though. From what I have seen, my iPod is still at least usable.

Misread that as being about iPhone 5 originally.

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iOS 8 needs a lot more work. I think they released it too early. It needed more time.

Same as iOS 7. Let's hope 8.1 will sort it all out as it did for iOS 7 (and this time hopefully it will come faster than in half a year).

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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/

As I recall iOS 6 runs rather well on 3GS, and by some accounts even better than iOS 5. 7.1 is decent on iPhone 4 as well, but certainly nothing like iOS 6 which was very good.

 

[WhiteHawk]

Updated both my parents iPhone 4S's and they run fine, same as iOS 7 which is no big surprise as it's not a big update like 7 was compared to 6.

 

[Siderz]

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...

My 5s is working perfectly fine, I don't feel a dip in speed whatsoever. My only complaint is that the "Slide to Unlock" text is now black instead of white/transparent, and that the BBC has yet to make a widget for their news app.

 

[ajay96]

It's a tad slower on my 4S. Not a big deal breaker considering it's age.