Has the speed of Apple Watch Series 2 improved with watchOS 4.1 compared to the original 4.0 release which slowed it down from watchOS 3?
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watchOS 4.1 and Series 2 Speed
- Thread starter brerlappin
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I installed it this morning and I don't think it's significantly better, to be honest. Some areas have improved, but things that used to be smooth in watchOS 3, like going into the Activity app and immediately scrolling, are laggy in watchOS 4.1 as it updates the activity data while you scroll. It feels like an S0 was on watchOS 3, to me.
A simple test is force-press the watch face to open the faces, then use the crown to scroll through the watch faces - very jerky the first time with big pauses as it loads the different faces, for me.
Some pauses like pressing the crown to go from an app back to the watch face also are longer than they were in watchOS 3, where it was essentially instant. They're only small pauses but compared to watchOS 3 it's a noticeable step backwards in these very common interactions.
A simple test is force-press the watch face to open the faces, then use the crown to scroll through the watch faces - very jerky the first time with big pauses as it loads the different faces, for me.
Some pauses like pressing the crown to go from an app back to the watch face also are longer than they were in watchOS 3, where it was essentially instant. They're only small pauses but compared to watchOS 3 it's a noticeable step backwards in these very common interactions.
Thanks, I appreciate your review!
I was hoping to update, but maybe I'll wait it out a bit more.
I was hoping to update, but maybe I'll wait it out a bit more.
Has anyone with a Series 2 tried a complete wipe and reinstall of watchOS 4? Was wondering if the lagginess improved upon doing this.
To clarify my opinion, it's better than 4.0, but I think brerlappin wanted to know what it's like compared to 3.2.3, in which case it's definitely not as smooth yet. While areas like going to Activity and scrolling have improved, 3.2.3 doesn't have the initial lagginess when doing that action that 4.1 still has.
But 4.1 is now in the acceptable range, where 4.0 wasn't. This is much like what happened with watchOS 3 of course, where it wasn't until 3.2 that things really were polished.
But 4.1 is now in the acceptable range, where 4.0 wasn't. This is much like what happened with watchOS 3 of course, where it wasn't until 3.2 that things really were polished.
I've found Watch OS 4 to be pretty slow on the series 2 watch. I've just turned my watch off and back on and its working pretty quickly again now but I can only assume it will slow down again in time.
Well, WatchOS 4.x does have some nice new features, but it is SIGNIFICANTLY slower than 3.2.x
Very laggy in places such as controlcenter and activity - VERY laggy
Very laggy in places such as controlcenter and activity - VERY laggy
I hope Apple are able to do something about it with an update.
We are currently in the hyper-iterative stage of smartwatches, meaning there are big leaps happening all the time. It does mean hardware becomes out-of-date a lot sooner than we now expect from our smartphones.
True, but this is not about hardware, it’s simply bloatcode. The animations ran fine on 3.x and now they are slow as hell because they didn’t bother optimize the code. Why would they? it runs (barely) on the new 3, so it’s all part of the progression towards new hardware and simpler higher level (less man hours) code.
After a week of use, 4.2 does seem a lot better. Raise to Wake is back to its old self, control center swipe up is good, and other apps seem to work smoother too. Only slowdown I have seen is in the workout app and scrolling through different workouts.
Yeah i’m fairly surprised by 4.2 as well. It does run quite a lot better. Not 3.2.3 speed (at all), but at least some of the interactions now seems responsive. Activities still has a lot of lag and pathetic initial scrooling.
Also, pressing the crown or the main button still have that painfully annoying ~.5 sec lag before something happens.
But it’s much better than 4.1
Also, pressing the crown or the main button still have that painfully annoying ~.5 sec lag before something happens.
But it’s much better than 4.1
Ugh, yes, that pause when pressing the buttons is really annoying! The rest has definitely improved a lot, at least. Sometimes tapping on a notification is painfully slow though. *tap* *wait... wait... wait...* *there it is!*
I’ve been dealing with Apple support for some time now as in my house we have 3 Stainless Steel Series 2 Apple Watch’s and all of them are experiencing lag on Watch OS 4. Apple has had me reinstall the OS on both my watch and phone and repair the Watch as a new Watch, install only Apple installed apps on the Watch. None of this fixed the issues. Now we are waiting on today’s most recent updates to see if this fixes the issue that Watch OS 4 caused, seems the simple answer would be to allow all series 0, 1 & 2 owners to go back to Watch OS 3.