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What a HUGE difference from then to now...

Want300

Want300

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 12, 2011
1,194
2
St. Louis, MO
I just got my iPhone 3GS back from my girlfriend's brother... Wow, it is so different from my 4S. It feels cheap to me now, and it is super slow, and almost feels laggy. Yet it did not seem that way when I first got it, I remember how much faster it launched something as simple as the messaging app compared to my iPhone 3G.

I wish I still had my original iPhone, so I could compare it to the 4S and the new iPhone when it comes out. For those of us who had the original iPhone, How did we do it for a year before the app store launched?

Holding and using this phone made me appreciate my current phone even more, which I never lost appreciation for btw. This just added to it.
 
3GS is still quite usable, even with iOS 6. But yeah, it is not comparable to the 4S experience. App launch times are indeed the place where you notice it most.

I don't think the 3GS has got much slower since iOS 4.0 (which was a big slowdown compared to 3.x). But our performance expectations have been adjusted by the newer, faster devices.
 
Reason077 said:
3GS is still quite usable, even with iOS 6. But yeah, it is not comparable to the 4S experience. App launch times are indeed the place where you notice it most.

I don't think the 3GS has got much slower since iOS 4.0 (which was a big slowdown compared to 3.x). But our performance expectations have been adjusted by the newer, faster devices.
Click to expand...

Plus phones tend to slow down overtime as we load more junk on them...
 
NT1440 said:
Not really how modern phone OS's work....
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Jailbreaks on older phones seem to slow them down. My iPhone 3G felt like the slowest thing in the world when I sold it. I did a jailbreak/unlock, and by I, I mean my friend did it for me at the time becuz I was not very familiar with the process then. The jailbreak running iOS 4.2 or whatever it was made the iPhone 3G super slow.
 
Want300 said:
Jailbreaks on older phones seem to slow them down. My iPhone 3G felt like the slowest thing in the world when I sold it. I did a jailbreak/unlock, and by I, I mean my friend did it for me at the time becuz I was not very familiar with the process then. The jailbreak running iOS 4.2 or whatever it was made the iPhone 3G super slow.
Click to expand...

All that matters is the processes that are running. Jailbreaking doesn't actually make anything else run in the background (unless you do that after the fact on your own). Plain and simple a jailbreak just removes the blocks from installing 3rd party apps.

I'm just trying to clear up some confusion about what jailbreaking actually is. As for the 3G, I remember that particular jailbreak having big issues when first released from the dev team, so that very well may be the reason you were experiencing the slowdown.
 
NT1440 said:
All that matters is the processes that are running. Jailbreaking doesn't actually make anything else run in the background (unless you do that after the fact on your own). Plain and simple a jailbreak just removes the blocks from installing 3rd party apps.

I'm just trying to clear up some confusion about what jailbreaking actually is. As for the 3G, I remember that particular jailbreak having big issues when first released from the dev team, so that very well may be the reason you were experiencing the slowdown.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. Thanks. I have my work Phone Jailbroken at the moment.
 
Want300 said:
My iPhone 3G felt like the slowest thing in the world when I sold it. I did a jailbreak/unlock, and by I, I mean my friend did it for me at the time becuz I was not very familiar with the process then. The jailbreak running iOS 4.2 or whatever it was made the iPhone 3G super slow.
Click to expand...

iPhone 3G had severe performance problems with iOS 4.x, jailbreaked or not.

The only way to fix it, AFAIK, is to downgrade to 3.x, or to disable location services. That gives you a usable phone but no GPS.

I still keep an old 3G with 4.2.1 for compatibility testing. It's fine so long as you don't turn location services on. If you do then the phone becomes literally unusable after a couple of weeks.
 
HishamAkhtar said:
Sorry I don't mean OS. I meant in terms of personal content (pictures, apps, etc)
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Yea we've come a long way on silicon for fast indexing of content and it REALLY shows. Try swiping through hundreds of photos quickly on an old ipod touch or iphone and its painful, but at the time it was amazing.

What a world!
 
JayLenochiniMac said:
The 3G/3GS has always felt cheap with plastic case and poor fit and finish, coming from the original iPhone and going to the iPhone 4/4S.
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Disagree with this. It may feel cheaper, due to the plastic, but I still think the 3GS is a nicer design in some ways than the 4/4S. The curves make it more comfortable to hold than the sharp edges of the newer models.
 
Reason077 said:
Disagree with this. It may feel cheaper, due to the plastic, but I still think the 3GS is a nicer design in some ways than the 4/4S. The curves make it more comfortable to hold than the sharp edges of the newer models.
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Nicer to look at and definitely more comfortable to hold, but handling it it feels plasticky cheap and its fit and finish is the worse of all the iPhone models (this is also a common problem with cars with plastic/fiberglass body).
 
You know, it's funny really. My friend is still rockin the 3GS and I couldn't help but feel that it felt NICER in the hand than my old iP4.....

I wonder if anyone else feels this way? I for one, don't mind a curved plastic/polycarb backing if it has that nice curvy feel....
 
I can understand the OP, coming from a 4s and all, but for me personally the 3gs is still an excellent phone after almost two years. Still love the thing to bits. If it weren't for its mediocre camera, and the slick looks of the next iphone, I wouldn't even consider spending 600 euro's or whatever on a new phone. And I love how the high resolution screens look on the iphones, one x'es and gs3's that people at work own, but I don't really need it from a functionality point of view.

It's very likely that I will buy an unlocked iphone 5 when it is released, but I think I'll really have to get used to not having my scratched up but trusty 3gs in my pocket.
 
I had both the 3 and 3s. I hadn't used since the 4 came out until the other day, when I used my daughters 3S. It seems ancient to me now, but it still works great.
 
chambone said:
I can understand the OP, coming from a 4s and all, but for me personally the 3gs is still an excellent phone after almost two years. Still love the thing to bits. If it weren't for its mediocre camera, and the slick looks of the next iphone, I wouldn't even consider spending 600 euro's or whatever on a new phone. And I love how the high resolution screens look on the iphones, one x'es and gs3's that people at work own, but I don't really need it from a functionality point of view.

It's very likely that I will buy an unlocked iphone 5 when it is released, but I think I'll really have to get used to not having my scratched up but trusty 3gs in my pocket.
Click to expand...

I have had every generation of iPhone. But as I get used to the new, I forget what it was like with the old. I cannot remember not having apps, even though I did it for a year with the original iPhone. But it was so great having safari at my finger tips. Didn't know about apps, and didn't need them then.
 
Want300 said:
I have had every generation of iPhone. But as I get used to the new, I forget what it was like with the old. I cannot remember not having apps, even though I did it for a year with the original iPhone. But it was so great having safari at my finger tips. Didn't know about apps, and didn't need them then.
Click to expand...

exactly, ignorance is bliss :)
 
Want300 said:
I have had every generation of iPhone. But as I get used to the new, I forget what it was like with the old. I cannot remember not having apps, even though I did it for a year with the original iPhone. But it was so great having safari at my finger tips. Didn't know about apps, and didn't need them then.
Click to expand...

Yep, I hear ya, I know we get used to new things really quick. I don't think my 3gs is slow at all, but if I were to use a 4s for two weeks I bet I'd sing a different tune.
 
Technology and gadgets improve little by little so at that time, it doesnt seem very significant. But over time, it's like.. BAM! how did we get from this to that?! I think it'll be same for the new iPhone. People are complaining how it's too similar to iPhone 4 and yada yada but wait just a few more years. That's how technology evolves, imho. ;)
 
LittleGwen said:
Technology and gadgets improve little by little so at that time, it doesnt seem very significant. But over time, it's like.. BAM! how did we get from this to that?! I think it'll be same for the new iPhone. People are complaining how it's too similar to iPhone 4 and yada yada but wait just a few more years. That's how technology evolves, imho. ;)
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I mean we even see it in the 4 and 4S....put them side by side and it is like BAM
 
NT1440 said:
Yea we've come a long way on silicon for fast indexing of content and it REALLY shows. Try swiping through hundreds of photos quickly on an old ipod touch or iphone and its painful, but at the time it was amazing.

What a world!
Click to expand...

Yeah I found saved text/iMessages the killer! I recently started deleting convos with people I'd had going on for 3-4 years and it's suddenly made my phone much faster! It's crazy how all this useless data just bogs everything down badly...
 
HishamAkhtar said:
Yeah I found saved text/iMessages the killer! I recently started deleting convos with people I'd had going on for 3-4 years and it's suddenly made my phone much faster! It's crazy how all this useless data just bogs everything down badly...
Click to expand...

I noticed that about the messages app too. Clearing out the history makes a huge improvement. Having 10s of thousands of texts definitely generates a performance hit. (at least it did for me.
 
If you think that's impressive try using an older Samsung compared to the Galaxy S3.

Amazing!!!
 
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