Will iPhone 5s magically slow down with iOS 8?

[sunking101]

Yeah, had three now two. The two have no issues. What are you referring to?

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Tech doesn't get as dated now as it used to. For example, I have the same desktop I built in 2008. It's still able to run a heavy mix of cpu intensive applications like video editing, large database jobs and the like. I'm thinking next year I'll update it, maybe.

The 5S, should be good to go for at least 4 years.

Re the iPhone 4, the massive and unmissable lag which occurred the moment iOS7 was installed.

Not so sure about the 5S having a 4 year shelflife, but certainly a couple of happy years followed by a further 12 months of frustration if you're still onboard. These things are engineered to become obsolete. Why make the 5S chug merrily away for years, why would Apple not want you to upgrade? They will make sure that you want the speed 'improvements' offered by the latest tech. These software updates don't generally give much in the way of earth shattering new features, but do slow older devices down.

 

[I7guy]

Re the iPhone 4, the massive and unmissable lag which occurred the moment iOS7 was installed

Not so sure about the 5S having a 4 year shelflife, but certainly a couple. These things are engineered to become obsolete. Why make the 5S chug merrily away for years, why would Apple not want you to upgrade? They will make sure that you want the speed 'improvements' offered by the latest tech. These software updates don't generally give much in the way of earth shattering new features, but do slow older devices down.

I haven't seen first hand issues with iPhone 4 and iOS 7. However it's clearly not as snappy as my 5s on iOS 7.1.1. That doesn't mean it's a dog.

Electronics are not engineered to become obsolete. Things in software change and operating systems get bigger with the potential to slow down older chips. Newer chips are usually more efficient, manufactured on smaller dies with higher click speeds. That is called progress not obsolescence.

To your point you could try to make the case that IOS 7.1.1 is essentially ios 1 with some bells and whistles added.

 

[sunking101]

I haven't seen first hand issues with iPhone 4 and iOS 7. However it's clearly not as snappy as my 5s on iOS 7.1.1. That doesn't mean it's a dog.

Electronics are not engineered to become obsolete. Things in software change and operating systems get bigger with the potential to slow down older chips. Newer chips are usually more efficient, manufactured on smaller dies with higher click speeds. That is called progress not obsolescence.

Lots of people thought the i4 was a dog on iOS6. It was tolerable, but massively slowed down. iOS7 killed it in my opinion, making it a laggy slouch of a thing. This is compared to itself running iOS6, not the latest tech.

As for the 5S, new smartphones nowadays only have speed improvements to entice us. Perhaps a better camera too. How do you make a new phone faster than the already super-fast old model? Yep, you slow the old model down. Apple want to sell you things, they don't want to build a device you'll be happy with for years and years.

 

[I7guy]

Lots of people thought the i4 was a dog on iOS6. It was tolerable, but massively slowed down. iOS7 killed it in my opinion, making it a laggy slouch of a thing. This is compared to itself running iOS6, not the latest tech.

As for the 5S, new smartphones nowadays only have speed improvements to entice us. Perhaps a better camera too. How do you make a new phone faster than the already super-fast old model? Yep, you slow the old model down. Apple want to sell you things, they don't want to build a device you'll be happy with for years and years.

There are not planned slowdowns built into modern o/s; more features and sophisticated processing algorithms work better on newer hardware. Apple doesn't intentionally slow down an o/s. Apple moves forward, not back, that has been taken into consideration by you when you buy an Apple product.

That they even support the i4 is awesome.

 

[sunking101]

There are not planned slowdowns built into modern o/s; more features and sophisticated processing algorithms work better on newer hardware. Apple doesn't intentionally slow down an o/s. Apple moves forward, not back, that has been taken into consideration by you when you buy an Apple product.

That they even support the i4 is awesome.

With respect, you have no idea what Apple do or think and as for 'supporting' the iPhone 4, I hardly call ruining it and making people need to upgrade ASAP a good thing...

 

[GalvaJ]

Praying the 4S can run iOS 8 just fine.

Used an iphone 3G on iOS 4 until February of this year when I got my 4S.

Love the iphone but upgrading every 3 years is ridiculous. I don't have a problem dropping 2K on a laptop that will last 5-6 years, but $600-800 on a phone that will be outdated in 3-4 is ridiculous.

Bought my 3G for $40 in 2011 and my 4S for $80 this year. Plan on continuing to buy used...

If you prefer to keep your phones for so long? Then why do you start your long tenure with a phone that's already 3 years old? Makes no sense to me. It'd make perfect sense if say you recently stopped using your 3GS, and then bought a 5S to use for another 4 years. But you bought a 4S?

And honestly, upgrading a phone every 3 years is not ridiculous. So much happens over the course of 3 years in the technology world that it can't be considered ridiculous to upgrade after that many years. Whether your willing to spend money on it is your problem. But its not ridiculous at all. Especially when the typical contract is a 2 year term.

 

[I7guy]

With respect, you have no idea what Apple do or think and as for 'supporting' the iPhone 4, I hardly call ruining it and making people need to upgrade ASAP a good thing...

Of course I could never claim to know what apple does or thinks, and I would never make such a claim, only an opinion.

However what you call ruining I call supporting with the latest features and updates.

 

[Yoshi Yogurt]

If you prefer to keep your phones for so long? Then why do you start your long tenure with a phone that's already 3 years old? Makes no sense to me. It'd make perfect sense if say you recently stopped using your 3GS, and then bought a 5S to use for another 4 years. But you bought a 4S?

And honestly, upgrading a phone every 3 years is not ridiculous. So much happens over the course of 3 years in the technology world that it can't be considered ridiculous to upgrade after that many years. Whether your willing to spend money on it is your problem. But its not ridiculous at all. Especially when the typical contract is a 2 year term.

I have T-mobile and I pay something like $20-30 monthly for some calling and unlimited texting on my family's plan. Switching to another provider would be a no because they all suck and are more expensive.

Paying $650 for a 5S is ridiculous. Maybe I will finally buy a new iPhone if they come in 128GB and sell/give away my ipod classic(or keep it), but the higher 64GB memory models cost $850 already

 

[cynics]

Apple isn't intentionally sabotaging their prior iPhones. That is just bad business all around.

Apple has to walk a very fine line between keeping their devices updated and not killing the user experience.

They can't cripple iOS to keep 3-4 year old devices running as smoothly as day one and not using any of the power of a new device.

Its one of those, damned if you do, damned if you don't situations. If the iPhone 4 wouldn't have gotten iOS 7 people would have complained until they were blue in the face. But it did and its not as fast as iOS 4-6 then people complain until they are blue in the face.

Same thing will happen with the 4S, 5/5C, 6, 7, etc etc. This pretty much applies to all tech with an upgradable OS really. The manufacturer will cut them off and people will be pissed or they won't and it will be slow and people will be pissed.

As far as the 5S I think it won't be till iOS 10 before it keep noticeably slower if history tells us anything. Regardless it would be "magic".

 

[sunking101]

Seriously though, apart from a 'fresh new look' and Airdrop, which nobody ever uses, oh and control centre; what exactly did iOS7 give us which requires so much more processing power and slows down older devices so badly? Some extra features which can't take much 'processing power' at all, so I don't see why it is worth slaying speed (iPhone 4) and battery life (iPhone 5) for these quite worthless new features. I feel quite strongly that there is designed obsolescence built into each iOS (whole number) upgrade. I have seen my father's iPhone 4 ruined by iOS7, and the battery life of my own iPhone 5 slayed - in exchange for nothing of any substance quite frankly. No iDevice of mine will ever get a whole number upgrade again, the trade off is just not worth it.

 

[I7guy]

Seriously though, apart from a 'fresh new look' and Airdrop, which nobody ever uses, oh and control centre; what exactly did iOS7 give us which requires so much more processing power and slows down older devices so badly? Some extra features which can't take much 'processing power' at all, so I don't see why it is worth slaying speed (iPhone 4) and battery life (iPhone 5) for these quite worthless new features. I feel quite strongly that there is designed obsolescence built into each iOS (whole number) upgrade. I have seen my father's iPhone 4 ruined by iOS7, and the battery life of my own iPhone 5 slayed - in exchange for nothing of any substance quite frankly. No iDevice of mine will ever get a whole number upgrade again, the trade off is just not worth it.

All operating system upgrades contain more features and upgrades. I understand you don't understand why IOS 7 needs more processing power than it's predecessors but invariably it does. I do agree IOS 7 is not as fast on the iPhone 4 than IOS 5, but "slaying" is far from what apple actually did.

 

[GalvaJ]

I'll never understand why some of you guys get upset or surprised when old devices don't have the same speed today running current software as they did when they were announced with now older software. How is a company supposed to improve their product with newer features and capabilities while still trying keep a three or four year old phone performing just as fast as it did on launch day? They're not forcing you to upgrade. They're doing their part in supporting these older devices via software. I wasn't expecting iPhone 4 to get iOS7 yet it did. That phone has gotten support for 4 years worth of software and you guys are still complaining cause it's not as fast as you want it to be. Ridiculous, it really is. Don't bash a product or company just cause you don't wanna spend money on it. They're not forcing you to do so to begin with. There's plenty of iPhone 4 users running iOS7 out there that are perfectly content. If you wanna be a techie who wants speed and features but doesn't wanna get a newer device then you need a wake up call. We're geeks. It's an expensive hobby. Just like car enthusiasts or gun enthusiasts or any other type of enthusiasts. If you want the latest and greatest don't b*tch and moan about the cost of an upgrade. People need to set realistic expectations for what they put their money into.

 

[960design]

Anandtech claims the hardware in 5s is so powerful, there is nothing currently out that stresses it. So I wonder if it'll be as smooth as it is now with iOS 8.

Yes, it is just as fast, even during beta. And that's with all the console logging happening in the background. When that gets turned off for GM release it will be faster still.

 

[covertsurfer]

Today's the day to find out.

I'm dubious about updating my iPad2 and iPhone5S.

I hope they don't block downgrading like they did with iOS7 when you couldn't go back to 6

 

[HyperZboy]

If the iPhone 6 is limited to 1GB RAM as rumored, then the only difference in speed with an iPhone 5s running IOS 8 would be the processor. I don't see that as a significant difference though nor does it suggest to me that the 5s would run slower under IOS 8 than IOS 7.

I would like to hear from somebody who's actually run the IOS 8 beta though to confirm this before downloading it.

 

[JeepGC]

I doubt it will have a noticeable decrease in speed. I can't see how it would considering that the 5s is only a year old in terms of hardware.

 

[covertsurfer]

You say that, but they have to get you to upgrade somehow

 

[TommyA6]

Today's the day to find out.

I'm dubious about updating my iPad2 and iPhone5S.

I hope they don't block downgrading like they did with iOS7 when you couldn't go back to 6

My iPhone 5 runs great on iOS 8. There should be no problems for 5s.

 

[Cod3rror]

Any feedback? Is it still as fast?

 

[Zxxv]

Any feedback? Is it still as fast?

no. Im sure apps are using longer animations (or the system is slowing them) Twitter in particular. Couple that with low ram. The relaunch triggers app reboot = you watch the slow load animation.

 

[mtneer]

There are lots of people with feedback in the iOS 8 forum..

 

[sanke1]

They're not forcing you to upgrade. They're doing their part in supporting these older devices via software.

They are forcing us to upgrade as there is no option under settings to prevent update file from being downloaded to your iDevice. Also 2 days later, they stop signing old ipsw files forcing you to move to latest restore file.

Stop spreading wrong information.

Apple forces us to update or compromise sacrificing 2-3 gb of downloaded update space on device. If you delete that file, it gets re-downloaded.

So it's clear that this is part of Apple's planned obsolescence strategy.

 

[BvizioN]

Apple forces us to update or compromise sacrificing 2-3 gb of downloaded update space on device. If you delete that file, it gets re-downloaded.
.

That 2-3gb of space is required to extract files and ONLY required if you do the upgrade OTA. If you do it through iTunes, you don't need it.

 

[sanke1]

That 2-3gb of space is required to extract files and ONLY required if you do the upgrade OTA. If you do it through iTunes, you don't need it.

In my experience, 2-3 gb of OTA update file was downloaded and it required me 5.4 GB of free space to extract and install.

 

[veedubshafer]

My 5s now on iOS 8 is more stable than it ever was! I always said my 5 was a more stable phone than my 5s. I always said it's got to be iOS 7. And now I think I've proven it. This thing runs rock solid now.