iOS 10 performance and battery life on A6 devices, pleasant surprise?

[Castdeath97]

Arstechinica have been repeatedly testing older phones performance in newer iOS versions since the iOS 6 update included the 3GS. While on iOS 6 the performance of oldest device wasn't impacted much if not improved in some areas, newer versions (particularly 7) hadn't been too friendly with oldest devices.

Quote

I’ve been tracking the performance of new iOS versions on the slowest supported hardware for four years now, and I don’t think my findings have been positive since I wrote about iOS 6 on the iPhone 3GS. iOS 7 was a bad fit for the iPhone 4, and iOS 7.1 was only an improvement in a relative sense. iOS 8 and iOS 9 were tolerable on the iPhone 4S, but they were still significant slowdowns compared to iOS 6 and 7.

 

Looking at the tests arstechinca carried, the impacts on performance and battery life seem less compared to what the iPhone 4 and 4S had to suffer.

 

Battery tests:

 

 

Launch times and boot times

 

 



 

 

Overall performance GUI seemed great as well

Quote

Most basic day-to-day things still feel pretty good on the iPhone 5. Bringing up the Intelligence screen, the Notification Center, the Control Center, or the multitasking switcher all happens smoothly without the inconsistency or dropped frames that plague an iPhone 4S running iOS 9. You’ll mostly run into problems in three areas: games, multitasking, and battery life.

 

I really hope this becomes the norm over the next iOS versions, it's nice to see that the iPhone 5 still has some life in it. But, of course don't expect everything to be perfect, just like the article said the phone is still not capable of handling the newest games, is not a stellar multitasker and the battery had likely gotten weaker over time, it is after all a phone from 2012.

 

source:http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/09/good-news-ios-10-runs-pretty-well-on-the-iphone-5-and-5c/

[VerticalDiscussions]

Well i guess this is a pleasant surprise for people using older Iphones for sure. Always nice to see something so old getting software updates. What sometimes boggles my mind is that Apple had 64GB capacity on phones in 2011, impressive xD!

[Curufinwe_wins]

So for the first time in 4 generations a iOS update doesn't effectively brick the phone? That's nice to see.

[TRENX]

I usually follow a general rule, As long as apple still sells the device updates shouldn't make the device drastically slower. The only reason I think they don't make devices as slow intentionally anymore is ever since that lawsuit they had for making someones 4s essentially a nice looking glass sandwich paper weight, However I don't plan to upgrade my iPad Air 2 after iOS 10 due to the fact that the new iPads are out and a newer pro model will be coming early next year, When that happens I suspect apple will no longer sell the Air 2. In fact my Macbook pro still runs Yosemite because anything above makes my laptop unusable. Its nice they are trying to not brick any older devices but I still don't fully trust them.

[divided_throwaway]

4 hours ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

Well i guess this is a pleasant surprise for people using older Iphones for sure. Always nice to see something so old getting software updates. What sometimes boggles my mind is that Apple had 64GB capacity on phones in 2011, impressive xD!

It's a shame that you have to be tied down to the Apple ecosystem for the phone to be functional with new apps due to their support cycles and the fact that most iOS devices receive updates promptly.

[VerticalDiscussions]

19 minutes ago, divided_throwaway said:

-snip-

How is that a bad thing? Your using an IOS device, would you rather never have it updated? Also better to ask than to threaten you like Microsoft did. 5 years of updates is better than 1 year of updates then you stay adrift.

[divided_throwaway]

1 minute ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

How is that a bad thing? Your using an IOS device, would you rather never have it updated? Also better to ask than to threaten you like Microsoft did. 5 years of updates is better than 1 year of updates then you stay adrift.

Updates take up hard drive space unnecessarily, even though they give support for additional functionality.

[TRENX]

You're never tied to a ecosystem, I have a android phone, iPad, Gaming pc and a macbook I don't feel tied down to any of them in any way hell I could just as easily use Steam os or Ubuntu for my PC, macbook and phone it makes no major difference to me. Also updates don't take up space in any meaningful way most of the time old files are flushed after several reboots of the device... 

[Curufinwe_wins]

50 minutes ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

How is that a bad thing? Your using an IOS device, would you rather never have it updated? Also better to ask than to threaten you like Microsoft did. 5 years of updates is better than 1 year of updates then you stay adrift.

Actually yes. I would rather have it never updated over the device being rendered completely useless by a future OS update that you have to use anyways because your apps will no longer work on your current OS because that makes total sense.

 

Provided that doesn't happen (as it seems not to have happened with iOS10 for the first time in 5 generations of iOS) then sure there is no reason not to want an update.

[Castdeath97]

2 hours ago, Thomas_Bam said:

I usually follow a general rule, As long as apple still sells the device updates shouldn't make the device drastically slower. The only reason I think they don't make devices as slow intentionally anymore is ever since that lawsuit they had for making someones 4s essentially a nice looking glass sandwich paper weight, However I don't plan to upgrade my iPad Air 2 after iOS 10 due to the fact that the new iPads are out and a newer pro model will be coming early next year, When that happens I suspect apple will no longer sell the Air 2. In fact my Macbook pro still runs Yosemite because anything above makes my laptop unusable. Its nice they are trying to not brick any older devices but I still don't fully trust them.

That's why you check websites like arstechinca for tests like these, I do this every year.

 

By the way El Capitan performance is fine, it wasn't a major update. 

[Castdeath97]

57 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Actually yes. I would rather have it never updated over the device being rendered completely useless by a future OS update that you have to use anyways because your apps will no longer work on your current OS because that makes total sense.

 

Provided that doesn't happen (as it seems not to have happened with iOS10 for the first time in 5 generations of iOS) then sure there is no reason not to want an update.

 

2 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

So for the first time in 4 generations a iOS update doesn't effectively brick the phone? That's nice to see.

Even if you don't carry software updates, app updates are going to slow your applications. YouTube post update became horribly sluggish and Twitter was the same. It's hard to get away from these issues with a four old year phone.

 

I mean look at the S3, poor thing didn't even get kitkat.

 

iOS 9 wasn't a major slowdown by the way, it's just that it did support the iPhone 4S which already suffered a slowdown from 8. I would say there were only two clurprits, 7 and 8, which conicendently were both major for iOS.

[Castdeath97]

2 hours ago, divided_throwaway said:

It's a shame that you have to be tied down to the Apple ecosystem for the phone to be functional with new apps due to their support cycles and the fact that most iOS devices receive updates promptly.

Both are major irritating things about using iOS. But, the state of software support android devices get with the exception of the Nexus line made me switch to iOS 2 years ago. I may switch back, but only if I see a good return for the nexus (or pixel of the rumours to be believed) line. (My iPhone 6 Plus is still holding, so I don't see a reason to upgarde).

[Pomfinator]

iOS 10 has been a mixed bag so far for me.  Performance-wise it's even better than iOS 9 in most cases, but some of the new UI choices baffle me, especially on a Plus.  The funny thing is that they actually made good choices for the new tablet UI, but decided they weren't going to bother making a middle ground for Plus devices where the extra screen real-estate can offer a lot of extra information.

[Curufinwe_wins]

30 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

 

Even if you don't carry software updates, app updates are going to slow your applications. YouTube post update became horribly sluggish and Twitter was the same. It's hard to get away from these issues with a four old year phone.

 

I mean look at the S3, poor thing didn't even get kitkat.

 

iOS 9 wasn't a major slowdown by the way, it's just that it did support the iPhone 4S which already suffered a slowdown from 8. I would say there were only two clurprits, 7 and 8, which conicendently were both major for iOS.

On Android phones most apps still function properly if you just don't update it. I have a Nook Tablet OG and it works as good as it did day one (not that is was ever amazing), and because it never got updates it never slowed down.

 

Obviously knowing when to update and when not is a harder thing.

 

iOS 6 also hit the 3GS really hard. So iOS 6-9 were all regressions (even if 9 wasn't as big of a deal). Hence first time in 4 generations it's an improvement (or even a not-make things worse).

[Castdeath97]

35 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

On Android phones most apps still function properly if you just don't update it. I have a Nook Tablet OG and it works as good as it did day one (not that is was ever amazing), and because it never got updates it never slowed down.

 

Obviously knowing when to update and when not is a harder thing.

 

iOS 6 also hit the 3GS really hard. So iOS 6-9 were all regressions (even if 9 wasn't as big of a deal). Hence first time in 4 generations it's an improvement (or even a not-make things worse).

Well Ars did test it and it didn't get hit:

 

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/09/tempting-fate-installing-ios-6-on-the-iphone-3gs/

 

Even if the performance doesn't get affected, it's a shame to be left off and to lose out on all the new features of the next version, even if your phone didn't pass 2 years.

 

[TRENX]

2 hours ago, Castdeath97 said:

El Capitan performance is fine, it wasn't a major update. 

Tell that to my macbook when I had it it froze for a good 5 seconds when I right clicked and when I used macOS Sierra it froze for 10 - 20 seconds just moving files grated thats a beta but I think ill stick to what I know works. 

 

(the problems persisted even if I did a clean install or reset the SMC)

[79wjd]

10 minutes ago, Thomas_Bam said:

Tell that to my macbook when I had it it froze for a good 5 seconds when I right clicked and when I used macOS Sierra it froze for 10 - 20 seconds just moving files grated thats a beta but I think ill stick to what I know works. 

 

(the problems persisted even if I did a clean install or reset the SMC)

What Mac do you have?

 

Yosemite isn't drastically lighter than anything that came after it.

[shermantanker]

iOS 10 seems to be running smoother on my 6 plus, but I'm get a 7 tomorrow anyway.

[Hunter259]

37 minutes ago, Thomas_Bam said:

Tell that to my macbook when I had it it froze for a good 5 seconds when I right clicked and when I used macOS Sierra it froze for 10 - 20 seconds just moving files grated thats a beta but I think ill stick to what I know works. 

 

(the problems persisted even if I did a clean install or reset the SMC)

That sounds like its dieing. I've run all the betas since Yosemite and have never had a problem like that. Only graphical glitches on desktop switching.

[Hunter259]

2 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

On Android phones most apps still function properly if you just don't update it. I have a Nook Tablet OG and it works as good as it did day one (not that is was ever amazing), and because it never got updates it never slowed down.

 

Obviously knowing when to update and when not is a harder thing.

 

iOS 6 also hit the 3GS really hard. So iOS 6-9 were all regressions (even if 9 wasn't as big of a deal). Hence first time in 4 generations it's an improvement (or even a not-make things worse).

3GS was about the same between 5 and 6 so i don't know what you are talking about. The 4 took a nice hit but i would rather have an update. Never made it unusable. Just kinda like vista on a core 2 duo kinda speed.

[Mr.Meerkat]

5 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

So for the first time in 4 generations a iOS update doesn't effectively brick the phone? That's nice to see.

Well a 4s probably would work fine as well...I think what happened before was all devices before the 4s were...ermmmm...single core?

[Castdeath97]

1 hour ago, Thomas_Bam said:

Tell that to my macbook when I had it it froze for a good 5 seconds when I right clicked and when I used macOS Sierra it froze for 10 - 20 seconds just moving files grated thats a beta but I think ill stick to what I know works. 

 

(the problems persisted even if I did a clean install or reset the SMC)

Curiously, do you have one with a hard drive?

[TRENX]

2 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

What Mac do you have?

Macbook Pro 13" Late 2011 Upgraded with 8GB Ram and 250GB Samsung 850 EVO.

 

58 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

Curiously, do you have one with a hard drive?

 Not anymore, SSD.

 

1 hour ago, Hunter259 said:

That sounds like its dieing. I've run all the betas since Yosemite and have never had a problem like that. Only graphical glitches on desktop switching.

I ran apple hardware test a few weeks ago before I rolled back to yosemite (rolled back on monday) and nothing came up. I replaced my thermal paste last week so i know its not being slow due to a thermal barrier.

[Hunter259]

2 hours ago, Thomas_Bam said:

Macbook Pro 13" Late 2011 Upgraded with 8GB Ram and 250GB Samsung 850 EVO.

 

 Not anymore, SSD.

 

I ran apple hardware test a few weeks ago before I rolled back to yosemite (rolled back on monday) and nothing came up. I replaced my thermal paste last week so i know its not being slow due to a thermal barrier.

That test really isn't going to show anything. There is something going on and its not a software update.

[TRENX]

6 hours ago, Hunter259 said:

That test really isn't going to show anything. There is something going on and its not a software update.

I'm going to try apples internal "apple hardware diagnostics" tool that has been leaked and can be found on various torrent websites. That will normally tell you if anything is up as it tests the logic board fully. If that comes back clean I might try a new ssd but at the moment yosemite is running as expected.

 

Apple hardware diagnostics tool in action to diagnose a board fault : skip to 2:44 to see the laptop fail the test and after a lenghthy board repair / rant skio to 55:55 to see it pass the test.

 

 

Its still not a 100% confirmed proof that its fine but until I see any weirdness in Yosemite I will assume that its just these updates causing the problems.