iOS 8

[Hooobi]

I went from 7.1.2 to 8.1.1 on my iPad 2 this morning. Awful! Slow as molasses and everything stutters about. It ran fine on 7.x and I mainly upgraded due to security concerns (and thinking the second iteration would address all the slowdown complaints).

Guess this will just help me migrate more fully to my SP3 as a consumption device...

 

[Eug]

A friend said his iPad 3 and iPad mini were both helped a fair bit by the 8.1.1 update in terms of performance, at least compared to iOS 8.1. Of course, neither are his main machine though. His main one is an iPad Air 2. I suspect he'd be less impressed if he had to use them full time.

In case you're wondering, he collects these things since he's a developer and can write the stuff off.

 

[ragom]

yep nice

 

[MichaelHudson]

I upgraded the original iPad mini and it seems fine.

 

[redgtxdi]

Doh!! I just got another reminder on my iPad2 this morning. Very tempted, but so far 50/50 in the last couple replies. I'm gonna hold out a while longer. (Grrrrrrrr!!!)

 

[Oyeve]

Did the 8.1.1 update to my ipad 2 that was butchered by the last 3 ios 8.x updates. Seems a bit quicker and more stable. Also did my ip5. Noticed that the update disable corporate email notifications on both devices, had to manually activate it. No big whoop but still.

 

[Eug]

iPhone 4S - 8.1.1 vs 7.1.2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10XcPG43bbg

iPhone 4S - 8.1 vs 8.1.1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbpbd45geYk

7.1.2 is still way faster. That settles it. I'm holding off upgrading on my iPad 2 until I really need to upgrade for compatibility issues. Probably 2015. Right now 7.x is mostly still OK, since the vast majority of recent important apps are still 7.0+ compatible (but not 6 compatible).

BTW, the one thing I hated the most about 8.0 was the delay for screen auto-rotation oddly enough. It just sat there thinking about it for a few seconds before rotating. How is it now? Nobody seems to test that.

 

[Cheergo]

:-( I lost all photos when I upgraded to ios 7.1.2.

 

[desura]

IOS 8.1.1 got me to almost upgrade an iPad 2 from iOS 5. I didn't have 5 gigs available. Then I realized how good iOS 5 was compared to 7 and above. 7 is literally the worst looking mobile operating system now.

After some contemplation, I have decided to abandon iOS in favor of windows phone and android. Ios7 is just that bad.

 

[Printer Bandit]

change:

settings --> general --> accessibility --> reduce motion --> ON

and all will be right again with iOS 8.

 

[Eug]

Ars: iOS 8.1.1, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2: A little faster, kind of, sometimes

Heavy users will see some improvement, but iOS 8's worst regressions remain.

App load times: Virtually unchanged

Interface choppiness and lag: Pretty much the same

Long-term speed and stability: Actual improvement, and the pressure of living with 512MB of RAM

Finally, some reproducible improvement! And though there's no test we can run to quantify this, we can also say that we didn't run into crashes or instability as we tested all of these things on iOS 8.1.1. Crashes weren't constant under 8.1, but they did happen with some regularity.

It's hard to say exactly what Apple has done to improve performance under these RAM-starved conditions, at least not without more input from Apple (the company has declined to comment for this story). We also can't list exactly when users can expect to see improvements, beyond the "play around in other apps and then jump back to Safari" test we've engineered here.

The best we can say is that something about the process of loading and ejecting processes to and from the A5's 512MB of RAM could cause slowness and instability in iOS 8.1, and whatever the problem was has been at least partially addressed in iOS 8.1.1. The update doesn't help with the still-unimpressive performance of the UI, application launches, and lighter multitasking loads, but it does deliver some consistent and measurable improvements under certain circumstances.

Conclusions

As for iOS 8.1.1, well, it doesn't hurt anything. It helps a little, sometimes. But if you were hoping for an iOS-7.1-on-the-iPhone-4-style shot in the arm, this unfortunately isn't it.

 

[desura]

change:

settings --> general --> accessibility --> reduce motion --> ON

and all will be right again with iOS 8.

No, I tried it. Just as annoying.

I want the old animation back. Ive is so overrated. Ios7 is pretty half-assed compared to windows phone.

 

[Rakehellion]

Upgraded from 8.1 to 8.1.1 on my iPhone 5 and now everything is laggy. Choppy animations and random pauses in several different apps. Sucks.

 

[Printer Bandit]

No, I tried it. Just as annoying.

I want the old animation back. Ive is so overrated. Ios7 is pretty half-assed compared to windows phone.

how is it annoying, it's just a fade in/out?

 

[Eug]

Yahoo push email is no longer working consistently for me. Rarely pushes. Have to load up Mail before new mail is seen.

IOS 8.1.1.

Edit:

Working on phone after reset network
settings. Not sure if coincidence or what.

 

[Eug]

iOS 8.1.2 is out. Minor update with bug fixes, including one fix a ringtone issue. Nothing mentioned about performance.

 

[RampantAndroid]

iOS 8.1.2 is out. Minor update with bug fixes, including one fix a ringtone issue. Nothing mentioned about performance.

Nothing short of 8.2 will fix problems.

 

[Eug]

I finally got to try 8.1.2 on an original iPad mini, side by side with an iPad mini 3. The original mini was definitely laggier in iOS 8, such as with slightly delayed auto-rotation and menu page switching.

However, it'is indeed a noticeable improvement over iOS 8.0. It's actually reasonably decent with 8.1.2, to my pleasant surprise.

So, I dunno about the iPhone 4S, but the iPad 2 and iPad mini won't totally suck when I'm finally forced to upgrade to iOS 8.

One thing I did notice quite readily though was much more frequent page reloading in Safari on he iPad mini, but I don't know if it's just the RAM. I couldn't compare side by side with a 7.1.2 iPad mini.

 

[Eug]

After using iOS 8.1.2 for a while on our iPad 2, I will confirm it's a big improvement over 8.0, but the lag can still get annoying compared to 7.1.2.

However, iOS 8.1.3 is out today. It's supposed include performance and stability improvements, among other things.

 

[Ichinisan]

8.1.3 does something stupid with the bookmarks that appear when I tap in the address bar [on my iPad mini 2]. For absolutely no reason, the area resizes when I tap a folder. So I'm going to tap something in the folder and it moves away from its original position, making me tap something else. I have to wait for it to finish resizing before I tap anything. Stupid.

When I tap "Back" to get out of the bookmark group, I see my main bookmarks screen all squished and overlapping before it stretches back out again.

 

[Eug]

After using iOS 8.1.2 for a while on our iPad 2, I will confirm it's a big improvement over 8.0, but the lag can still get annoying compared to 7.1.2.

However, iOS 8.1.3 is out today. It's supposed include performance and stability improvements, among other things.

I used the iPad 2 with 8.1.3 yesterday for a little while. I am not 100% sure if it's placebo, if it's because of a reboot, or if it's a true improvement, but overall the iPad felt less laggy/stuttery in iOS 8.1.3 than 8.1.2 did. In other words, at no time did 8.1.3 feel slower than 8.1.2, but sometimes 8.1.3 did feel faster, and I think that feeling is real.

I'm pleased. Apple's claim that iOS 8.1.3 brings performance improvements seems to have real truth behind it.

I now have few qualms recommending iOS 8.1.3 on the iPad 2 or iPad mini. I'm less optimistic about the iPhone 4S (or last generation iPod touch), but I haven't used a 4S with iOS 8.1.3 yet though so I'll reserve judgement.

 

[dud]

Honestly, I read a bit of this thread and could have sworn I was in a Microshaft forum.

I just bought an iPad 2 retina about 2 months ago. It came with 7.1.2. It sounds like I should stick with what I have vice upgrading. It runs smoothly and has never given me any problems.

I'll wait for Windows 10 ...

 

[lucia]

After updating to 8.1.3, iTunes informed me I had carrier update. Big Red iPhone 6.

 

[TheStu]

Honestly, I read a bit of this thread and could have sworn I was in a Microshaft forum.

I just bought an iPad 2 retina about 2 months ago. It came with 7.1.2. It sounds like I should stick with what I have vice upgrading. It runs smoothly and has never given me any problems.

I'll wait for Windows 10 ...

What the heck is an iPad 2 retina?

 

[Oyeve]

What the heck is an iPad 2 retina?

New ipad? AKA ipad 3?