When iOS 7 was released, iPhone 4 users experienced a dramatic slowdown that in many cases left devices nearly unusable. Thankfully, according to Ars Technica, the just-released iOS 7.1 fixes a bunch of problems and makes iOS 7 actually work on the iPhone 4.
iOS 7 is missing a bunch of features on the iPhone 4, but it runs terribly. Users have complained about jerky performance, glitchy animations, and slow loading of apps overall. In an exhaustive breakdown that includes the chart above, Ars Technica had this to say:
iOS 7 is unlikely to run better on the iPhone 4 than it does in iOS 7.1. That’s not to say that the experience is great — even stepping up to an iPhone 4S would get you noticeable gains in performance and overall smoothness — but it’s better than it was, and it’s as good as it’s going to get.
If you’re sticking with the iPhone 4 for another year, iOS 7.1 makes performance tolerable enough that using the phone isn’t unbearable. The benefits to trading up are unmistakable, though — you get better performance, a larger screen, more RAM, faster Wi-Fi and cellular speeds, and a boatload of extra features only available to new hardware. By the time iOS 8 rolls around later this year, you should really think about stepping up.
If you’re holding onto your iPhone 4 for another cycle, this is great news. For a full breakdown of all the performance tweaks in iOS 7.1, head over to Ars Technica.
iOS 7.1 on the iPhone 4: As good as it’s going to get [Ars Technica]
Comments
8 responses to “iOS 7.1 Makes Your iPhone 4 Usable Again”
Too late, Apple. Switched all mobile phones in my household to use Android already.
The only thing I hope they don’t suck on is their Mac OS.
Yep, just bought a Nexus. Bye forever Apple.
Having to wait an extra second renders your phone unusable?
Apparently, patience is not compatible with usability. Give those people a DOS phone. boots in 3 sec instead of 31, 45 or 42 sec. Much faster. won’t do much, but it’s much more usable. 😀
I would love that if it fits for purpose.
It’s a horrible user experience because you have to wait an extra second for -everything-. Even the unlock screen lags.
my iphone 4 i think is greatly slower than that table.
opening safari is painful. its almost make a cup of tea slow.
i’d have been happy if ios7 just kept app compatibility and the look but abandoned all the extra features. in theory the iphone 4 is still a decently speced “phone” that now performs much worse at each of its tasks than when i purchased it.
i have been fed up and will be upgrading this year likely to android maybe win phone 8.1 but not to apple
I’d be happier if they fixed iOS 7 to work as expected with the iPhone 5.
When iOS 7.0.6 was released, my playlists in Podcasts reversed for no reason (the fix is to create a new playlist and copy the tracks across, but this has to be done after every sync) and all notifications reset.
I’ve had similar issues with each release (entire music/podcast library being deleted, settings changing automatically etc), and I’ve spent hours reversing the issues.
I’ve loved the iPhone up until the iOS 7 release. I’ll be sad to move to Android when my current handset contract expires.
Confirming a slight improvement on my Iphone 4 but agree with the suggestion above that my phone generally performs slower than that table.
The biggest change I’ve noticed is that I seem to get far fewer random freezes. On 7.0, for example, locking the phone while music was playing would cause the music to cut out for a second. Problem is gone.
The speed with which the “Phone” app works is still a disaster, but other than that the 7.1 upgrade has reduced my frustration by, say, 30%.