Apple looking into slow iOS 4 performance on iPhone 3G

Woe unto the iPhone 3G user who has upgraded to iOS 4. There may be hope, though, as Apple has heard their cries and is reportedly investigating the issues.

<a href='http://meincmagazine.com/apple/news/2010/07/apple-looking-into-slow-ios-4-performance-on-iphone-3g.ars'>Read the whole story</a>

 

[Lemurs]

Backwards compatibility is a bitch, eh? Imagine the troubles you'd have if you didn't control the whole ecosystem from end-to-end...

 

[Belzebuth]

Hey at least you 3G people get *something*. Unlike my 1st gen iPod Touch.

 

[mxl2101]

The iPhone 3G is two years old. Time to upgrade folks (or switch to android). There are plenty of bones to pick with Apple, but this is not one of them IMHO.

Just to put things into perspective, the venerable (and now retired) G1 is newer than the iPhone 3G.

 

[Fentras]

They're not bugs, they're upgrade incentives.

 

[rotational]

I didn't realize downgrading was an option. I wish I had paid attention to the problems being reported before I upgraded - my 3G has been painful to use since. I'd consigned myself to just dealing with it until my contract was up in September and I switched to an Android phone, but if downgrading at home is doable, at least I won't have to be miserable until then.

Apple and AT&T have really laid some impressive turds lately...certainly not helping dissuade people who have been considering alternatives from switching.

 

[outlaw2005]

It certainly is a bone to pick with them. They claimed the OS would work on my phone, it runs like shit. That's like Microsoft setting the minimum requirements for Vista to a Pentium II 600mhz processor. My phone runs like crap since I've installed OS4. Unless Apple does something to really fix the problem, this will be my last iphone.

 

[.劉煒]

Dare I suggest putting FroYo on your 3G instead? It's even all legal-like and stuff now.

 

[crombie]

I find it is not just the 3G, but my 3GS is noticeable slower in some applications. Email, texting, Facebook and the camera all take a lot longer than it did on v3.

 

[totm]

The performance forced me to upgrade to a new iphone and now my wife is complaining about hers, but she doesn't want to buy a new phone. It would be great if they do address the performance, especially since there is no way to downgrade the os to the faster previous version....

 

[vortigern_red]

Apple were happily selling the 3G just a couple of months ago, I think they need to fix the OS.

 

[Rubel]

Lots of people got a 3G when Apple started selling them at $99. iTunes nags you to upgrade your OS. It's the default Apple product for many people and should work well. I know at least one person who got a cheapie Android phone as a direct result of her dissatisfaction after upgrading to iOS 4.

 

[bloodhound]

The iPhone 3G is two years old. Time to upgrade folks (or switch to android). There are plenty of bones to pick with Apple, but this is not one of them IMHO.

Just to put things into perspective, the venerable (and now retired) G1 is newer than the iPhone 3G.

Maybe Apple shouldn't have supported 3G with the new update then? Did Apple not perform any Quality checks? Going by all the hardware defects in Apple products lately, I am assuming not.

 

[issor]

The iPhone 3G is two years old. Time to upgrade folks (or switch to android). There are plenty of bones to pick with Apple, but this is not one of them IMHO.

Just to put things into perspective, the venerable (and now retired) G1 is newer than the iPhone 3G.

Really? My phone, which worked fine (and is a company phone, btw), should be tossed aside and replaced because Apple made it slow and painful to use? I suppose any hardware manufacturer should 'update' your device with poor performance when they think it's time for you to upgrade?

My experience had been that the iphone 3G was already painfully slow at browsing, but everything else worked just fine. The interface and most other apps were snappy. Now even simple apps like contacts, text messaging, the system utilities, all freeze for 10-15 seconds occasionally when pressing a button or moving to the next 'screen'. Or sometimes the touch buttons just don't respond. Once I waited for 60 seconds for my contacts to show ( I have 24 contacts), and then just said screw it, locked the phone, and looked it up the old fashioned way... at my computer.

 

[BlackHex]

I updated to iOS4... it is soooo slow I gave up and went back to my much hated NexusOne. Downgrading to iPhone 3 would be a fine solution if I knew how to do it.

Still my pre-ordered iPhone 4 should arrive in 8-10 weeks (sigh).

 

[Thraxen]

My wife complains about hers every day now. iOS4 completely trashed her phone. I understand why the 3G can't have things like multitasking, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect to be able to use things like folders without an enormous hit in performance. Apple never should have allowed iOS4 to be deployed on 3G phones if this is the best they can do. It's like they didn't test jack shit with iOS4 or the iPhone 4, just left all the testing to their consumers.

 

[jrs65]

I don't care about about anything particularly fancy, but Mail and Messages have taken massive performance hits. Given the amount of new iOS4 features that are unavailable on the 3G, this step backwards in performance is a little unacceptable. I would upgrade, but I'm emigrating in a few months so there is little point.

 

[petwalrus]

Downgrading is not an option for the end user. It would require Apple to resume providing signing keys for 3.1.3 firmware.

For those who jailbroke their phones, there does exist a possibility that a copy of their signing keys are stored on a Cydia server which does allow them to downgrade.

I would say that there is 0% chance of Apple allowing users to return to 3.1.3 - as that would be like admitting they were wrong with the engineering of this update. (and we all know how good they are about *that*)

Perhaps iOS 4.1.0 will include some memory optimizations that could relieve the stresses on the 3G hardware.

 

[teh_pwnerer]

Apple fanbois care about performance?

 

[Deleted member 12245]

I'm more interested in knowing why it took them until now to decide something was wrong. iPhone and iTunes have both become very un-apple like from a QA perspective.

 

[fitten]

Perhaps they are holding it incorrectly? Apple will show some videos of 3G phones that are working just fine. Anyone complaining about a slow 3G with iOS4 is making it up and this stuff is all overblown. There is no Slow3G-Gate.

(did that cover it all? )

 

[imgod2u]

Is it really surprising? Multitasking requires more RAM. It also requires something more powerful than an ARM11. It's not just 412MHz vs 600MHz. It's single-issue vs dual-issue, 4-entry history buffer vs 4096 entry history buffer, no BTB vs BTB, etc.

 

[Peldor]

Wow, the RDF is just not what it used to be.

 

[Bob_2k]

Sounds like Apple is just on a roll lately...

 

[evilfred]

I get bad performance on my 3GS too. Especially when starting up the camera app sometimes and in mail. And it is silly to tell people to just upgrade their hardware. Should we just throw millions of iPhones out every 2 years? Isn't that horrible for the environment, even if they are recycled?

 

[Marc]

After upgrading and disliking the performance, I downgraded following the procedure here: http://lifehacker.com/5572003/how-to-do ... -iphone-3g-from-ios-4-to-ios-313 Worked fine for me.

 

[vortigern_red]

imgod2u:
There is no third party multi tasking on the 3G. So that is not really relevant.

 

[Kamina]

I have a jailbroken IPod Touch 2G. Installed 4.0 with multitasking and haven't noticed any performance issues. If anything, the change in the orientation (landscape to portrait) is much smoother. Applications launch much faster. Even Safari is faster. I do however make sure that I close all applications right away. Why would 3G have issues? Isn't it faster that 2G?

 

[Deleted member 12245]

Is it really surprising? Multitasking requires more RAM. It also requires something more powerful than an ARM11. It's not just 412MHz vs 600MHz. It's single-issue vs dual-issue, 4-entry history buffer vs 4096 entry history buffer, no BTB vs BTB, etc.

It's also not enabled on the 3G...

 

[fitten]

Is it really surprising? Multitasking requires more RAM. It also requires something more powerful than an ARM11. It's not just 412MHz vs 600MHz. It's single-issue vs dual-issue, 4-entry history buffer vs 4096 entry history buffer, no BTB vs BTB, etc.

Actually, jailbroken iPhone (1st Gen) have been multitasking just fine for years. Jailbroken 3G do it fine as well. It's simply Apple that won't allow them to multitask using standard issue iOS4 on those devices. So, either those who write the jailbreak stuff are better at it than Apple is (which I don't doubt, honestly) and/or Apple is doing this completely for money reasons... to prod even harder those with 1st gen and 3G to upgrade and give Apple more money (and lessen the load of legacy support to cost Apple less money in addition).

 

[tenuki]

I remember when ios4 came out, people were accusing Apple of nefariously limiting its features on the 3g to force upgrades.

^Ever used multitasking on a jailbroken 3g? It's just as bad as ios4 is now.

 

[quarlie]

I didn't notice any particular slowdown on my 3G after updating it to iOS 4.

 

[d0gr0ck]

This appears to me to be a Vista type probelm (albiet much smaller scale and scope). Apple has released the "hot new" OS that performs best on the new hardware. However, not everyone is willing to make the new investment and installs it on the older hardware they've been told works. It works alright, with core functionality, but fails to meet expectations. Now the software maker catches the blame (rightly so in my mind) for having too lax minimum requirements.

 

[Banquo]

Hey at least you 3G people get *something*. Unlike my 1st gen iPod Touch.

Or the multitude of Android users still waiting/or unable to receive any updates.

 

[xand]

"Let me show you how other phones that old suck just as bad!"

 

[fitten]

I remember when ios4 came out, people were accusing Apple of nefariously limiting its features on the 3g to force upgrades.

^Ever used multitasking on a jailbroken 3g? It's just as bad as ios4 is now.

Nope, but it is *possible*. Apple just doesn't give you the option because they don't want users to have a 'bad experience'. They know better than you what features you want and what tradeoffs you're willing to make

 

[alecperkins]

I've been having all sorts of problems on the G2 iPod touch. It's noticeably slower when launching apps, and the transitions between apps, or the unlock screen to home screen, often stutter. I wasn't expecting much as the major features weren't supported, but I didn't expect a downgrade in performance and experience. One friend has an iPhone 3G, and he has been experiencing similar problems. Another friend with a 3GS has also seen slowdowns, to a lesser extent.

 

[Deleted member 12245]

This appears to me to be a Vista type probelm (albiet much smaller scale and scope). Apple has released the "hot new" OS that performs best on the new hardware. However, not everyone is willing to make the new investment and installs it on the older hardware they've been told works. It works alright, with core functionality, but fails to meet expectations. Now the software maker catches the blame (rightly so in my mind) for having too lax minimum requirements.

Except this update doesn't really add much to a 3G, or as my SO put it after she decided to upgrade, "well, that was kind of pointless."

 

[Deleted member 12245]

"Let me show you how other phones that old suck just as bad!"

This comment...I love it so much.

 

[clm100]

Really regret upgrading my 3G here. I kind of like threaded email, but that's the only feature I care about. The phone is pretty close to useless. If only there was an android model out there that was compelling enough for me.