iPhone A positive note on iOS 13.7 (iPhone 8)

[Populus]

Hello.

I’ve read a lot about iOS 13 through this entire year, since its launch. All the bugs that plagued iOS 13 at first made me hesitate wether or not to update my iPhone 8 (with Intel modem) from iOS 12 to iOS 13.

iOS 12 was a pretty awesome release. Maybe it didn’t have many new features but it was rock solid. The Snow Leopard of iOS releases. So I stayed on that reliability, rather than updating to the latest and fanciest version.

As 2020 was passing, iOS 13 kept fixing bugs and gaining stability and performance build after build. I updated my iPad Pro (accidentally, lol), but I needed the reliability and the battery life of iOS 12, specially because this past spring/summer a family member had a surgery scheduled, and I needed a reliable smartphone to carry with me. I could wait a bit more.

After the surgery, I started wondering if the time to update had come. However, with iOS 13.5.1 some people started to report battery drain issues in the forum. I waited, and waited... until iOS 13.7 I thought this was the perfect time to format my smartphone and make a clean install because people seems pretty happy with this last release of iOS 13 (happy as I am right now). Also the latest battery test of iAppleBytes shows how the iPhone 8 has better battery life on this latest build.

After the first 24h I can tell you that battery life is the same, if not a bit better than with iOS 12. With the battery health at 85%, it gave me almost 7 hours of screen on time. Specifically, this morning the battery was at 60% and tonight it finally got drained, this 60% gave me almost 4 hours of screen on time.

So pretty happy, yeah. I think late august / early september is a great moment to update to the most stable release of the current OS, and I think I’m gonna keep doing it for years to come. I know iOS 14 has lots of awesome new features, and macOS 11 is gorgeous. But I can wait, because I love machines that work flawlessly like Apple devices usually do. Next year when I see iOS 14 is very stable and reliable, I will jump to iOS/iPadOS 14 and Big Sur, all at once to ensure the maximum compatibility among all my Apple devices.

Now I’m enjoying for the first time dark mode on my iPhone, I see lots of new details, icons with rounder shapes, Sign in with Apple (which only now is beginning to be massively adopted), the new swipe keyboard, new photos app, new maps, enhanced security... And with the best performance I have ever imagined.

This post is for anyone hesitating to make the jump to iOS 13, to let them know it is no longer the mess it was a year ago, and honestly a really great operating system to enjoy for the next months, until iOS 14 is polished enough.

 

[Jack Neill]

The misery will all be over at 10:00AM PST today.

 

[Populus]

The misery will all be over at 10:00AM PST today.

Excuse me, I don’t get what you mean by misery. This was a positive review of the final form of iOS 13. Actually, I think the troubles will start all over again when the unpolished, plenty of bugs iOS 14.0 gets released. That’s why I’m happy to stay on 13.7 for a while on both iPhone and iPad.

 

[Jack Neill]

Excuse me, I don’t get what you mean by misery. This was a positive review of the final form of iOS 13. Actually, I think the troubles will start all over again when the unpolished, plenty of bugs iOS 14.0 gets released. That’s why I’m happy to stay on 13.7 for a while on both iPhone and iPad.

I agree that in its current state iOS 13 is perfectly usable for most. I plan to leave a few devices on 13 for awhile myself. For others 10:00 PST can't come fast enough. It's how I felt about iOS 11 when 12 came out. 11 was a dumpster fire just like 13.

 

[Populus]

I agree that in its current state iOS 13 is perfectly usable for most. I plan to leave a few devices on 13 for awhile myself. For others 10:00 PST can't come fast enough. It's how I felt about iOS 11 when 12 came out. 11 was a dumpster fire just like 13.

Oh yeah, I remember those times, and I agree, iOS 12 was refreshing. Many said that even during the beta, iOS 12 was far better than the last versions of iOS 11. However, although I understand your analogy, I don’t think this is 1:1 the same scenario. iOS 14 packs too many new features (iOS 12 didn’t) and it is still showing some bugs. But of course the first stages won’t be as bad as iOS 13 release.

I could try iPad OS 14 on my iPad, just to try, but I want to jump to the next OS on all my devices at once to avoid issues (such as iCloud Safari tabs not syncing between devices), but depending on the evolution of iOS 14 maybe I’ll jump earlier.

 

[Jack Neill]

Oh yeah, I remember those times, and I agree, iOS 12 was refreshing. Many said that even during the beta, iOS 12 was far better than the last versions of iOS 11. However, although I understand your analogy, I don’t think this is 1:1 the same scenario. iOS 14 packs too many new features (iOS 12 didn’t) and it is still showing some bugs. But of course the first stages won’t be as bad as iOS 13 release.

I could try iPad OS 14 on my iPad, just to try, but I want to jump to the next OS on all my devices at once to avoid issues (such as iCloud Safari tabs not syncing between devices), but depending on the evolution of iOS 14 maybe I’ll jump earlier.

My plan is to go to 14 on my work iPhone 11/iPad Pro and keep my personal XS/Air3 on 13.7. I used a old 8 as a test device for 14 through most of the Public Betas and never really had any issues.