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After several betas, how does iOS 12 run on older devices?

iRock1

iRock1

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 23, 2011
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I have an iPad Air running iOS 9, which already is kind-of annoyingly slow. Because of that, I never felt tempted to upgrade to iOS 10 or 11.

Would iOS 12 be at least on pair with iOS 9 in terms of performance or, despite the claims, will it still make older devices slower?
 
I have an iPad Air 2, not that old, but I only feel a huge speed improvement on my iPhone 6s Plus. After a few days my iPad gets slower.
 
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I still use an iPad Mini 2 on a daily basis (including today to take some notes) and it's on the Public Beta of iOS 12 currently.

Before that It's been through everything since 7.0 when I got it. I kept it on 9.3.5 for an extended time and jumped to 11 and it was just as bad if not worse than 9.x. However, iOS 12 is much faster than 11.4, and in fact I'd say it's at least as quick as 9.3.5 if not slightly better. It won't Match iOS 7 or 8 of course, since there's a whole lot more running now and newer features since then.

But IMO iOS 12 does run at least as good as iOS 9.3.5 if not better. It's primarily the 1GB or RAM that holds us back, more so than just the A7 chip, as it's not that different from the A8 CPU wise, and the mini 4 is much, much faster with it's 2GB of RAM. Same with the Air 2 and it's A8X.

Plus the gestures inherited from the iPhone X are just plain fun.
 
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This week I've jumped from 10 to 12PB on my mini 2. Also used every day. I was really nervous but it's actually great. Seems to run pretty much same as 10 but with new ui and some new features. Might do my iPhone 7 too but will wait for proper release.
 
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I had beta 4 on my iphone 6 and it was terrible and slowly. Yesterday I installed beta 5, and my device is completely fast and smooth, no lag, I haven’t encountered any bugs. Its almost feeling like ios 10 . If this is beta 5, I just wanna see how fast and smoothly will be the GM o the last beta. I suggest you to install ios 12 beta 5, is twice as fast than ios 11.4.1. You won’t regret it.
 
iRock1 said:
I have an iPad Air running iOS 9, which already is kind-of annoyingly slow. Because of that, I never felt tempted to upgrade to iOS 10 or 11.

Would iOS 12 be at least on pair with iOS 9 in terms of performance or, despite the claims, will it still make older devices slower?
Click to expand...

I have an iPad air running beta 4, and it's much, much better than iOS11, and better than I remember 10, but of course that's an unreliable comparison since it's not side by side. It's not lightning fast, but for what I ask of it these days: Netflix, Kindle, etc, it's fine.

(Although, if it's any indication of my family's tolerance for older tech, we also have an original iPad - that's right, v1 - that still runs and still accesses Dropbox that we use as a cookbook. iOS 5!)
 
iRock1 said:
I have an iPad Air running iOS 9, which already is kind-of annoyingly slow. Because of that, I never felt tempted to upgrade to iOS 10 or 11.

Would iOS 12 be at least on pair with iOS 9 in terms of performance or, despite the claims, will it still make older devices slower?
Click to expand...
Do you have the latest iOS 9? If you do, keep it.

Old styled control center
 
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LoveToMacRumors said:
Do you have the latest iOS 9? If you do, keep it.

Old styled control center
Click to expand...

Nope, it's on 9.3.3.

Control Center is not a big deal to me. What I really want are all the features I've been missing for two entire generations (now three).
 
I installed iOS 12 PB 5 yesterday on my iPad Air 2. It's so much better than iOS 11 in terms of reactivity, and so far I didn't noticed any issues with the apps or games I am using on a regular basis.
 
For me latest beta of iOS 12 is running exactly same as iOS 11.4.1
No change observed on my iPad Air 2.
 
Ok guys, I get from your feedback that things get better going from iOS 11 to 12. However, as I explained, I'm not on iOS 11 or even 10, but 9.

I'm guessing the decrease in performance would be very noticeable, not to mention that I have an iPad Air, instead of the Air 2 many of you use.
 
I've had it on my daily driver since day one (iPhone 6 Plus) and it's not too painfully slow. It's a slow device to begin with, but iOS 12 is an improvement from iOS 11.
 
Well, maybe a lil bit faster and more stable on iPad Air 2.

The difference is much more noticeable on the iPhone 5S. Really refreshing update to such old device, breathed in the new life in it.
 
Even on my 7 Plus it's astoundingly faster/smoother than 11. It's perhaps most noticeable when scrolling. I used to get micro-stutters when scrolling lists and such, especially lists with images/graphics/complex GUI stuff going on - e.g. the widgets page in Notification Center. Now almost everything I scroll is just like butter, including those widgets.
 
5S & Mini 2 here. Pretty good for 5 years old devices. I'll probably upgrade the iPhone as the battery does not last long enough - even after replacement I am dissatisfied with the battery runtime compared to iPhone 7/8.
 
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