All iPads Ding ding, iPadOS 16 is (finally) coming, share impressions

[Dented]

One thing that’s bugging me on my 10.5 IPP is when you search for an app and launch the app from the search results, the usual smooth opening of the icon where it expands out into the full screen app is reduced to literally two frames - it probably opens just as quick but the experience is very janky - anyone else seeing this?

 

[Digitalguy]

Well, it seems like that part of the status quo remains: performance is good with iOS updates, battery life isn’t. It’s an improvement, considering that everything would break on 32-bit devices. iOS updates will be actually worth it in my view as soon as they fix the constant battery life degradation, but I do commend Apple for at least fixing the performance part. Devices were rendered completely unusable before.

Back in 2015, when iOS 9 was launched, the oldest device supported by it was the iPhone 4s. If you were to tell me “7 years from now, there will be a device that will be on its seventh major version and performance will actually be fine”, I wouldn’t have believed you. It is... something, I guess.

I can’t try anything, as I’m on iOS 12 on my 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and my Air 5 will remain on iPadOS 15, though I am curious to see whether the M1 is a possible cutoff for battery life issues, or if they’ll remain present for longer (at least). Haven’t heard many opinions regarding that.

The main reason for the slowdown was, by far, lack of RAM. Apple created the iPad with basically netbook specs but an extremely simple mobile OS that could make it feel responsible nonetheless. But as soon as that OS started to get more functionality, especially multitasking, it killed any device with 1GB RAM or less.
Devices with more RAM have been affected in terms of reloads mainly, but slowdowns are starting the be felt in 2GB devices too... (my mini 4 got clearly slower moving from 13 to 14 and the 9.7 pro tends to stutter even on 13 when you split screen etc.)
I would not upgrade a 2GB device to iPadOS 16 honestly (let alone the iPad 6 to 17, which it will get almost certainly).
I wouldn't worry too much about speed for 3-4GB devices for the foreseable future, but reloads could increase.
As for battery life, it's not as evident, it can get better or worse with updates, there is no clear pattern...

 

[FeliApple]

The main reason for the slowdown was, by far, lack of RAM. Apple created the iPad with basically netbook specs but an extremely simple mobile OS that could make it feel responsible nonetheless. But as soon as that OS started to get more functionality, especially multitasking, it killed any device with 1GB RAM or less.
Devices with more RAM have been affected in terms of reloads mainly, but slowdowns are starting the be felt in 2GB devices too... (my mini 4 got clearly slower moving from 13 to 14 and the 9.7 pro tends to stutter even on 13 when you split screen etc.)
I would not upgrade a 2GB device to iPadOS 16 honestly (let alone the iPad 6 to 17, which it will get almost certainly).
I wouldn't worry too much about speed for 3-4GB devices for the foreseable future, but reloads could increase.
As for battery life, it's not as evident, it can get better or worse with updates, there is no clear pattern...

Yeah, RAM was a very important factor at the beginning, when Apple’s insistence on skimping on RAM backfired, especially for 512MB devices, which were rendered completely unusable. Like you said, 1GB devices are a little better, but the true jump was with 2GB. Not only do they have a lot more support in terms of iOS versions, but they also work a lot better than they used to.

My 9.7-inch iPad Pro works fine on iOS 12, and the iPhone 6s, even if it had severe keyboard slowdowns on iOS 13, it’s not like it used to be with, say, the iPhone 4s on iOS 9.

Agree on your assessment on 2GB, and I’d reckon the best OS for those devices if you want to update at least something is iOS 12 (I have long stated and remain completely convinced that the best iOS version for any device is the one it was released on). iPadOS 13, like you said, started to worsen things, especially on 2GB devices.

Considering Apple still sells a 3GB device (and a 3GB iPad was current until very recently), I agree, I have no reason to believe they will suffer in the near future; 4GB devices are even safer.

Where we don’t see eye to eye is on battery life: while some versions might be better than the previous ones if you update far enough (i.e., on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro iPadOS 14 might be better than iPadOS 13 - I don’t know whether this is true, I’m just giving an example), they will never compare to the one that matters the most: the original version of iOS. Maybe iOS 12 is better than iOS 11 on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro (again, this is an example), but it is definitely worse than iOS 9 or 10, likewise with iPadOS 13 and 14).

I’m telling you this because I always use my iPad in the same way, and battery life is predictable almost to the minute:

iOS 9, with my use: 100-90%: 2 hours SOT (from now on, always screen-on time).
iOS 12: 100-90%: 1h 40 min

(For some inexplicable reason, now iOS 12 starts falling apart. I can’t tell you the relief I felt when I tested it on iOS 12 for the first time and saw iOS 12 was apparently similar to iOS 9 when it reached 90%, especially considering Apple forced me out of iOS 9, I didn’t update willingly. I quickly realised it wouldn’t be as good as I thought as the cycle continued).

iOS 9: 100-80%: 3.5-4 hours.
iOS 12: 100-80%: 2h 40 min (always. If not that, then 2h 38 min, or 2h 42 min. Scarily accurate, with my usage)

iOS 9: 100-70%: 5 hours.
iOS 12: 100-70%: 3h 45 min

iOS 9: 100-60%: 6-6.5 hours.
iOS 12: 100-60%: 4h 30 min

iOS 9: 100-50%: 7.5-8.5 hours.
iOS 12: 100-50: 5h 40 min

On iOS 12 it negatively varies much more too, occasionally getting to 50% with less than 5 hours. That never happened on iOS 12. I can get a little more on iOS 12, but it is exceedingly rare, and I don’t know why that happens. 99% of the cycles are like that for both versions.

Is iOS 12 unusable? No, but it’s a lot worse than it used to be.

The end result? Between 13-14 hours on iOS 9; with some luck, 10-11 hours on iOS 12. Like I said, it occasionally falls apart. The other day I had this cycle: 6h 50 min with 26% remaining. That’s abhorrent. I would have 55% or so on iOS 9. That gigantic discrepancy would never happen on iOS 9, unless I used it for more demanding tasks, obviously.

Like I said, I really track battery life.