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Sensamic

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 26, 2010
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Through their updates like they've done with iPhones? IPad batteries degrade also like the ones in iPhones, so I assume they do the same with iPad's? Many have experienced slow iPads through updates.
 
No, Apple do not throttle iPad devices due to their battery capacities being much larger, and due to iPad batteries retaining 80% of their capacity after 1000 cycles vs 500 for iPhone batteries.

Newer iOS updates may eventually slow down older hardware, but that’s to be expected and is perfectly normal/acceptable.
 
No, Apple do not throttle iPad devices due to their battery capacities being much larger, and due to iPad batteries retaining 80% of their capacity after 1000 cycles vs 500 for iPhone batteries.

Newer iOS updates may eventually slow down older hardware, but that’s to be expected and is perfectly normal/acceptable.
I have an iPad 2 that's going on 6 years old and it still gets around 14 hrs on the battery with 285 battery cycles. Fortunately Apple has allowed the iPad 2 to now run iOS 6.1.3 and that's where I found the slowdown, not from the battery but the version iOS and performance got really bad when iOS 7 came out.
 
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Yep Sparky2012 said it - it’s a response on iPhone to the smaller battery not being able to give the chip enough power once it’s degraded to a certain extent. With the much larger batteries in an iPad this isn’t an issue.
 
Ok, thanks everyone. Was worried about this because I'm thinking of buying one this year.
 
No, Apple do not throttle iPad devices due to their battery capacities being much larger, and due to iPad batteries retaining 80% of their capacity after 1000 cycles vs 500 for iPhone batteries.

Newer iOS updates may eventually slow down older hardware, but that’s to be expected and is perfectly normal/acceptable.

Why is expected and acceptable for new iOS update slows down older hardware? My oldest computer, which I brought around 2009 still works fine with Windows 10.

Microsoft actually optimized their Windows 10 to work in even older hardwares.
 
Why is expected and acceptable for new iOS update slows down older hardware? My oldest computer, which I brought around 2009 still works fine with Windows 10.

Microsoft actually optimized their Windows 10 to work in even older hardwares.

It’s acceptable because adding more features requires more RAM and processing power to support. The hardware remains the same and so has to work harder to run all of the expanding feature set, thus slowing down. It happens eventually to just about all hardware.

Plus, older mobile devices (like iPad 2, 3) weren’t actually that powerful. Yes good for the time but compared to your 2009 computer, vastly inferior.
 
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The difference is Microsoft makes more of an effort to make their older hardware work reasonably under later OS versions. Apple sees it as a fact of life and time to move on and up.
 
The difference is Microsoft makes more of an effort to make their older hardware work reasonably under later OS versions. Apple sees it as a fact of life and time to move on and up.
Disagree. Windows Vista represented a huge jump in system requirements. Even if 7 and 10 run well, you wouldn't ever run it well on a machine with 1 or 2gb of RAM.

The fact is iOS is pretty darn light on hardware, and the reason why we got hit with performance penalties was the additional visual aspects iOS 7 and 8 added. It still runs well on 2-3 year old hardware reasonably. Yes, iPads from 2011 struggle with 2018 software, but let's face it. Android devices in 2011 weren't even smooth to begin with.
 
It still runs well on 2-3 year old hardware reasonably. Yes, iPads from 2011 struggle with 2018 software, but let's face it. Android devices in 2011 weren't even smooth to begin with.

Disagree. I wouldn't say 2-3 years is an acceptable life span for such an expensive device. Windows typically operates well much longer as hardware ages, and the expectation is there. The business world, which Windows is also designed to support, would never accept such limited life and turnover requirements.
 
My iPad 3 pretty much died after the last major iOS update it was eligible for.

If you ask me, Apple is doing this on purpose. You have to think they test new major iOS iterations on all the eligible devices.

No warning whatsoever. “Just update. It’s fine.”

Nope. You killed my device.

Planned obsolescence with a big smile and an invitation to buy a new product.

No ****ng warning. Your device will nearly stop working. Shameful.

I had no idea. Why should I have. Apple made it available to my iPad. They never said “here’s the new software. It’s gonna kill your current iPad. Now buy a new one if you want one that works.”
 
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My iPad 3 pretty much died after the last major iOS update it was eligible for.

If you ask me, Apple is doing this on purpose. You have to think they test new major iOS iterations on all the eligible devices.

No warning whatsoever. “Just update. It’s fine.”

Nope. You killed my device.

Planned obsolescence with a big smile and an invitation to buy a new product.

No f***ing warning. Your device will nearly stop working. Shameful.

And anyone who tells me I should have known, eat s**t. I had no idea. Why should I have. Apple made it available to my iPad. They never said “here’s the new software. It’s gonna kill your current iPad. Now buy a new one if you want one that works.”

Wow what a lot of strong words. How exactly did it die from a software update? And why if you are so dissatisfied are you still around here? To warn others of how evil Apple is and how all of a sudden software updates only on Apple devices slow them down?
 
There is always going to be a balance between...
  • Wow the latest update was too much for my device and it doesn't run as fast/smooth as it did with the original OS it came with. Planned obsolescence!
And...
  • Why can't my device run the latest OS? It is no longer supported, and I demand the new features without having to buy a new device! Planned obsolescence!
 
I have one 250mb pdf which is constant all across last 2-3 yrs. I could not use it on my ipad air 2 after latest ios update and ultimately it would crash after 3-4 pages in document.
Same ipad same file on ios 10 or even 11.1 was fully functional.
Update to 11.2 and game is over.

Had to trash that ipad and get the newer pro for my basic task.

If this isnt planned obsolescence then I dont know what is ?

I certainly dont like this aspect of apple.
I would wait for 11.3 software switch for stopping throttling. If it works well,then I would upgrade my software else my all new devices going to stay on same iOS for their life.
 
There is always going to be a balance between...
  • Wow the latest update was too much for my device and it doesn't run as fast/smooth as it did with the original OS it came with. Planned obsolescence!
And...
  • Why can't my device run the latest OS? It is no longer supported, and I demand the new features without having to buy a new device! Planned obsolescence!

Well you know what? My old desktop which I build around 2009. That thing has Intel Premium Dual Core processor with 4GB RAM runs reasonably well with Windows 10. This is about 9 years old.

I would expect an iPad cost around 600 mark in Canadian dollars will last more than 3 years of software update without slowing down. If my old PC runs Windows 10, I would expect my old iPad runs iOS 11
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Wow what a lot of strong words. How exactly did it die from a software update? And why if you are so dissatisfied are you still around here? To warn others of how evil Apple is and how all of a sudden software updates only on Apple devices slow them down?

LOL... If Apple allows him downgrade the iOS, he wouldn't have such strong words.
 
from experience I would avoid installing the last supported major iOS version on any I-device due to performance issues

I do this, as well. My iPad 3 runs iOS 8. I upgraded briefly to 9 and realized it was a mistake and quickly backtracked.

I generally go by the chip number; my iPad 3 shipped with the A5X chip and iOS 5.1. It handled three iOS updates with mostly no issues, although I did notice a slight slowdown on iOS 7 and another slowdown with iOS 8. iOS 9 was a no-go. I would prefer that Apple should not push that last update to older devices, or at least provide a strong warning that, while the device might technically run the iOS, it may do so at a considerable performance cost.
 
I have an ipad air 1, until about a month ago it was slow and buggy. I updated to ios 11.2.2 and since then it has been much better and a lot smoother. Don’t like some of the changes but as far as performance goes it has been great.
 
Why is expected and acceptable for new iOS update slows down older hardware? My oldest computer, which I brought around 2009 still works fine with Windows 10.

Microsoft actually optimized their Windows 10 to work in even older hardwares.

It’s expected because the ramp up of CPU power over the past few years has been insane on mobile. So it makes sense that software designed for today’s hardware would not run on 2009 devices (very well, if at all).

In the non-mobile world, CPU speeds have been mostly stagnant for years. A desktop or even laptop CPU from 2009 is still relatively competitive with today’s CPUs for moderate intensity work.

Take a look at the Geekbench charts and you’ll see that a 1st gen iPad is ~10x slower than a 2nd gen iPP. In the same time that ARM chips became 10x faster, Intel CPUs only (approximately) doubled — in 2010 a core I7 was way faster (~5-6x) than Apple’s ARM chips, and they were already beginning to hit the current CPU speed plateua.

Mobile CPUs have matured and are now reaching the same plateau that the Intel chips have been hung up on, so we shouldn’t see as much of this effect going forward.
 
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