Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 12.4%
  • No

    Votes: 99 87.6%

  • Total voters
    113
I don’t have a single device on iOS (or iPadOS) 17, but I reckon there have been far worse versions, especially for older devices.

What’s the criteria? Performance for original devices? Device obliteration? Other? Battery life? For what devices? Even taking any of them into account, I reckon iOS 17 isn’t even close.

iOS 7 obliterated the iPhone 4, 4s, and severely worsened new devices. iOS 9 was a fiasco for the 4s. iOS 13 obliterated every A9 device. iOS 15 was even worse for those. iOS 16 significantly worsened A12 and A13-based devices. iOS 17 is nowhere close to any of that.
 
Last edited:
iOS 17 works “flawlessly” on my 15PM. It worked pretty darn good on my xs max as well. Works very well on my 7th gen iPad.

Didn’t see much of a difference on my former older devices between iOS 17 and iOS 16.
 
Last edited:
I personally wouldn't call it the worst but one of the worst.

The performance is fine, except when i take multiple photos and then right after want to check them in photos app, they all are blurry for solid 10-15 seconds and the whole app is lagging when scrolling through photos.

The battery life is pathetic, literally half of what I used to have on iOS 16 and iOS 17.2.1 is even worse than 17.1 lol

Oh, and battery health "magically" went down since October from 94% to 87% :) I wonder why? Maybe because I can't get through a day without plugging this phone (13 Pro Max) at least once?

And I have storage bug that my available space constantly changes, like at 8am I have 5gb available, 2 hours later I have 40gb and 8 hours later I have 20gb available.
 
I personally wouldn't call it the worst but one of the worst.

The performance is fine, except when i take multiple photos and then right after want to check them in photos app, they all are blurry for solid 10-15 seconds and the whole app is lagging when scrolling through photos.

The battery life is pathetic, literally half of what I used to have on iOS 16 and iOS 17.2.1 is even worse than 17.1 lol

Oh, and battery health "magically" went down since October from 94% to 87% :) I wonder why? Maybe because I can't get through a day without plugging this phone (13 Pro Max) at least once?

And I have storage bug that my available space constantly changes, like at 8am I have 5gb available, 2 hours later I have 40gb and 8 hours later I have 20gb available.

I'm at 86% on my 13 Pro and I go to bed with ~20-30%, and I don't charge at all during the day. I can't tell any difference between 16 and 17, with regards to battery.
 
No but then again I'm not an iPhone 'power user'. If it wan't for obsolescence I'd be very happy still using an iPhone 6S running iOS 9. The was nothing I need personally an iPhone to do that it couldn't do.
 
I don’t have a single device on iOS (or iPadOS) 17, but I reckon there have been far worse versions, especially for older devices.

What’s the criteria? Performance for original devices? Device obliteration? Other? Battery life? For what devices? Even taking any of them into account, I reckon iOS 17 isn’t even close.

iOS 7 obliterated the iPhone 4, 4s, and severely worsened new devices. iOS 9 was a fiasco for the 4s. iOS 13 obliterated every A9 device. iOS 15 was even worse for those. iOS 16 significantly worsened A12 and A13-based devices. iOS 17 is nowhere close to any of that.
All of this notwithstanding, I’ve seen a significant amount of reports on the iPhone 13 series which complain about battery life... so this issue is still ongoing, obviously.
 
No but then again I'm not an iPhone 'power user'. If it wan't for obsolescence I'd be very happy still using an iPhone 6S running iOS 9. The was nothing I need personally an iPhone to do that it couldn't do.
Agreed. The iPhone 6s on iOS 9 is my favourite iPhone ever. Sadly, the one I had was forced into iOS 13 due to the A9 on iOS 9 activation bug.

I have one on iOS 10, though. Flawless.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MajorFubar
Agreed. The iPhone 6s on iOS 9 is my favourite iPhone ever. Sadly, the one I had was forced into iOS 13 due to the A9 on iOS 9 activation bug.

I have one on iOS 10, though. Flawless.
I thought, according to common knowledge, only the original iOS version was “flawless”?

(“Flawless” is in quotes as “flawless” is different among different people)
 
I thought, according to common knowledge, only the original iOS version was “flawless”?

(“Flawless” is in quotes as “flawless” is different among different people)
No, some iOS versions are great! The iPhone 8 is pretty amazing on iOS 14 (even with three major updates on), and the 11 is equally cool on iOS 15.

I’ve repeatedly stated that the key is “if updated far enough”. This varies from device to device. How? Well, for example, iOS 11 was pretty poor even on the iPhone 7. First major update. And it was awful.

For some devices, far enough is one major update. For others, maybe you need three. Apple has inevitably pushed too far, for every single iOS device, though, so that the final iOS version, for lack of a more descriptive term, sucks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I7guy
No, some iOS versions are great! The iPhone 8 is pretty amazing on iOS 14 (even with three major updates on), and the 11 is equally cool on iOS 15.

I’ve repeatedly stated that the key is “if updated far enough”. This varies from device to device. How? Well, for example, iOS 11 was pretty poor even on the iPhone 7. First major update. And it was awful.

For some devices, far enough is one major update. For others, maybe you need three. Apple has inevitably pushed too far, for every single iOS device, though, so that the final iOS version, for lack of a more descriptive term, sucks.
My car max performed fairly admirably and I think this is the last year before it became obsolete. The max has, iirc, more memory than the xs.
 
I thought, according to common knowledge, only the original iOS version was “flawless”?

(“Flawless” is in quotes as “flawless” is different among different people)

As if!

iOS 1 is the OG "worst version". No Flash, Java, no copy/paste, surprised this Apple thing survived. And 2 became the new "worst", what with still no Flash, Java, copy/paste. Sheesh! ;)

Only sure things in life: death, taxes, and a "is X.Y the worst release ever" thread.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I7guy
iOS 8 will forever take the cake I think, but 17 is bottom 3 for me for sure, with the caveat that I never had serious time with iOS 4-6.
 
The Apple apostles will disagree no doubt, but IMO the race to give us a new OS every year on every Apple platform has slowly driven QA downwards across the board. There is literally no need for it.

Devs can't keep up with it either. On the Mac side I'm still on MacOS 13 because various plugins I use in Logic haven't been made MacOS 14 compatible yet, because the devs have more to do with their time than patching the Mac Mx version of their apps once a year, for a minority client-base (Apple forget that Windows and x86 apps still rule in computer-land, and by a huge margin).

It's just crazy. I'm sure Apple themselves know it's crazy. But they've gone so far down this path for so long, they don't know how to hit the brakes without humiliation.
 
I feel like people say this about every other major iOS release every year. I personally would not even have noticed that I am running iOS 17 (and not 16) if I hadn't done it myself.

A lot of issues can / could probably be solved by doing a full restore every once in a while. I completely wipe my iPhone and only restore whatever returns by logging into my iCloud account (photos, contacts, health data, messages, etc.) at least once a year. I love setting up an iDevice as new. I am weird like that haha
 
  • Like
Reactions: curnalpanic
The Apple apostles will disagree no doubt, but IMO the race to give us a new OS every year on every Apple platform has slowly driven QA downwards across the board. There is literally no need for it.

Devs can't keep up with it either. On the Mac side I'm still on MacOS 13 because various plugins I use in Logic haven't been made MacOS 14 compatible yet, because the devs have more to do with their time than patching the Mac Mx version of their apps once a year, for a minority client-base (Apple forget that Windows and x86 apps still rule in computer-land, and by a huge margin).

It's just crazy. I'm sure Apple themselves know it's crazy. But they've gone so far down this path for so long, they don't know how to hit the brakes without humiliation.
That, and older devices. On Mac you can go back. On iOS devices you can’t. So they optimise for the latest devices, and “I’m sorry about the rest, but I don’t have time to optimize iOS 16 for your 9.7-inch iPad Pro, buy a new one because this one obliterates it”. It would be fine, but since they don’t allow downgrading, devices are permanently obliterated.

If updates are permanent, “I don’t have time to optimise because of the yearly schedule” isn’t quite valid, in my opinion.

It’s funny to see the Apple apostles justify this. “Yeah, my iPhone 6 Plus is gone, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro is gone, my iPhone Xʀ is gone... but they’re old. What do you expect?”

“As for me, well... I expect perfection”:
4D4B3F2B-0908-4CC6-8D0E-6EF6D7B89620.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: MajorFubar and cigz
No problems with it. Pretty sure 12 people (at time of writing) are part of the ones who just want something to complain about. There’s a post like this every single release.
 
That, and older devices. On Mac you can go back. On iOS devices you can’t. So they optimise for the latest devices, and “I’m sorry about the rest, but I don’t have time to optimize iOS 16 for your 9.7-inch iPad Pro, buy a new one because this one obliterates it”. It would be fine, but since they don’t allow downgrading, devices are permanently obliterated.

If updates are permanent, “I don’t have time to optimise because of the yearly schedule” isn’t quite valid, in my opinion.

It’s funny to see the Apple apostles justify this. “Yeah, my iPhone 6 Plus is gone, my 9.7-inch iPad Pro is gone, my iPhone Xʀ is gone... but they’re old. What do you expect?”

“As for me, well... I expect perfection”:
View attachment 2340647
As you know my old xs max was happy, happy on iOS 17.
 
Don’t need one. Screenshots don’t measure performance issues or micro stutters - which links were posted regarding people complaining about iOS 12.

Believe it or not, makes no difference.
Nonsense.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: I7guy
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.