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How well does iOS 9 run on the iPad 2?

ithinkwithportals

ithinkwithportals

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2015
131
57
Somewhere in the USA
I have been on iOS 7.1.2 on this iPad since, well, the time that release was made, because of all the issues I heard people had running iOS 8.x on the iPad 2. How does iOS 9 run on the iPad 2 compared to iOS 7 and iOS 8? Is it faster? Buggier? Less buggy? More issues? Less? I need to know, because I really want to put this device on the beta if it's going to run better than iOS 8.
 
P

Paddle1

macrumors 603
May 1, 2013
5,151
3,605
iOS 8.3 ran better than older versions of iOS 8. iOS 9's performance is unclear at this point.
 
N

nordique

macrumors 68000
Oct 12, 2014
1,996
1,607
Best to wait until iOS 9 comes out, OP (in its final form...betas are always buggy)
 
Shirasaki

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,765
From current performance experience, you should not really expect much performance improvements from iOS 9. But yes, this is still in beta, and we could expect better performance in future beta or even formal firmware.
 
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X

xadros

macrumors member
Oct 4, 2014
57
9
Hi, i have ipad 2 with ios7, if I'll update to ios9 beta will performance be better?
 
rnbwd

rnbwd

macrumors regular
Jul 6, 2015
111
38
Seattle
alight.. the first beta was completely unusable, now it seems to be working better than ios8. my iPad has worked like **** since ios8... os9 beta 3 <==<=> iOS 8.4 in my opinion, but I wouldn't describe either as fantastic (and iOS 8.3/4 was much better than the first few releases of iOS8 too). It's been a while since I used 7 - but 7 probably works better.. I mostly enjoy the notes app and continuity features (which sort of work with ipad2 even though the bluetooth is old) as my main reason for upgrading (and music). It's usable. And that's not something I'd say about most of ios8
 
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bootz

macrumors regular
Jan 7, 2014
129
20
At first it was OK, but now I'm getting frequent lockups using MS Excel. It may be a network/Dropbox issue, though. I'll report back in a few days to say if it has improved or not.
 
rnbwd

rnbwd

macrumors regular
Jul 6, 2015
111
38
Seattle
bootz said:
At first it was OK, but now I'm getting frequent lockups using MS Excel. It may be a network/Dropbox issue, though. I'll report back in a few days to say if it has improved or not.
Click to expand...

Especially with older devices, I use very minimal iCloud sync - reset it a few times, log in and out of iTunes, and try reducing background apps, locations, etc. (I have wifi so gps doesn't matter), and then wait it out a night. The biggest thing it does is index spotlight (or upload photos if you decide to sync with you photo library). The spotlight indexing can take like.. 4-12 hours. Photos could take just as long or longer if you have a big lib.

After it settles in, dropbox seems to work fantastic. But I don't use MS word excel... so can't comment for that. I know dropbox seems legit - there are multiple apps that don't work proper at the moment (some news apps, etc.) - but that's expected in beta. there could be an issue with MS word excel, I can only use about 90% of the apps I had in ios8 - and about 80% seem to work alright.
 
PsykX

PsykX

macrumors 68030
Sep 16, 2006
2,748
3,928
Shirasaki said:
From current performance experience, you should not really expect much performance improvements from iOS 9.
Click to expand...
You mean for an iPad 2 specifically ?

Because this is not true for the rest of the iOS devices. Even on my old and almost unsupported iPhone 5, I got surprised by noticeable speed boosts since Beta 1.
 
X

xadros

macrumors member
Oct 4, 2014
57
9
I just updated to ios9 pb, I did clean install 8.4 and this point I think that my ipad was faster or as fast as on ios7, but after updating to ios9 it's definitely slower, so I don't recommend updating now
 
rmeulen

rmeulen

macrumors member
Oct 14, 2013
86
20
The Netherlands
Just updated my iPad2 32Gb wifi/gsm to 9.1 beta 1, coming from 9.0GM. It is working fine! The initial feeling is that it is more smooth than previous IOS versions. Still have to verify a bit more how it behaves when running for a while. Still time enough to move back to 8.4.1 or 9.0 in the coming week if necessary. So far all ok.
 
A

Allendustin

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2015
7
0
rmeulen said:
Just updated my iPad2 32Gb wifi/gsm to 9.1 beta 1, coming from 9.0GM. It is working fine! The initial feeling is that it is more smooth than previous IOS versions. Still have to verify a bit more how it behaves when running for a while. Still time enough to move back to 8.4.1 or 9.0 in the coming week if necessary. So far all ok.
Click to expand...
Can someone please update me since the general release of the non-beta regarding user performance experience of iOS 9 on old iPads? The reason I'm asking is that my iPad ran poorly under iOS 9 beta 3 (I think, most recent beta anyway). Performance was sluggish and a bit delayed. It was bad enough that I was forced to downgrade back to 8.4.1. I would like to upgrade to 9; however, the downgrade process involves me borrowing a friend's laptop since I run Linux. Thanks in advance for any help.
 
rmeulen

rmeulen

macrumors member
Oct 14, 2013
86
20
The Netherlands
Allendustin said:
Can someone please update me since the general release of the non-beta regarding user performance experience of iOS 9 on old iPads? The reason I'm asking is that my iPad ran poorly under iOS 9 beta 3 (I think, most recent beta anyway). Performance was sluggish and a bit delayed. It was bad enough that I was forced to downgrade back to 8.4.1. I would like to upgrade to 9; however, the downgrade process involves me borrowing a friend's laptop since I run Linux. Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...
Hi Allendustin, still on 9.1beta1 with my ipad. Some delay in startup of applications but in general I do not observe major differences with iOS 8. I am not using any exotic apps. Facebook app takes a lot of time to start. How that was in previous iOS releases I don't know. For the rest I am relatively happy with 9.1 so far.
 
A

Allendustin

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2015
7
0
rmeulen said:
Hi Allendustin, still on 9.1beta1 with my ipad. Some delay in startup of applications but in general I do not observe major differences with iOS 8. I am not using any exotic apps. Facebook app takes a lot of time to start. How that was in previous iOS releases I don't know. For the rest I am relatively happy with 9.1 so far.
Click to expand...
Which iPad do you have, if you don't mind my asking? I think mine is an iPad 3rd generation. Thank you for your reply.
 
S

salzrat

macrumors member
Sep 18, 2015
71
30
Hi,
I have an iPad 3 and 9.1 pb is much better than 9.0, especially the App switcher.

However, anybody with iPad 2 or 3 who still has 7.1.2, I can only recommend staying there! I would give a lot for a way to go back. Even if the iPad works reasonably well in 9.1pb, ever since iOS 8, iBooks is incredibly slow (delay of several seconds) in page turning, and Safari is very slow as well (page loading, keyboard when entering text).
 
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A

Allendustin

macrumors newbie
Sep 16, 2015
7
0
rmeulen said:
Hi Allendustin, it's ipad2 32Gb GSM as stated above in this thread.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I missed that. Not to sound like a dufus, but I think iPad 2 is newer than my 3rd generation iPad if memory serves me. Is that correct? Thanks again for your help.
 
T'hain Esh Kelch

T'hain Esh Kelch

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2001
6,478
7,446
Denmark
Allendustin said:
Some of the articles I've been reading online made it sound like there may have been a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation iPad before A release of iPad 2. That's what was a bit confusing.
Click to expand...
You may be mixing it up with the Air 1 and Air 2. iPad 2 was, as the name suggests, the second iPad.
 
T

thekayman

macrumors 6502
Oct 23, 2014
303
53
Allendustin said:
So who thinks, or has experience running, that my iPad 3 will run smoothly under iOS 9.0 (or as previous post mentioned beta 9.1)?
Click to expand...

On my ipad 2, I performed a clean install of ios 9 which I find no worse than 8, but no better either. I previously ran all betas incl. 9.1 and honestly so no difference at all. I suppose the same should apply to your ipad 3. If you have a use for the new features, go ahead and upgrade.
 
B

broadbean

macrumors 6502a
Jun 10, 2007
782
333
I recently clean installed an iPad 2, then last week put iOS 9.1PB on it. It was unusable. Downgraded to 8.4.1 and it was much better. A few days ago, updated to iOS 9.0. My initial thoughts was it actually felt faster. I'm gonna check it against another one running 7.1.1 next week.
 
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