IOS 12 >> Air 2 ( ? )

[MarioPhone96]

The biggest problem I had with iOS 11 on the Air 2 was dropped frames. It could be anything and the tablet suddenly struggles to render the fancy effects of iOS, which irritated the hell out of me. iOS 12 fixed 90% of that (it still happens rarely).

Another problem was the speed of my iPad. iOS 11.4 definitely slowed down my Air 2 and I regretted updating from 9.3.5. iOS 12 sped everything up from 11, which is nice.

Also, I feel like my iPad can hold more apps in memory without killing them. I would notice a lot of app reloads and safari tab reloads on 11 which annoyed me. I still notice a few too many safari tab reloads on 12, though.

Games are good too now. I like to play Minecraft a lot, as well as some other heavy games. They all would lag on iOS 11, but now they run fine on 12.

 

[pdoherty]

I’m usually extremely wary about upgrading iOS on iPads more than a couple,of years old.

Due to this thread I decided to upgrade my Air 2 to iOS 12, and so far I have to agree that it’s faster in basically every way over iOS 11.

Thanks for the info guys - another Air 2 saved from the scrap heap!

 

[Diiiiips]

The biggest problem I had with iOS 11 on the Air 2 was dropped frames. It could be anything and the tablet suddenly struggles to render the fancy effects of iOS, which irritated the hell out of me. iOS 12 fixed 90% of that (it still happens rarely).

Another problem was the speed of my iPad. iOS 11.4 definitely slowed down my Air 2 and I regretted updating from 9.3.5. iOS 12 sped everything up from 11, which is nice.

Also, I feel like my iPad can hold more apps in memory without killing them. I would notice a lot of app reloads and safari tab reloads on 11 which annoyed me. I still notice a few too many safari tab reloads on 12, though.

Games are good too now. I like to play Minecraft a lot, as well as some other heavy games. They all would lag on iOS 11, but now they run fine on 12.

Is the iPad back to how it felt on 9.3.5? Or does it still feel a bit worse?

I'm still on 9.3.3 and have been contemplating iOS 12 for a while as I'd like to get a few apps like Apollo on here but 99% of my usage is Safari so I don't want tabs reloading or general slowness.

 

[MarioPhone96]

Is the iPad back to how it felt on 9.3.5? Or does it still feel a bit worse?

I'm still on 9.3.3 and have been contemplating iOS 12 for a while as I'd like to get a few apps like Apollo on here but 99% of my usage is Safari so I don't want tabs reloading or general slowness.

While iOS 12 is good on the iPad Air 2, it’s still worse than iOS 9, and I would even say worse than iOS 10.

I still notice random dropped frames in the UI animations sometimes or brief pauses in the system when trying to do things like open new safari tabs. Safari performance itself is fine! Light/medium apps themselves launch relatively fast, but heavier apps take quite a while to open.

It’s tough for you because you have a tablet that would be perfectly fine on iOS 9.3.3 just for safari browsing and maybe even video browsing. Eventually, app support will suffer (it probably is already). I would say update if you really want to avoid issues with apps. Otherwise, stay if you truly value a fast device.

 

[Diiiiips]

While iOS 12 is good on the iPad Air 2, it’s still worse than iOS 9, and I would even say worse than iOS 10.

I still notice random dropped frames in the UI animations sometimes or brief pauses in the system when trying to do things like open new safari tabs. Safari performance itself is fine! Light/medium apps themselves launch relatively fast, but heavier apps take quite a while to open.

It’s tough for you because you have a tablet that would be perfectly fine on iOS 9.3.3 just for safari browsing and maybe even video browsing. Eventually, app support will suffer (it probably is already). I would say update if you really want to avoid issues with apps. Otherwise, stay if you truly value a fast device.

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I think I'm going to lean towards sticking with iOS 9. Safari is 99% of my usage on the iPad and Appollo is the only app I really want but I can stick to browsing Reddit on the web.