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

shankar2

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 7, 2009
1,020
54
Hi anyone upgraded ipad 2 to iOS 9.1?

How is the performance compared to ios 8.x? Thanks!
 
Hi anyone upgraded ipad 2 to iOS 9.1?

How is the performance compared to ios 8.x? Thanks!
I have yet to install the final version, however I've been running the betas since they went public. Overall, I'd say it's decently faster than iOS 8. Just don't expect a miracle - the hardware is quite old.
 
I have yet to install the final version, however I've been running the betas since they went public. Overall, I'd say it's decently faster than iOS 8. Just don't expect a miracle - the hardware is quite old.

I have the final 9.1 and I fully agree. Still quite the usable after all these years.
 
My wife has an iPad 2. iOS 9.1 seems to run slower, but then I rather expected that given the age of the hardware.
Terribly slow? No, just some lag (e.g. stutter on scrolling a page with many images.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Refurbished_
It will be super slow, but it does add some functionality. Allows it to be able to use most of iOS 9 features. Just don't expect any speed bump. It will run very very slow. News App may crash if you have too many channels selected that will overload the iPad memory.
 
I'm definitely interested in hearing how it's been working for folks. I have a 64GB version I upgraded to 9.0, but later downgraded back to 8.4.1 because of apps constantly crashing. I know that the old girl is going to lag, and I'm okay with that for the most part. I'm just interested in stability. I tried doing things like deleting a lot of video to have over 10GB of empty space, reduce motion and such have never been on, clearing out the cache and even hard resetting and deleting and reinstalling the offending apps, but none of that helped.

It was everything from Safari crashing after 3-4 page loads to casual games crashing after each level completed. Though not sure I will gain anything by upgrading to 9.1 as a lot of the new features don't work and most new apps are still iOS7 or higher. I'll probably have replaced this iPad by the time 9 becomes the new standard.
 
How would it compare to an iPad 2 on 7.1.2?
For me it was awful. Have one iPad 2 on 7.1.2 and I was running 9.1 beta on my other iPad 2. There was no comparison. 7.1.2 is so much better. Don't upgrade from 7.1.2. If you are already on 8.0+ it doesn't hurt, but don't give up 7.1.2. My iPad became so unusable, I couldn't even browse macrumors without safari constantly crashing. It finally forced me to get an Air 2.
 
  • Like
Reactions: _Refurbished_
So I should update my iPad 2 to ios 9.1?
Yes I think it is better than 7.x.x... I never instal 8.x.x on my iPad 2 after reading some bad review of iPad2 and IOS 8, but I do suggest a clean instal of 9.1.

And you will have an access to Apple Music if that is something that interest you
 
Yes I think it is better than 7.x.x... I never instal 8.x.x on my iPad 2 after reading some bad review of iPad2 and IOS 8, but I do suggest a clean instal of 9.1.
Sorry. 9.1 is not better than 7.1.2. Not better in any way possible. I was clean restoring my iPad 2 weekly and only using it to browse. No music, videos, apps or photos. It would crash on macrumors every 2 minutes. Couldn't even reply to a post without crashing. My brother has the same experience.

Anyone that has an iPad 2 or 3 on 7.1.2 should not upgrade..ever.
 
Sorry. 9.1 is not better than 7.1.2. Not better in any way possible. I was clean restoring my iPad 2 weekly and only using it to browse. No music, videos, apps or photos. It would crash on macrumors every 2 minutes. Couldn't even reply to a post without crashing. My brother has the same experience.

Anyone that has an iPad 2 or 3 on 7.1.2 should not upgrade..ever.


I guess your milages may vary....
 
I guess your milages may vary....
If you use two iPad 2s side by side. One with 7.1.2 and the other with 9.1, the difference is shocking. Apps load 3-4X faster on 7.1.2. Scrolling is fluid, no keyboard lag. And this is with reduce motion turned on and reduce transparency turn on on the iPad 2 running 9.1, but left turned off on 7.1.2.
 
If you use two iPad 2s side by side. One with 7.1.2 and the other with 9.1, the difference is shocking. Apps load 3-4X faster on 7.1.2. Scrolling is fluid, no keyboard lag. And this is with reduce motion turned on and reduce transparency turn on on the iPad 2 running 9.1, but left turned off on 7.1.2.
I would rather have the functionality and consistency across my devices than the speed.
 
If performance is that bad then why would Apple make it available to iPad 2? Would normal non-Macrumors people really have a problem with it?

I'm basically tech support for a relative who has an iPad 2 on iOS 7. If I turn off some of the eye candy features would it run okay on iOS 9?
 
I would rather have the functionality and consistency across my devices than the speed.

It's not just speed. It's overall usability.

I agree with you about consistency. That is why I upgraded one of my iPad 2 to iOS 8 and then iOS 9. But I truly regret it. I was planning on using the iPad 2 for another year or so. My battery only had 50 charge cycles in 4.5 years and it was in legit perfect condition. But I couldn't even browse the web. 512MB of RAM is the death of the iPad 2. iOS 9 is too power hungry.


If performance is that bad then why would Apple make it available to iPad 2? Would normal non-Macrumors people really have a problem with it?

I'm basically tech support for a relative who has an iPad 2 on iOS 7. If I turn off some of the eye candy features would it run okay on iOS 9?

The reason why iPad 2 for iOS 9 was because it already received iOS 8. The main reason of iOS 9 was to increase performance from iOS 8. It is true that iOS 9.1 is better than any variation of iOS 8. But it is no where close to iOS 7.1.2

As I posted earlier. With reduce motion and reduce transparency both turn on on the 9.1 iPad vs those same features left turned off on the 7.1.2. 7.1.2 iPad is 3-4X faster. No joke.
 
It's not just speed. It's overall usability.

I agree with you about consistency. That is why I upgraded one of my iPad 2 to iOS 8 and then iOS 9. But I truly regret it. I was planning on using the iPad 2 for another year or so. My battery only had 50 charge cycles in 4.5 years and it was in legit perfect condition. But I couldn't even browse the web. 512MB of RAM is the death of the iPad 2. iOS 9 is too power hungry.




The reason why iPad 2 for iOS 9 was because it already received iOS 8. The main reason of iOS 9 was to increase performance from iOS 8. It is true that iOS 9.1 is better than any variation of iOS 8. But it is no where close to iOS 7.1.2

As I posted earlier. With reduce motion and reduce transparency both turn on on the 9.1 iPad vs those same features left turned off on the 7.1.2. 7.1.2 iPad is 3-4X faster. No joke.
There is nothing inherently unusable on the ipad 2 on 9.1. My use case on IOS is not going into specific apps shotgun style. Ipad 2 usually browsing or watching tv or netflix. iphone emails, browsing. So I enjoy the consistency and features of 9.1 across my idevices.
 
There is nothing inherently unusable on the ipad 2 on 9.1. My use case on IOS is not going into specific apps shotgun style. Ipad 2 usually browsing or watching tv or netflix. iphone emails, browsing. So I enjoy the consistency and features of 9.1 across my idevices.

I've already posted twice that basic tasks, just browsing the web was completely unusable and unreliable for my brother and myself. What good is browsing the web if the main page of macrumors, cnn and yahoo crash every couple of minutes. If people don't want to listen to my advice that's fine. I don't care. I'm just trying to save others the heartache of upgrading and never being able to go back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: oldmacs and tech21
I've already posted twice that basic tasks, just browsing the web was completely unusable and unreliable for my brother and myself. What good is browsing the web if the main page of macrumors, cnn and yahoo crash every couple of minutes. If people don't want to listen to my advice that's fine. I don't care. I'm just trying to save others the heartache of upgrading and never being able to go back.
I don't find browsing to be unusable. In fact I find browsing to be very usable. Those incredibly annoying reloads are more or less a thing of the past; even browsing macrumors. As you yourself said, if people don't want to listen to my experience that's fine. As you are, I'm just posting my experiences.

I can see why some may not want to upgrade, but IOS 9 out of the gate is one of the best releases in recent years, even including IOS 6, which killed my ipad 2.
 
I can only agree that anything after 7.1.2 makes ipad 2/3 very slow. I just downgraded my ipad 3 from 8.4.1 through 9.0.2 to 7.1.2 (had my shsh blobs saved). I will monitor it a bit, but it already feels much snappier. no delays in ibooks, almost no keyboard delays, ...
 
  • Like
Reactions: bheathain
I'm definitely interested in hearing how it's been working for folks. I have a 64GB version I upgraded to 9.0, but later downgraded back to 8.4.1 because of apps constantly crashing. I know that the old girl is going to lag, and I'm okay with that for the most part. I'm just interested in stability. I tried doing things like deleting a lot of video to have over 10GB of empty space, reduce motion and such have never been on, clearing out the cache and even hard resetting and deleting and reinstalling the offending apps, but none of that helped.

It was everything from Safari crashing after 3-4 page loads to casual games crashing after each level completed. Though not sure I will gain anything by upgrading to 9.1 as a lot of the new features don't work and most new apps are still iOS7 or higher. I'll probably have replaced this iPad by the time 9 becomes the new standard.

Hey Phoenix, I'm interested in how you downgraded back to 8.4.1 because after upgrading to 9.0.2 I've noticed some apps crash or stall and there is a general lag. Also the front screen has stopped responding to motion. Do you need to be a computer wiz to do a downgrade and are there any drawbacks to doing it?
Any feedback is appreciated.
 
Hey Phoenix, I'm interested in how you downgraded back to 8.4.1 because after upgrading to 9.0.2 I've noticed some apps crash or stall and there is a general lag. Also the front screen has stopped responding to motion. Do you need to be a computer wiz to do a downgrade and are there any drawbacks to doing it?
Any feedback is appreciated.
You can no longer downgrade. Apple stopped signing 9.4.1 at the end of Sept or beginning of Oct.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.