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My wifes ipad 2 is horrible on iOS 9....so slow and laggy. It might be finally time to get an air.
 
Seriously it's slow and laggy compared to a 6s, but for an almost 5 year device on 9.1, it's great.

I really don't get this argument. When my iPad 3 came out, I thought is was blazing fast and it was still really good under 7.1.2. And ios 8/9 didn't add any features that would warrant making it so slow. Basically all new features that are interesting on these OSs don't work on the iPad 2/3 anyway. So I don't get why turning a page in iBooks, which has received just minor tweaks, should now take 5-6 seconds instead of below 1 second.

However, if you guys want to downgrade an iPad 2, that is still possible. You can immediately go to 6.1.3 with OdysseusOTA. If you have saved SHSH blobs for any other version, you can go to that version, too, using Odysseus. Luckily, I had blobs for 7.1.2, and went back and never looked back. It will also be possible to go back to 8.4.1 soon, however that's not really better than ios 9.1.
 
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I really don't get this argument. When my iPad 3 came out, I thought is was blazing fast and it was still really good under 7.1.2. And ios 8/9 didn't add any features that would warrant making it so slow. Basically all new features that are interesting on these OSs don't work on the iPad 2/3 anyway. So I don't get why turning a page in iBooks, which has received just minor tweaks, should now take 5-6 seconds instead of below 1 second.

However, if you guys want to downgrade an iPad 2, that is still possible. You can immediately go to 6.1.3 with OdysseusOTA. If you have saved SHSH blobs for any other version, you can go to that version, too, using Odysseus. Luckily, I had blobs for 7.1.2, and went back and never looked back. It will also be possible to go back to 8.4.1 soon, however that's not really better than ios 9.1.
Does the OdysseusOTA work for iPad Mini 1 as it has same internals as iPad 2?I would like to downgrade to iOS 6
 
I really don't get this argument. When my iPad 3 came out, I thought is was blazing fast and it was still really good under 7.1.2. And ios 8/9 didn't add any features that would warrant making it so slow. Basically all new features that are interesting on these OSs don't work on the iPad 2/3 anyway. So I don't get why turning a page in iBooks, which has received just minor tweaks, should now take 5-6 seconds instead of below 1 second.

However, if you guys want to downgrade an iPad 2, that is still possible. You can immediately go to 6.1.3 with OdysseusOTA. If you have saved SHSH blobs for any other version, you can go to that version, too, using Odysseus. Luckily, I had blobs for 7.1.2, and went back and never looked back. It will also be possible to go back to 8.4.1 soon, however that's not really better than ios 9.1.
Safari on 8.4.1 is horrible compared to iOS 9 on an iPad 2. My iPhone 4 has 7.1.2; that it's stuck on that release is too bad. iOS 9 is so much better. I'd rather do more "slower" than do less "faster".
 
My now 5 year old laptop was replaced because it can't run today's software on yesterday's hardware; although it does run. At least the iPad 2 is useable.
Any decent laptop purchased five years ago would still run perfectly fine in 2015. 2010's software: Chrome, Word, Excel. 2015's software: Chrome, Word, Excel

Unless you're talking about games, there's really no need to upgrade a five year old laptop. If you put an SSD in it, it would even complete with today's laptops.

New software should only render old hardware slower if there's a good solid reason that justifies doing so. Software simply being "new" is not a good reason.
 
Any decent laptop purchased five years ago would still run perfectly fine in 2015. 2010's software: Chrome, Word, Excel. 2015's software: Chrome, Word, Excel

Unless you're talking about games, there's really no need to upgrade a five year old laptop. If you put an SSD in it, it would even complete with today's laptops.

New software should only render old hardware slower if there's a good solid reason that justifies doing so. Software simply being "new" is not a good reason.
What you say would be true if all that happened is I went from office 2007 to office 2013. However the load and complexity of what I'm doing increased. Would be similar to running iMovie on an iPad 2 attempting to edit 4K movies. My guess would be a subpar experience.
 
Hi anyone upgraded ipad 2 to iOS 9.1?

How is the performance compared to ios 8.x? Thanks!

I upgraded my iPad 2 32GB to iOS 8 last July. I was really disappointed at how slow it was even after turning on reduce motion, etc. When iOS 9 was released I figured 'what the heck' and upgraded. It seemed even worse. So last week I decided to do a restore which I had made when the iPad was still running iOS 7. Despite being an Mac user since 1985, I somehow missed the fact that an iTunes backup doesn't back up the iOS. Silly me, how could I miss the concept that a backup isn't a backup? So thinking I could trick Apple I did the 'reset everything' and took the iPad back to factory zero. Then I turned the power off to my router so that the iPad couldn't communicate with Apple on reawakening, etc. Little did I know that the iOS was already embedded in the firmware and there was no way to get back to iOS 7. So I was stuck with iOS 9.0.2.

Now to cut to the chase, I was surprised to find that, upon awakening, the iPad with iOS 9.0.2 on it was now MUCH faster than before the big reset. In addition, the procedure had turned off 'reduce motion' and turned on 'reload apps in the background' and when I corrected those settings performance was even better. There is still a delay in switching between apps but Safari is an order of magnitude faster. And battery life seems to be improved, too. So the bottom line is that iOS 9 on my iPad 2 is a keeper, but I'm still leery of 9.1 until there are more reports.

I will say this though...if you've got an iPad 2 running iOS 7 and you're happy with the features, I'd say leave it alone and don't upgrade. If you want to upgrade, strongly consider doing a 'reset everything.' And be sure to sync your apps to iTunes before you do it. An iOS backup doesn't back up your apps either.
 
IOS 9 has made my user experience pretty bad. I regret upgrading from 8.4.1. Lags in every sense. Seriously considering getting a refurbed iPad Air 2 as a replacement. Shame though, as my iPad 2 is in mint condition.
 
If you can, stay in 8.4.1.

iOS 9.1 improved comparing to 9.0.2. Maybe 9.2 will be even better but I doubt it will be as fast as 8.4.1.

As for stability, 9.2 apps still crash eventually. I guess it's related to not having enough RAM.

My recommendation is to wait for 9.4 or above and ask people before updating. You might regret it.
 
You can no longer downgrade. Apple stopped signing 9.4.1 at the end of Sept or beginning of Oct.

Ah, righto, thanks for letting me know. Happily I'm learning to be more accepting and accomodating of the lag but it'll be the last update this old girl will get. Who knew computers could be so human like?
 
IOS 9 has made my user experience pretty bad. I regret upgrading from 8.4.1. Lags in every sense. Seriously considering getting a refurbed iPad Air 2 as a replacement. Shame though, as my iPad 2 is in mint condition.
If your use case on iPad 2 includes safari, there is no doubt iOS 9 far and away is better than 8.4.1. If your use case doesn't include safari iOS 9 is still better On an iPad 2.
 
Its definitely slower... Animations, apps and other things are slower on iOS 9. Apps reload even more in multitasking and so on, and this is on a clean install I'd hate to see what it would be like on a non clean install.

Luckily I only upgraded my secondary iPad 2. Would have been horrible if it was my main iPad, as now iOS 8.4.1. feels fast.

I'd keep on 8.4.1 for the moment. 9 might get faster, or maybe not, who knows. If you're on 7.1.2 thats a hard choice. 7.1.2 is a heck of a lot faster than 9.1 is, but its quite out of date security wise. If you're still on 6, its the same deal - 6 is blazing fast but even more insecure.
 
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Hi anyone upgraded ipad 2 to iOS 9.1?

How is the performance compared to ios 8.x? Thanks!
iOS 9 is much better (performance-wise) than iOS 8. You could also downgrade it to 6.1.3 (which is what I did) and exchange performance for compatibiltiy.
 
If your use case on iPad 2 includes safari, there is no doubt iOS 9 far and away is better than 8.4.1. If your use case doesn't include safari iOS 9 is still better On an iPad 2.

My primary use is Safari and web browsing but I would have to disagree with you. Performance is not acceptable.
 
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My primary use is Safari and web browsing but I would have to disagree with you. Performance is not acceptable.
We can disagree, safari was a mess under 8.4.1 disliked browsing, constant reloads. its much , much better under 9.1. In fact the whole flow is better under 9.1 whilst actually using the iPad as intended, not to serially open and close apps.
 
We can disagree, safari was a mess under 8.4.1 disliked browsing, constant reloads. its much , much better under 9.1. In fact the whole flow is better under 9.1 whilst actually using the iPad as intended, not to serially open and close apps.
I can't for the life of me figure out how you are even web "browsing" .My Mini can't even handle more than 2 tabs.Its unusable.Only reason I keep it around is for Netflix
 
I can't for the life of me figure out how you are even web "browsing" .My Mini can't even handle more than 2 tabs.Its unusable.Only reason I keep it around is for Netflix
Not specifically referring to the number of tabs, but more browsing a site, like MacRumors, which was a mess under 8.4.1 with constant reloads. Still get reloads under 9.1 but the occurrence is way less.
 
I agree with most of the posters about poor performance on iOS 9. My iPad 3 is extremely slow compared to what it was (and I wasn't impressed with the speed in iOS 8 either). I know this is an "old" device at this point, but it's to where I don't even want to use my iPad anymore.

In reading the comments, I saw the notes about turning on the "reduce motion". What were the other settings the folks have disabled to help with speed? I'd love to want to use my iPad again.
 
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