iPad Air and iOS 8.1 Performance?

[RebornProphet]

iPhone 5s has much lower resolution to render the screen with translucency effects.

iOS 8 introduces keyboard translucency at many places including Safari. This causes unnecessary keyboard lag. If you know your stuff, the translucency effects like Gaussian blur are very taxing on GPU. iPad Air's higher resolution makes things harder.

There was full transparency on the keyboard in places on iOS 7.1.2 (Spotlight on the home screen for example) and it had no impact on performance.

This is nothing more than poorly optimised code, as usual on iPad. Christ it took them six months to make iOS 7 usable on ALL compatible iPads.

Unless this is their ploy to push tablet sales back up, by making a device slightly laggy after just one major update to push people who notice it and can't stand it, into upgrading.

 

[iTom17]

I'am not updating my Air.

Seems like Air's GPU is miserably underpowered for imaginary GPU effects added in iOS8

I think it's more something with the 'programming' thing. Even the iPhone 6 lags at some animations, I have noticed in the past weeks.

Although I haven't had keyboard lags so far, neither do I have in Safari.

 

[sanke1]

There was full transparency on the keyboard in places on iOS 7.1.2 (Spotlight on the home screen for example) and it had no impact on performance.

This is nothing more than poorly optimised code, as usual on iPad. Christ it took them six months to make iOS 7 usable on ALL compatible iPads.

Unless this is their ploy to push tablet sales back up, by making a device slightly laggy after just one major update to push people who notice it and can't stand it, into upgrading.

Ridiculous but true. I's their planned obsolescence strategy.

 

[Wando64]

I held back updating until 8.1 due to all the negative comments and almost considered just staying on 7.1.2
Turns out that 8.1 works flawlessly on my Air.
I can't notice any lag at all compared to 7.1.2 and I am starting to think that some people must be working really hard to find flaws.
I understand that everyone's mileage varies, but really, 8.1 works perfectly on my Air.
I love the new features and all is lovely.

By the way, I've also updated Mac mini 2012 to Yosemite and that too is great.

There you go.

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I'am not updating my Air.

Seems like Air's GPU is miserably underpowered for imaginary GPU effects added in iOS8

How did you come to that conclusion without upgrading?

 

[EdgardasB]

I held back updating until 8.1 due to all the negative comments and almost considered just staying on 7.1.2
Turns out that 8.1 works flawlessly on my Air.
I can't notice any lag at all compared to 7.1.2 and I am starting to think that some people must be working really hard to find flaws.
I understand that everyone's mileage varies, but really, 8.1 works perfectly on my Air.
I love the new features and all is lovely.

By the way, I've also updated Mac mini 2012 to Yosemite and that too is great.

There you go.

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How did you come to that conclusion without upgrading?

Try open Safari bookmarks by clicking on site url section then rotate. Furthermore, transition animations are choppy. Yes, 8.1 is nice update talking about features and etc but talking about smooth experience it is average for such desktop class device...Also gestures randomly stops working

 

[infotalk]

I'm getting jerky scrolling in Safari on 8.1, I'm not impressed so far.

It is the same for me since ios 8.0.1. Safari scrolling is very jerky.

I also have the issue with Facetime. It has connection problems. It hangs several times and just keeps ringing and the UI becomes unresponsive.

Worst IOS release ever

 

[roman01]

There was full transparency on the keyboard in places on iOS 7.1.2 (Spotlight on the home screen for example) and it had no impact on performance.

This is nothing more than poorly optimised code, as usual on iPad. Christ it took them six months to make iOS 7 usable on ALL compatible iPads.

Unless this is their ploy to push tablet sales back up, by making a device slightly laggy after just one major update to push people who notice it and can't stand it, into upgrading.

Just what I did when I bought the Air for not being able to stand Safari lags and jerkiness. But, I'm not gonna do it again.

 

[sanke1]

How did you come to that conclusion without upgrading?

I upgraded to 8.0 and downgraded back to 7.1.2 when the window was open. That's how I came to the conclusion.

 

[MacOG728893]

Looks like I'll be keeping my air on 7.1.2 until further notice. Hopefully 8.2 will the update to patch the issues plegging your devices.

So glad I haven't updated yet. On a side note. My father upgraded his iPad 2 from iOS 5 to iOS 8.1 and he now thinks his iPad is broken.

 

[roman01]

iOS 8 wallpapers optimized for transparency off setting

Hi everyone,

Been reading your posts after my lovely iPad Air went all jitterry, erratic, and in no way buttery smooth as before and the perfectionist I am (most Apple-people are) I can't stand the looks of it, but yes, turning off transparency solves the speed problem pretty much. It also increases the speed on iPhone 5 with iOS 8 so for now, I made these background wallpapers for the home screen that, I believe, aren't too bad with the stupid unpure-gray dock that just doesn't work with any wallpaper whatsoever. Hope it helps someone. I'm having these for now and with the transparency off and reduced motion, my iPhone 5, which I always loved for its speed, feels snappy again!

Roman

PS: I hope Apple fixes these speed issues, because that is really not what I'm used to from them. Their Mac OS kept getting faster with updates, not slower. This looks like a page from Microsoft's tactics, which, ironically, seem to have changed recently. Oh man, gotta start hating all the big players.

 

[roman01]

Those iPhone wallpapers I posted earlier work well for iPad too! Look much uglier then the transparency ON, but for those who want a snappy iPad air enjoy!

 

[roman01]

Interesting. With transparency off, email, for one, still uses transparency. Just look under the gray color of the search box.

 

[Wando64]

I upgraded to 8.0 and downgraded back to 7.1.2 when the window was open. That's how I came to the conclusion.

Well, actually we are on 8.1 now...

 

[ron7624]

I'm running 8.1, 32gb, cellular, with no issues. None. Not any.

 

[TommyA6]

I'm running 8.1, 32gb, cellular, with no issues. None. Not any.

Just because you don't notice lag or stutter it doesn't mean it's not there. We all have the same iPad Airs (same hardware, same software...). Installed apps have no effect on performance or animation smoothness of general UI (outside of that particular app).

The fact is iPad Air stutters on a lot of places including for ex. activating Siri, rotating screen with keyboard on (especially noticeable in spotlight search, where the rotation frame rate is embarrassingly low) etc. and Apple should fix it ASAP a, especially because the same crappy low-ish is present even on iPad Air 2, which is significantly more powerful than Air 1.

 

[ron7624]

Just because you don't notice lag or stutter it doesn't mean it's not there. We all have the same iPad Airs (same hardware, same software...). Installed apps have no effect on performance or animation smoothness of general UI (outside of that particular app).

The fact is iPad Air stutters on a lot of places including for ex. activating Siri, rotating screen with keyboard on (especially noticeable in spotlight search, where the rotation frame rate is embarrassingly low) etc. and Apple should fix it ASAP a, especially because the same crappy low-ish is present even on iPad Air 2, which is significantly more powerful than Air 1.

I am not ocd. I just went and got my Air and activated Siri. What stutter?? No, I do not 'notice' the complaints that many, like yourself, have. Maybe it is your combination of apps... I dono, but the last time I noticed lag was on a 7 inch Lenovo tablet that I used for about 6 months before the original Mini was unveiled. Now that tablet had lag, stutter and a host of problems that made it almost unusable.
I have NO problems with my iPad Air. None. Not any. OK, so maybe I don't notice a stutter when rotating the tablet when the keyboard is displayed.... really? Hell, I'm not even looking at the tablet if I'm rotating it, much less staring at the screen to see it it stutters or not. You are talking well under a fraction of a second, right?
I am not ocd. The iPad Air is a magical device. Period.
Again I say that I have no problems with my Air. None. Zilch. I would not discourage anyone from buying one.
My wife goes to many shopping sites, clothes shopping - always, and she does complain that her Air will hang up sometimes, to the point of hard rebooting. I attribute it to how she uses her device. The many, many childrens' apps that she has loaded on it.... It is a device. Any device, tablet or desktop has to be maintained to run clean.
I've rambled enough. My point is that I would not discourage anyone from buying an Air 1 if they don't have the money to buy and Air 2.

 

[s2mikey]

I am not ocd. I just went and got my Air and activated Siri. What stutter?? No, I do not 'notice' the complaints that many, like yourself, have. Maybe it is your combination of apps... I dono, but the last time I noticed lag was on a 7 inch Lenovo tablet that I used for about 6 months before the original Mini was unveiled. Now that tablet had lag, stutter and a host of problems that made it almost unusable.
I have NO problems with my iPad Air. None. Not any. OK, so maybe I don't notice a stutter when rotating the tablet when the keyboard is displayed.... really? Hell, I'm not even looking at the tablet if I'm rotating it, much less staring at the screen to see it it stutters or not. You are talking well under a fraction of a second, right?
I am not ocd. The iPad Air is a magical device. Period.
Again I say that I have no problems with my Air. None. Zilch. I would not discourage anyone from buying one.
My wife goes to many shopping sites, clothes shopping - always, and she does complain that her Air will hang up sometimes, to the point of hard rebooting. I attribute it to how she uses her device. The many, many childrens' apps that she has loaded on it.... It is a device. Any device, tablet or desktop has to be maintained to run clean.
I've rambled enough. My point is that I would not discourage anyone from buying an Air 1 if they don't have the money to buy and Air 2.

I hear ya. My Air has been basically perfect for me since I bought it. For whatever reason that seems to irritate some folks who have had trouble. Having issues does stink but those of us that haven't aren't denying what's happening to others, we are just saying that we aren't having any problems. That's all.

 

[prozai]

Wow gotta thanks you guys, after turning on reduce transparency on both my 5 and Air the devices are as smooth as iOS 6 especially when bringing up the keyboard and rotate it, no more lag and slow animation
The only trade off is the ugly UI thou, but I can live with it

 

[lewy]

Yeah, with the reduced motion it runs more smoothly but I also pay for those fancy animations, LOL.

I don't believe they're gonna fix this annoying lag-issue.

 

[Reformedgeek]

I've noticed that Safari has a weird lag issue when clicking on hyperlinks. I have to move the page slightly in order for Safari to register my click. No other app has this issue so I'm sure it's not hardware

 

[oldmacs]

I've used it on an iPad Air and it lags. I've seen iOS 8 lag on an Air 2 though so its not overly surprising

They should have released the iPhone 6 and 6 + on iOS 7.2 or something, and held back iOS 8 back until it was ready (which it still isn't even now)

 

[saudor]

Wow gotta thanks you guys, after turning on reduce transparency on both my 5 and Air the devices are as smooth as iOS 6 especially when bringing up the keyboard and rotate it, no more lag and slow animation
The only trade off is the ugly UI thou, but I can live with it

Did this for my iPad 4 running 8.1 and iPod running 7.1.2. Both are running pretty smooth. Think I might just do the same on the iPhone 5 running 7.1.2 even though I'm not experiencing slowdowns too much. Might even save the battery a bit. Besides I'm kinda over the transparency stuff anyways lol

 

[FatPuppy]

iPhone 5s has much lower resolution to render the screen with translucency effects.

iOS 8 introduces keyboard translucency at many places including Safari. This causes unnecessary keyboard lag. If you know your stuff, the translucency effects like Gaussian blur are very taxing on GPU. iPad Air's higher resolution makes things harder.

The Gaussian blur, I've always wondered what is that blur effect applied in the whole OS. Thank you so much, now I have my answer.

 

[roman01]

I've noticed that Safari has a weird lag issue when clicking on hyperlinks. I have to move the page slightly in order for Safari to register my click. No other app has this issue so I'm sure it's not hardware

I confirm the same experience.

 

[jonnyb098]

I confirm the same experience.

It's the same on my Air 2. Good ole iOS 8.1!