Thoughts on updating iPhone 5 to iOS 9?

[Kendo]

I think the sweet spot for an iOS device and update is 2 years. Meaning if an iPhone 5 releases with iOS 6, don't update past iOS 8. Otherwise you will have major lag such as an iPad 2 trying to run iOS 8.

Does anyone think the A6 will be able to handle iOS 9? Should I keep it on iOS 8? Please keep in mind that I will still have the latest and greatest on my iPhone 6, but I am keeping my iPhone 5 as a backup phone or if I have to travel internationally since it is unlocked. I'm just not sure if iOS 9 will cause it to stutter like an old iPad.

 

[netsped]

Install it now that's in GM and if you don't like how it performs you can still downgrade to iOS 8 before they stop signing it.

 

[Cougarcat]

It's probably better on the 5 than than the 6 Plus. Keep in mind that although the hardware is weaker the screen is small so there are fewer pixels to push.

 

[BittenApple]

Don't do it.

 

[Paddle1]

The 5 runs iOS 9 okay, since it's not your primary device it shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[Myerla]

What would you guys recommend if I am running 7.1.2 on my iPhone 5? It runs super smooth however many developers stopped supporting older iOS versions and support 8.0+ only. Should I upgrade it now before iOS 9 GM launches or keep my hopes up and wait till iOS 9.x becomes better than 8.4.1.
Thanks!

 

[Paddle1]

What would you guys recommend if I am running 7.1.2 on my iPhone 5? It runs super smooth however many developers stopped supporting older iOS versions and support 8.0+ only. Should I upgrade it now before iOS 9 GM launches or keep my hopes up and wait till iOS 9.x becomes better than 8.4.1.
Thanks!

It depends on whether you value smoothness, or apps and features more. Also iOS 8 might run better so you could give that a try as well.

 

[Kendo]

What would you guys recommend if I am running 7.1.2 on my iPhone 5? It runs super smooth however many developers stopped supporting older iOS versions and support 8.0+ only. Should I upgrade it now before iOS 9 GM launches or keep my hopes up and wait till iOS 9.x becomes better than 8.4.1.
Thanks!

Don't think a later iOS would run smoother than a previous iOS in terms of smoothness. In other words, I doubt iOS 9 would run better than iOS 8. I updated my iPhone 5 to the latest iOS 8 so that I can skip 9 altogether. I'll have 9 on my iPhone 6 though.

 

[OSXMavericks]

I'll be updating my old 4s to iOS9. iOS8 runs fine on it for a 4 year old phone. Web browsing and playing videos is terrible but apart from that there's really only a few seconds speed difference when viewing news apps, calender, emails etc when compared to the latest iPhones.

The iPhone 5 should be fine with iOS9.

 

[ot73nl]

I have iOS 9 on my iPhone 5 and it runs it as good as iPhone 6+.

 

[kwokaaron]

iOS 9 GM runs nearly as well as iOS 8.4.1 with a few exceptions. Animations in the app switcher is a hit-and-miss for me. Sometimes the animation for opening/closing/switching between apps in the app switcher runs perfectly smoothly while other times it stutters a bit. Apparently some people with the 6 Plus are experiencing this as well so it doesn't seem to be a hardware limitation.

The proactive screen/spotlight search can also be unresponsive/stutter when activated. Again, 5s/6/6 Plus users are experiencing this as well. This can be resolved by disabling Siri Suggestions in the settings until Apple fixes it.

When waking the screen, the gradual brightening of the screen can also stutter very slightly occasionally. Most people might not notice this but I'm slightly OCD so...

For an initial release though, none of these are a major issue and seems to be occurring on newer devices as well. A few users have already mentioned that the 9.1 beta much smoother. So if you don't mind stutters every now and then until 9.1 is released you'll be perfectly fine.

 

[Kendo]

Want to give this one more bump before iOS 9 releases today. Based on videos it seems iOS 9 runs a tad slower on an iPhone 5, for example there is a slight lag when opening the camera or Apple Maps.

 

[ipadded]

i'm running 9.1 on 5 and it's running great.

 

[Saberon2014]

My Mom's iPhone 5 has been running the GM and she's been quite happy with it. It's very very slightly slower but not enough to warrant holding back the upgrade. I'll be upgrading my iPhone 5 OTA today, and I'm very particular about performance.

 

[Kendo]

My Mom's iPhone 5 has been running the GM and she's been quite happy with it. It's very very slightly slower but not enough to warrant holding back the upgrade. I'll be upgrading my iPhone 5 OTA today, and I'm very particular about performance.

Do you think this will be your final iOS update for the iPhone 5? I considered keeping iOS 8 my last (since it shipped with iOS6) because iOS devices tend to slow down after 2 updates. But this thread might make me consider going for iOS 9.

 

[Saberon2014]

Do you think this will be your final iOS update for the iPhone 5? I considered keeping iOS 8 my last (since it shipped with iOS6) because iOS devices tend to slow down after 2 updates. But this thread might make me consider going for iOS 9.

I don't know if the iPhone 5 would support iOS 10, but even if it did I probably wouldn't upgrade as it wouldn't get most features and performance would likely suffer.

iOS 9 has been a bit of an exception to the "slow down after 2 upgrades" rule luckily.

We're both getting 6S Plus' so the iPhone 5's are being sold.

 

[jrcsh6]

I think the only real fail that's left a bad taste in our mouths is iOS 7 on iPhone 4. That is pretty ugly.

 

[kwokaaron]

Just a quick update. The new public build (13A344) is slightly better than the GM build (13A340) released last week. The wake screen stutter is now gone so the only major stutter is the app switcher now. Again, it only happens every now and then. It'll probably be fixed in the next update since it apparently occurs across the newer iPhones as well.

 

[mpavilion]

Seems pretty ok on my 5c so far; except the task switcher animation is hella janky...

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Seems pretty ok on my 5c so far; except the task switcher animation is hella janky...

Mine too, on the 5. Disabling Siri Spotlight seems to have helped a bit, though. Seriously thinking about downgrading to 8.4.1, because task switching was at least buttery smooth in 8.4.1.

 

[Kendo]

Mine too, on the 5. Disabling Siri Spotlight seems to have helped a bit, though. Seriously thinking about downgrading to 8.4.1, because task switching was at least buttery smooth in 8.4.1.

Did you give it a few hours to finish indexing? How about today, is it still not smooth?

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Did you give it a few hours to finish indexing? How about today, is it still not smooth?

I gave it 7 hours. I've downgraded to 8.4.1, partly because I'm getting a 6s and plan to sell my 5. If I sell my 5 with iOS 8, it might sell faster, because people like having the option of an older iOS version they can either upgrade or not. At least, that's what I'm hoping to get from it. I'll just grit my teeth and live with the red badge on Settings. Yes, it was that bad on my 5, unfortunately. Upgraded, but 8.4.1 was buttery smooth for the most part beforehand. Never thought I'd say that about iOS 8, which was generally a disaster.

 

[leon771]

iOS 9.1 running on iPhone 5 here. It's just as fast, if not faster than iOS 8. I wouldn't hesitate. Just jump in.

 

[JulianL]

Gone to the official iOS 9 release that Apple pushed out yesterday. 32GB iPhone 5. No issues whatsoever. On the basis of my experience I'd say go for it.

I even tried running my phone in permanent power save mode for a while and was still 100% happy with the performance on my iPhone although I don't play demanding graphical games or do much else that strains the CPU or GPU so others might have issues. I certainly don't see any issues with lag or other stuff that a few people have complained about even when I was doing my permanently-in-power-save-mode experiment.

 

[Diego F.]

I think the only real fail that's left a bad taste in our mouths is iOS 7 on iPhone 4. That is pretty ugly.

I had that experience in my wife's iPhone 4 and that's why I doubt about upgrading my iPhone 5. She was happy with her iPhone 4 until upgrading to iOS 7. Now she's happy again with an iPhone 6 and she doesn't allow my to upgrade her iPhone :-D I recommend her to upgrade a few days ago before iOS 9 was released as she had the version that came with the iPhone 6 last Christmas (when she got the phone)