iOS 10 tests show slower boot times, but overall smooth speeds even on older iPhones

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone
A series of videos published on Wednesday suggest that Apple's new iOS 10 offers relatively smooth performance across iPhone models, even ones as old as 2012's iPhone 5.




The only major difference between iOS 9.3.5 and iOS 10.0.1 is boot times, iApple Bytes observed. In testing the iPhone 5, a model with iOS 10 took nearly 15 seconds longer to boot. With the iPhone 6s, that gap shrank to 3 seconds.



Scoring using Geekbench and Basemark OS II did show performance hits, but relatively small ones in most cases. In hands-on tests running apps, there appeared to be little visible difference, though iOS 10 did create mild lag -- for instance when using Safari or other graphics-heavy apps.

The iPhone 6 and 6s run iOS 10 "very very smoothly," iApple Bytes commented.



Apple has regularly faced criticism for the speed hits newer versions of iOS can create on older hardware. As recently as December, Apple was targeted with a lawsuit arguing that iOS 9 rendered the iPhone 4S unfit for daily use, causing not just significant slowdowns but poor touch response, and even freezing and crashing. Apple knew iOS 9 could cause problems, the plaintiffs suggested, but benefited from not-so-subtly encouraging people to buy newer iPhones.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    waverboywaverboy Posts: 106member
    Actually, iOS 10 seems to run even faster on my 6S Plus than iOS 9 did.  Loving it!
    SpamSandwichlenny491anton zuykovwatto_cobramagman1979jony0
  • Reply 2 of 24
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,016member
    waverboy said:
    Actually, iOS 10 seems to run even faster on my 6S Plus than iOS 9 did.  Loving it!
    Read the article again.  I know I had to.  My 6s is much faster now.  Don't know about boot time, but I don't care much about that at 3 seconds.  
    lenny491waverboycaliperkedelanton zuykovjony0
  • Reply 3 of 24
    thewhitefalconthewhitefalcon Posts: 4,453member
    Apple rebuilt the animation system to try to bring it back to the 60FPS standard originally established by the first iPhone. That's a big reason it "feels" faster now. 
    SpamSandwichSoliwaverboycalipscooter63jony0
  • Reply 4 of 24
    timboramatimborama Posts: 15member
    I'd like to see a comparison on a 6+ (since it's crippled with only 1GB RAM).
    fasterquieter
  • Reply 5 of 24
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member
    As long as everything is smooth on the phone during use, who really cares about boot times?

    How often do people boot their phones?

    My iPhone rebooted yesterday, because of the new update, but before that, I can't even recall when I last rebooted my iPhone.

    It's on 24-7-365 basically.
    king editor the gratewatto_cobrarobertwalter
  • Reply 6 of 24
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    thewhitefalcon said:
    Apple rebuilt the animation system to try to bring it back to the 60FPS standard originally established by the first iPhone. That's a big reason it "feels" faster now. 
    That would explain a lot. Everything is so smooth now, it's just amazing to watch.
  • Reply 7 of 24
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    Apple rebuilt the animation system to try to bring it back to the 60FPS standard originally established by the first iPhone. That's a big reason it "feels" faster now. 
    That would explain a lot. Everything is so smooth now, it's just amazing to watch.
    AnandTech did an analysis about it under under their Scrolling Performance section of their iOS 10 review.

    edited September 2016 waverboySpamSandwich
  • Reply 8 of 24
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Holy God, who still tests boot times. iOS 10 is the smoothest OS Apple has released in years.
    viclauyycSpamSandwich
  • Reply 9 of 24
    slprescottslprescott Posts: 765member
    Speaking of support for older iPhone models:

    The new version nof XCode (released yesterday) dropped support for iPhone 4s; the oldest iPhone that XCode now supports is iPhone 5.

    This is not a problem -- of course -- just an observation.  In general, the updates in XCode 8 are great (including Swift 3, despite its fairly extensive overhaul of some naming conventions and calling syntax).

  • Reply 10 of 24
    wdowellwdowell Posts: 226member
    Do we even know if the two physical phones are the same - ie. for the 6s are both running the same processor as each ther? It's already been established that some are made by samsung and others by another, and theyre not exactly same.
    dysamoria
  • Reply 11 of 24
    icoco3icoco3 Posts: 1,474member
    On my 5S I am seeing a speed increase opening apps and other things in general.  An overall good update and glad I did it.
    37
    edited September 2016 robertwalterSpamSandwich
  • Reply 12 of 24
    cyberzombiecyberzombie Posts: 258member
    I've noticed slight delays in key recognition while unlocking my original iPad Air w/ iOS 10. I don't care...and my iPhone 6S+ flies (out of my hands when I get my 7+).
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 24
    auxioauxio Posts: 2,727member
    The only thing I've noticed with iOS 10 is a weird problem with AirPlay screen mirroring to my AppleTV (4th gen running tvOS 10).  I'm not sure if it's due to iOS 10 or the apps I'm using, but all I see is a spinner or black screen when sharing an app that's playing video fullscreen to my AppleTV (from an iPad Pro 12.9").  I've had to go back to using my laptop to share fullscreen video content to my AppleTV.

    Other than that, everything has been smooth and I love the new features.
  • Reply 14 of 24
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    ireland said:
    Holy God, who still tests boot times. iOS 10 is the smoothest OS Apple has released in years.
    Why do you take umbrage with the video? It's informative to see how iOS 10 may differ over iOS 9.x on the same HW. 
    dysamoriapropod
  • Reply 15 of 24
    indieshackindieshack Posts: 328member
    timborama said:
    I'd like to see a comparison on a 6+ (since it's crippled with only 1GB RAM).
    Was concerned about updating to 10 on my 6+ but it works great - actually seems a little faster
  • Reply 16 of 24
    minisu1980minisu1980 Posts: 132member
    After updating my iPhone 6 to iOS 10 everything appears to be running faster and smoother. Only minor issues I have found is the new music control card does not adjust the sound on my sonos bar, the slider for the volume still registers as increasing and decreasing yet the sound stays at the same level. August smartlock doesn't appear to work from the control card either, however it actual says not supported on the screen (though I just bought the model that supports homekit) so I'll just use the August app until there is a software update to fix it (on August end I presume).
  • Reply 17 of 24
    coolfactorcoolfactor Posts: 2,241member
    timborama said:
    I'd like to see a comparison on a 6+ (since it's crippled with only 1GB RAM).
    I think crippled is subject. If the software runs well on only 1GB of RAM, that should be a testament. Throwing more RAM at performance problems only avoids the problem rather than solving it. I am an advocate of developers actually making their software run with less memory, not more.

    apple ][ said:
    As long as everything is smooth on the phone during use, who really cares about boot times?

    How often do people boot their phones?

    My iPhone rebooted yesterday, because of the new update, but before that, I can't even recall when I last rebooted my iPhone.

    It's on 24-7-365 basically.

    Measuring boot time is just a performance metric, not about real-world day-to-day use cases.

    dysamoriakevin kee
  • Reply 18 of 24
    anton zuykovanton zuykov Posts: 1,056member
    Measuring boot time is just a performance metric, not about real-world day-to-day use cases.

    Booting time doesn't determine performance of an OS, though. And comparing different versions of OS on that metric is like trying to select the best maths students based on their weight. In short, it is irrelevant.
    edited September 2016
  • Reply 19 of 24
    kevin keekevin kee Posts: 1,289member
    timborama said:
    I'd like to see a comparison on a 6+ (since it's crippled with only 1GB RAM).
    I think crippled is subject. If the software runs well on only 1GB of RAM, that should be a testament. Throwing more RAM at performance problems only avoids the problem rather than solving it. I am an advocate of developers actually making their software run with less memory, not more.


    I second this. A sign of good developer is to actually making their software run flawlessly with less memory, and iOS 10 is the example for that. Obviously with more memories it can take more advantage and "perform more", however it's not a good sign when the software actually requires more memory just so it can perform decently like *cough* Android Nougat.
    edited September 2016
  • Reply 20 of 24
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    Boot time is important with some other OSes like Android. iOS, not so much.
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