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Friday, September 03, 2010, 08:10 pm
iOS 4.1 on iPhone 3G shows marked improvement in speed test
As expected, iPhone 3G performance improves considerably when running iOS 4.1 in an informal speed test.Lifehacker has posted a video comparing an iPhone 3G running iOS 4.0 with one running iOS 4.1. In the "tests," which are shown side-by-side, iOS 4.1 bests iOS 4.0, sometimes by as much as 10 seconds.
iOS 4.1 won all four tests, which involved sending a text message, locating a store in Google Maps, displaying a photo, and loading a website. The tests were conducted on a single iPhone and then stitched together. The version of iOS 4.1 used was a "final release" version.
In testing, the most noticeable difference was "UI responsiveness." The UI for iOS 4.1 "didn't get stuck nearly as much" on interface elements or when entering text.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced Wednesday that the iOS 4.1 update will ship on Sept. 8. Jobs specifically mentioned iPhone 3G performance as a "bug" that would be fixed with the update. Long-awaited proximity sensor and bluetooth fixes will also be included in iOS 4.1.
Users who upgraded to iOS 4 on their iPhone 3G have reported serious slowdown of their phones, with some units becoming "unusable." In July, Apple told the Wall Street Journal that it was aware of the reports and looking into the matter.
Several key features of iOS 4, such as multitasking and data protection, are disabled on the iPhone 3G.
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Previous Comments View All
I wonder if it's a bug-fix or an overall improvement to the code or the stack. The latter would mean improved performance on all devices running iOS 4.1, where the former would probably mean no improvements for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 users.
great point i downgraded my iphone, did some tweeks with my wifes iphone (turned off searchlight)
that did improve it, but it still isn't quite as responsive as my 3.x
soooooo, when someone does this comparison i will wait till it makes sense, i don't want to go through another downgrade
The video has two iphone 3GS's being demonstrated, not 3G's...
I wonder if it's a bug-fix or an overall improvement to the code or the stack. The latter would mean improved performance on all devices running iOS 4.1, where the former would probably mean no improvements for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 users.
4.1 appears to be marginally faster across the board, but the 3G iPhones that were affected (not all were having this problem) are seeing huge gains. So it appears there is some code refining and a big fix for whatever was ailing some 3G iPhones.
I hope that Apple also corrected the fact that the clock on my iPhone 4 does not synchronize automatically. My old 3G was always within 1/10 of a second of my "atomic clocks", but the iPhone 4 drifts off as much as 40 seconds and will not set itself automatically. Yes, the "Set Automatically" is ON
The video has two iphone 3GS's being demonstrated, not 3G's...
hmm...how can you tell? I know it says "3GS" on the video title, but in their post they say it's a 3G...
4.1 appears to be marginally faster across the board, but the 3G iPhones that were affected (not all were having this problem) are seeing huge gains. So it appears there is some code refining and a big fix for whatever was ailing some 3G iPhones.
I wonder what it is that makes some 3G iPhones different from others. Mine was affected and after suffering from an almost unusable phone for a few weeks, I downgraded it. The added features in iOS4 were just not enough to put up with the constant lag.
hmm...how can you tell? I know it says "3GS" on the video title, but in their post they say it's a 3G...
Both of those phones have the compass app which was not included on the 3G
When I installed 4.0 on my touch 2g Safari seemed a lot faster, while the rest of the system was just as fast or a little slower. I ran wallpaper and multitasking though (not approved), so maybe 128mb of RAM was the reason for the slowdown. However since this test was on iPhone I would not have expected RAM to be a problem.
But I don't have to worry about this anymore. I sold my 2g iPod touch yesterday and am in process of upgrading to 4th gen (totally skipped over v3 due to its suckieness) Hopefully it will blow me away speed wise, both because of this update and because of A4.
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Like people are saying on Lifehacker and Gizmodo, there needs to be a test between 4.1 and 3.1.3. 4.0 is so bad that anything is going to look better while 3.1.3 is the benchmark for the phone.