The iPhone 3G is now about two years old, and it’s nearing the end of its lifecycle. The proof? Installing the latest iOS 4 on it causes it to slow to a crawl, and that’s with half of its features missing.
Judging on the performance of both my and Mark Wilson’s 3Gs as well as based on anecdotal evidence on Twitter and support forums, the new iOS4 update is wreaking havoc on older iPhone 3Gs.
With my phone, typing has become nearly impossible. One of the first letters I hit pops up, but then stays stuck as I continue to type. It catches up eventually, but without the visual cues that I’m hitting the right keys, it makes typos an inevitability.
Furthermore, opening very basic apps has gotten much slower, and apps crashing to the home screen is much more frequent. Merely trying to open the settings panel took me three tries right after installation, for example. Loading up my photo library takes upwards of 10 seconds. Updating Instapaper takes twice as long as it used to. There’s a new pause when I hit the home button from within an app, and when it finally does close, the animation of app icons falling back into place is jittery and stilted.
And what’s really to gain by updating? 3G owners aren’t getting multitasking, they aren’t getting wallpapers, they aren’t getting Bluetooth keyboard support. You’re essentially just getting app folders and threaded emails. Other than that, there’s nothing new. I went from having a slightly sluggish yet functional phone yesterday to an “updated” phone today that can barely handle the most basic of tasks, all with very little new functionality to show for it. But hey, at least it’ll be ready for iAds in a couple weeks!
At this point, a good number of 3G owners are probably planning to upgrade to an iPhone 4 soon. And really, with the specs this phone has, it’s not shocking that it can’t handle the newest OS. But if it runs this poorly, and with major features removed, you’ve got to wonder why it was made available for the 3G at all.
Shane
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 6:39 AMOh look, it works like crap and you only get half of the features, guess you should upgrade instead…
Dave Rogers
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 7:18 AMI found that the software update improved the speed of my old 3G. It was becoming nearly unbearable over the last few months.
macdave
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:07 AM+1
I have found my iphone faster.
I wonder if there is some setting/app on the phones that are slower that is causing this?
I don’t have much on my phone aside from music, email and calendar.
Sam O'Donovan
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 1:50 PMi have found that some animations have become much faster but alot of third party apps have become slower… im think its time for an upgrade
Will Jenkins
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 10:49 AMYeah I agree, my 3G feels faster now. Plus my Facebook app works properly and the iPod app doesn’t crash all the time either :P
potterboyj
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 12:07 PM+1 much better UI experience, faster scrolling across pages… although I did use a jailbroken ipsw, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Michael
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 12:40 PMI have found this as well. Part of me thinks it is due to the new OS, the other part of me thinks it is because the first time I have properly re-installed everything on there (apps, music, OS) since the MMS update.
Dave
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 7:38 AMHow strange, I’m not having any issues! I’m finding my 3G is running a lot faster, especially Safari which no longer jerks whne i’m zooming in on part of a webpage.
Tony
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:10 AMI am having no issues, battery life better, all working great on my 3G
Sam
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:15 AMWorking perfect on my 3G. No keyboard lag. Loving folders and the unified inbox. Worth the upgrade for those alone.
If anything, I think it’s faster. Or at least feels that way.
TONY
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:21 AMSame here. I did a clean install (not upgrade). Took a while to complete, but other than the typing issue ie. as mentioned when I type it’s a bit laggish, everything else works fine.
I’ve noted takes a while longer to boot up, other than that, all good. Fingers crossed anyways. If not I’m going back….
normandy
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:23 AMI dont know what your story is Adam, my original 3G is running like a Ferrari, its faster, snappier, apps close and run faster, I suggest you need to do a full restore, as something has gone wrong with your upgrade. I have also discussed this with many people who have 3G iphones we all happy with the better performance.
RawPrawn
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:51 AMI had the typing lag on my 3G a long time before OS4, freakin drove me up the wall. My phone was runing like a dog.
I have upgraded to OS4 everything runs very well, no lag at all.
francis
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:59 AMMaybe the case of bad config causing slowing down? Perhaps there’s apps which are downloading in the background….?
Try a simple factory reset to see if speed improves!
Joe Crupi
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 9:02 AMTry a reboot – my phone too very painfully slow after the upgrade but after shutdown then restart, it actually feel faster than before.
Sam Pryor
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 9:03 AMI put about 400 ebooks onto my GFs 3G and it crashes iBooks if you try to scroll through them all.
Shane
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 9:12 AMUpdated last night, other then the length of time it took to restore the back it, it went really smoothly (this is probably the first time it has).
Folders are great, went from something like 8 screens to 3.
Seems to be running via thus var, haven’t really tried any torture tests yet.
Did discover that you can change the audio volume for BT devices directly from the device (previous volume was only adjustable on the BT device), this is sweet surprise!
Also, I think the BT audio stack is a little more stable, but I need more time to tell.
Heath
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 9:15 AMI tried to update last night, 3 hours in and no progress in backing up. My wife updated hers faster than that during my waiting time (on her own computer) and it wiped the phone and deleted the backup file (or just didn’t back up properly in the first place)…so she had to use a back up from a month ago, in that time she’s started a business and now has lost all those new contacts, her calendar items, photos and apps. It’s messed up. I canceled my update after her’s went to hell, I will be waiting for the inevitable 4.0.1 update that fixes this. I planned on getting iPhone 4, but now it seems like it’s my only option.
Dr_Stef
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 10:35 AMSame thing for me.
I rage-quitted after the slowest backup in the history of mankind. I spent an hour waiting for the green backup bar to grow 1 mm in size. Complete waste of time. Quitting was lightning fast though!
Now reading this I will probably wait for my contract to finish, then I will ask for a free upgrade. Don’t want to turn my poor old 3G into something that behaves old and rickety.
igor
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 9:34 AMI have updated to iOS4 on my iPhone 3G and have found the device to respond much faster when using SMS in particular.
As for the reason why the home wallpaper is missing and multitasking in the previous article that’s just crap.
I have jailbroken my iOS4 and while doing it enabled multitasking and background wallpapers and the phone is functioning fine without lag. Although I’m still getting use to the multitasking feature and how it leaves all the apps you open “running”
Matt Stone
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 10:18 AMI did a restore on my iPhone 3G (long overdue) and upgraded it to iOS4 and have not had a problem. It runs a little quicker in fact.
I would strongly recommend a Restore over and update as my mates that did Updates are having the difficulties!
jus_tin
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 10:23 AMI can understand when hes coming from, when you FIRST install it and try it, mine was horribly slow. But after syncingf it and backing up ect, again it was fine. If anything it is much faster. For instance when I’m in a app and I click on a link to go to safari, it switches much faster. But then again I’m on a 3G 8GB Ipod touch, which is basicly the same as 2g and isn’t as fast as the 32GB and 64GB versions
Leo W'ski
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 10:35 AMHow suprising though…and update that makes your older model slower….hmmm must be time to fork out more $$$ for a new model then!
(P.S…..I will be – though from a 2G)
Erin
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 10:46 AMI agree, when I tried to update, the phone crashed and I needed to do a full restore – now working faster and better than ever.
Ben
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 11:35 AMI did a restore a week ago, to de-jailbreak my phone and remove the clutter.
The upgrade to 4.0 went without a hitch and my 3G is working perfectly.
Tim
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 1:34 PMI’d suggest those who find it faster do so because apple as sped up the animations between screens, e.g. when launching or closing an app.
Having upgraded first thing yesterday I found it pretty worthless. Yes, folders and the single inbox is nice, but when my partner asked whether she thought I should upgrade, I had to say I didn’t think she should bother.
I ended up jailbreaking just to try out multitasking and background wallpaper and in my experience the 3G takes a pretty big performance whack after that. Been dealing with all sorts of strange issues today. e.g. phone froze on “slide to answer” when call was coming through…
feral
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 2:38 PMPlanning to restore to 4.0 and jailbreak as per the instructions on iclarified. Glad to hear its working well for other 3G owners :-)
R Tone
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 6:24 PMWhen I updated to 4.0 all my ringtones are gone (including the purchased ones). I have synced with iTunes a number of times but they simply wont go back on the phone. Slow functioning is one thing, but reduced functionality – great work Apple…
andy
Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 4:12 PMmy 3g is definitely slower after the upgrade.
Is there any way to go back to 3.3 or whatever it is?
Simon Reidy
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 12:26 AMWell here’s an interesting one: Since updating my 3G to 4.0, my proximity sensor is not working properly. The screen will turn off alright as I place the phone to my ear, but then when I lower the phone to hang up, the screen remains blank and unresponsive. If the other person doesn’t hang up first, I’m left with a continuing call while I press every button like a madman. Eventually after about 4 clicks of the lock button it hangs up the call and turns the screen back on. Totally awesome don’t you think? Makes the phone so useful.
4.0 just feels like beta software to me. There are bugs galore and all sorts of instability with a lot of apps.
I’m not alone with my proximity sensor issue either, as this Mac Rumours thread shows: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=10289208#post10289208
John Hayward
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 4:20 PMI updated my 3GS to IO4 and have not found any issues. I have not tested speed scientifically but the responsiveness of the phone seems unaltered. The multi-tasking works well although I find the best performance with Apps that have been updated to run with IO4.
Also I have not found any lag with keyboard and the proximity sensor works fine. I live in an area where reception is an issue but I have noticed with the IO4 update that my reception seems a little better.
Must be lucky I suppose…