Benchmarks Contradict “Apple Slowed Down My iPhone” Claims

Megalith

Megalith

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Many speculate that Apple intentionally slows down older models of iPhones to incentivize users to upgrade to newer, more expensive devices, but thousands of performance tests conducted over the years by Futuremark users suggest otherwise: the data shows that they don’t seem to degrade in any significant way over time. Some do see performance hits with some OS versions, but others see gains.

Last week, a story went viral that claimed Apple was intentionally slowing down older iPhones to push people to buy its latest models. The claim was based on data which shows Google searches for "iPhone slow" spiking dramatically with the release of each new model. And while plenty of reputable sites debunked the logic of that claim, no one looked at actual performance data to tell the true story. Our benchmarking data shows that, rather than intentionally degrading the performance of older models, Apple actually does a good job of supporting its older devices with regular updates that maintain a consistent level of performance across iOS versions.
 
if i adjust the windows menu timer to 4000ms instead of 400ms. all benchmark will show no diffreent but user will experience "bad performance"
Raw performance and perceived performance is not the same. so still not a 100% proof.

reversed my program PRoject merucry reduced some of all those delay timers in windows giving the percpertion of a lot faster responding system even though benchmark performance er the same.
I e'ven had peopel saying it feels faster with PM running the CPU at 4.5GHz than without PM and the CPU runnign at 4.7 GHZ.

So definetly perceived performance is not always the same as raw performance.
 
The rumors of Apple crippling performance originated with the iPhone 4, which wasn’t deliberate. People are still thinking Apple does this intentionally for ever version, which I have yet to see myself or any site to substantiate the claims.

Originated and perpetuated by rumor sites that look for cheap website clicks.
 
Most of the slowdown is user created. People don't uninstall old apps, clear cache, and free memory. Sometimes poorly written apps make changes to the OS or simply leave remnants of themselves still running.

In every instance I've ever seen of a device slowdown, starting from scratch and reverting to factory defaults fixes it. Didn't matter if it was Windows on a desktop pc or a phone.
 
Trimlock said:
The rumors of Apple crippling performance originated with the iPhone 4, which wasn’t deliberate. People are still thinking Apple does this intentionally for ever version, which I have yet to see myself or any site to substantiate the claims.

Originated and perpetuated by rumor sites that look for cheap website clicks.
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Well its not just hitting Apple . nvidia had the same rumuirs going. a lot of it is probably due to people not feeling that Wow factor of their product anymore when it gets old
 
I don't believe that there is any purposeful slowdown of CPU or GPU on the devices. That said, it doesn't mean the newer IOS and apps are not requiring more CPU/GPU power which in turn could result in slow down.
 
bigdogchris said:
I don't believe that there is any purposeful slowdown of CPU or GPU on the devices. That said, it doesn't mean the newer IOS and apps are not requiring more CPU/GPU power which in turn could result in slow down.
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This is most likely what happened that and iOS completely changing animations a few versions ago.
 
Well I don't think they necessarily slow it down I think they don't optimize newer releases for older phones. My iPhone 5 feels a lot slower doing day to day things since the last time I updated. Even just unlocking it there is a 1-2 second delay from entering the pass code to actually seeing the home screen. I have been experiencing noticible slow downs since going from iOS 8 to 9. The shitty thing is some apps required iOS 9 so if I wanted them I had to upgrade
 
bigdogchris said:
I don't believe that there is any purposeful slowdown of CPU or GPU on the devices. That said, it doesn't mean the newer IOS and apps are not requiring more CPU/GPU power which in turn could result in slow down.
Click to expand...

Yeah the same thing is true with Windows on PCs of course (remember all the Vista PCs with inadequate RAM?). PC hardware is just so overkill for general use now that it doesn't really matter, plus most people don't "upgrade" to a new Windows version until they get a whole new PC.

Trimlock said:
The rumors of Apple crippling performance originated with the iPhone 4, which wasn’t deliberate. People are still thinking Apple does this intentionally for ever version, which I have yet to see myself or any site to substantiate the claims.

Originated and perpetuated by rumor sites that look for cheap website clicks.
Click to expand...

They don't really need to do such things either, since after a few years your battery starts to suck anyway and you'll want a new phone (also without an easily replaceable battery, funny that). Plus OOOH SHINY
 
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As an iPhone 6 user who went to iOS 11 and then back to 10, I can confirm the slowdown is real. However, of course it's not intentional slowdown on Apple's part. It's just an instance of the old, "bad optimization for non-priority 'port'." It sucks and Apple does contribute to the forced upgrade thing by doing that.
 
adrift02 said:
As an iPhone 6 user who went to iOS 11 and then back to 10, I can confirm the slowdown is real. However, of course it's not intentional slowdown on Apple's part. It's just an instance of the old, "bad optimization for non-priority 'port'." It sucks and Apple does contribute to the forced upgrade thing by doing that.
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Really? My 6S+ appears to be more snappy. A few apps I use load considerably faster.
 
My iPad 3 is slooooowwwww now. But, I am comparing it to the newer releases of iPads. For all I know, it was slow as molasses to begin with and I just didn't have anything to compare it to. I can play the same games that I did before, some won't work (updates...). So, as the iOS is updating, the game is updating and getting new features that can slow it down. Book reading is still the same speed, though. Slow, but faster than the shitty Nook Color I had before.

Now with an iPad Air, I'm back to being fast again.
 
They dont purposely slow down older phones... they just add more features to the OS over time and it puts more demand on the hardware.

My first ipad slowed down to a crawl after 3 years and all i had to do was turn off spotlight search which wa added later and speed was restored
 
I installed iOS 11 on my iPhone 7 Plus and if you ask me iOS 11 runs better than iOS 10 ever did on the same hardware.
 
Megalith said:
Many speculate that Apple intentionally slows down older models of iPhones to incentivize users to upgrade to newer, more expensive devices, but thousands of performance tests conducted over the years by Futuremark users suggest otherwise: the data shows that they don’t seem to degrade in any significant way over time. Some do see performance hits with some OS versions, but others see gains.

Last week, a story went viral that claimed Apple was intentionally slowing down older iPhones to push people to buy its latest models. The claim was based on data which shows Google searches for "iPhone slow" spiking dramatically with the release of each new model. And while plenty of reputable sites debunked the logic of that claim, no one looked at actual performance data to tell the true story. Our benchmarking data shows that, rather than intentionally degrading the performance of older models, Apple actually does a good job of supporting its older devices with regular updates that maintain a consistent level of performance across iOS versions.
Click to expand...

Since when did Futuremark become the defacto standard?
 
Trimlock said:
Really? My 6S+ appears to be more snappy. A few apps I use load considerably faster.
Click to expand...

6 and 6S are not the same thing. I have an IPhone 5 and yes, it is rather slow at loading stuff, at least initially, on iOS 10.3.3. However, it works and I just need it to test things anyways, I am not using it as a primary phone. However, Apple is unlikely to optimize for older phones either but most of their efforts in the newer stuff.
 
All that report shows is: those benchmarks only got a little slower. Most users complain about a slower UI. You can't use raw power benchmarks to contradict that.

Imagine someone would have benchmarked GPU and CPU like that and said "See... Windows Vista isn't slower than Window XP".
 
We have been iphone owers since the 4.. and in most of the cases when we updated to the latest OS, it resulted in slowdowns (sometimes shutting off certain featrues helped some).. Not as perceivable at first, but over time the device became increasingly frustrating to use....

Now whether that is due to apps requiring more resources, or both the app and OS optimized for newer hardware is speculation....

It is a fact that broad numbers of users experience slowdown over time.

Even more abysmal is Apple's constant nagging for users to update activating constant extra swipes and keystrokes to get the reminder to go away. If you like your version of iOS you can keep your iOS.. would be nice, but that would be executed like a certain political promise made a few years ago... in the end, you will forced to feed the ecosystem.


We currently have 4 6S's and they all work fine.. but since Apple removed the headphone jack on the 7 and up, and the latest iphone comes with a curved screen that I personally do not like, along with previous performance degradation over time, and other consumer unfriendly practices, these will likely be our last iphones. Hopefully our 6S's will last awhile longer, but we shall see..
 
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Well this is a stupid discussion. The charts even show that there is a decline in CPU performance and with the 6 it is pretty notable. I think everyone would agree that older devices get slower.
 
It's called the next version of iOS. They add features that don't run well on older hardware. I wouldn't label this as intentional - it's just adding features/changes that need a better CPU/GPU/More ram to run. (No different that Windows and any other OS really).
 
My wife's 6 has noticeable input lag that wasn't there before. I understand the need for progress but I really wish there was an easy way to roll back to a previous version of iOS.
 
NeoNemesis said:
My wife's 6 has noticeable input lag that wasn't there before. I understand the need for progress but I really wish there was an easy way to roll back to a previous version of iOS.
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Apple has never had support to roll back to a previous version of iOS. If you jailbreak and go through certain procedures, I think there was a way - but it didn't always work.
I'd like to have the option to go back and forth between supported versions on hardware for software development purposes. It'd be nice to test your iOS software on all supported versions of the OS. My team used to keep our hardware at different versions - but someone always hit the "Ok to upgrade" button at some point. Anymore, we just support the version of IOS with the most users and biggest audience. At least on iOS, a lot of people upgrade pretty quickly and you get your bang-for-the-buck using this strategy.
 
Yeah it's things like input lag that are problematic. There's a difference between applications that run slow and lag introduced into the the system UI / core functions (like the keyboard). If you compare the OS versions (10.3.3 vs 11) there's no reason it should be there other than lack of optimization. Even if it's doing heavy tasks in the background -- that's sloppy as there are no meaningful features coming out of those tasks. And to the user above, the iPad 3 I have is similarly horrible, but it dropped off way back when with iOS 7 I believe.
 
Apple doesn't sign older OS releases preventing downgrades. There's also the issue of expanding batteries on older devices..
 
As much as I love to normally bash Apple I have to agree the probable BS in these claims. My experience with most users Apple or Android is that many don't do proper maintenance for software/os/or hardware care. It doesn't usually matter on the device. If you do, you normally continue to get the best performance it can offer till the software truly exceeds what the hardware or OS can support.
 
My 5S continues to soldier on, now with 11.0.1 (and I just got notified of 11.0.2). Still works the same. No noticeable difference in the UI, still runs all day on a charge. I'd still be rocking a 4th gen iPad, too, as it was still working just fine for hat I use it for and there still were no battery issues, but I managed to drop it and smash the screen to bits so I have a shiny new 9.7" iPad Pro.
 
Every time a new major iOS comes out there are battery issues and memory problems. This is when people are initially forming their opinions and stats. Apple then patches it and it gets better. After a patch or two fixing these issues I see no degrade in performance and sometimes slight increases.

Problem is software is rarely performance tested again after fixes and people are already bitter and hurt by their initial reaction.

Now if Apple didnt release these problems to begin with that would solve it but its pretty hard sometimes to get these thing before they hit the masses.
 
IOS 8 did cripple both my iphone4 and ipad2 - and fucking Apple wouldn't let you roll back to 7. Even going to 9 when it eventually came out didn't help.
 
Trimlock said:
Really? My 6S+ appears to be more snappy. A few apps I use load considerably faster.
Click to expand...

My 6S+ is fine within apps in iOS 11 but laggy as hell switching between apps and even swiping between home screen pages. I'll try a factory reset and wipe when time allows but after that I'll go LG V30 or Pixel 2XL.
 
Jadawin said:
All that report shows is: those benchmarks only got a little slower. Most users complain about a slower UI. You can't use raw power benchmarks to contradict that.

Imagine someone would have benchmarked GPU and CPU like that and said "See... Windows Vista isn't slower than Window XP".
Click to expand...

Yep for this reason sometimes youtube speed comparisons and reviews (or better yet trying it yourself) can actually be a lot more meaningful for general use than benchmarks that just test raw CPU/GPU performance. It's very hard to come up with any sort of measurement to indicate UI speed and the overall feel of the experience.

I wonder if the newest iOS is just using more memory and those older phones don't have enough anymore? That would be consistent with UI/responsiveness slowdowns and multi-tasking/switching slowdowns. I think the 6S was the first iPhone to even have 2GB of memory, so I wouldn't be surprised if those 1GB devices are struggling. iOS does generally have much better memory management and lower memory use than Android but 1GB still isn't a lot these days.
 
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