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iOS 6.0.2 for iPhone 5 Review: Final Impressions

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Earlier this week, Apple rolled out a brand new update, iOS 6.0.2, for the iPhone 5 and iPad mini which the company aimed squarely at fixing Wi-Fi issues that had cropped up with iOS 6 and persisted even after it issued an iOS 6.0.1 update. We already took a first look at the update when it was first released and now, it’s time to take another look in our final iOS 6.0.2 for iPhone 5 review.

Read: iOS 6.0.2 for iPhone 5 Review: Impressions and Performance.

Two days ago, Apple surprised iPhone 5 and iPad mini owners with an update to iOS 6.0.2. The update came as a surprise because owners of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, myself included, just assumed that the next update would be iOS 6.1 which just hit the fourth version of its beta and should be out sometime in the weeks ahead. However, it seems Apple deemed the Wi-Fi issues affecting iPhone 5 owners worthy of their own fix and thus, iOS 6.0.2.

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iOS 6.0.2 has been good to my iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 owners, since the release of iOS 6 had been dealing with Wi-Fi issues which included problems holding a connection, weak connections, and more. Prior to iOS 6.0.1, I had trouble retaining a connection with my home Wi-Fi network. It fixed those, but there were still times when I would get an extremely weak and sometimes non-functioning connection even when my other devices were completely fine.

The pleas from iPhone 5 owners seemed to be enough for Apple to jump into action and on Tuesday, Apple released iOS 6.0.2, an update that had just one fix in its changelog. And that fix of course was one that was supposed to fix the Wi-Fi issues.

So, after using the update extensively for the past two days, it’s time to take a final close look at iOS 6.0.2 and whether it fixed things, brought any new bugs, and some thoughts about the next update, iOS 6.1.

WI-Fi Issues Resolved

Apple’s fix contained in iOS 6.0.2 has greatly improved my Wi-Fi connectivity with both my home network and networks that I’ve used outside of my home. There were times both at home and away from it where my iPhone 5 would be connected to a Wi-Fi network and I would just get absurdly slow data, forcing me to switch to 4G LTE or 4G HSPA. These are networks that I used to be able to use, with ease, with my iPhone 3GS.

Now, everything appears to be normal. I’m able to get a fast connections on my home network and networks at places I frequent. Again, that Wi-Fi issue was a bit sporadic for me but I have noticed an improvement after installing iOS 6.0.2.

4G LTE Runs Great

I’ve received a number of emails over the past couple of days asking me about 4G LTE connectivity. There is a massive thread going on over at Apple wherein users were reporting stability issues with 4G LTE. People weren’t able to hold down a 4G LTE connection or the connection was weak. And yes, these people proclaimed to be in areas where 4G LTE was available making it seem like an iPhone issue.

Personally, I’ve never seen this issue. My 4G LTE connection has surprisingly been fantastic on my iPhone 5 using AT&T’s network. So, 4G LTE is still running great as it always has been.

One thing I will point out is that the last person on that thread claims that his/her 4G LTE connection improved after iOS 6.0.2 and since the update rolled out, the thread has been silent. So, it looks like the update may have squashed that bug for some people, even if others claim to still be seeing the issue.

iphone53No Battery Issues

Another issue that iPhone 5 users have been reporting is terrible battery life after installing iOS 6.0.2. Evidently, users are seeing the battery drain without any usage with one user saying that he saw his phone grow warm and the battery drain from 97 percent to 85 percent when traveling from Santa Monica to LAX airport which is a fairly short distance for those unfamiliar with California.

Read: How to Get Better iPhone 5 Battery Life.

The user also stated that he put the iPhone into airplane mode while on the plane. And then, once off the plane, the iPhone was cool and the battery had drained completely.

Battery life issues always surface after iOS updates so it’s no surprising to see users complaining after updating to iOS 6.0.2. From my end, my battery life is perfectly fine. My iPhone 5 doesn’t drain abnormally when idle and I even put it into Airplane Mode to see if I could recreate this issue but it actually saved me a much of battery life.

I don’t doubt that some people are experiencing issues because there are more than a few that are seeing it, but thus far, it’s smooth sailing for me.

Unfortunately, those users may have to wait until iOS 6.1 because Apple employees are on vacation.

No More Reboots, For Now

One thing that struck my iPhone 5 right after installing iOS 6.0.2 was a random reboot. For those that don’t know, I’ve been dealing with this issue since I got my iPhone 5 back in September. The phone will random shut off for a few seconds, show the boot screen, and then quickly take me back to the lock screen. It happens infrequently and it’s more of an annoyance than anything.

The issue persisted with iOS 6.0.1 and I was hoping that iOS 6.0.2 would take care of it. Unfortunately, right after installing it, the device rebooted as I was sending an iMessage. Since then though, I haven’t seen the issue.

At the very least, it has not happened on a daily basis like it used to and that’s a huge plus.

ios-6-logo-hi-res-460x4603-150x150Final Thoughts on iOS 6.0.2 for iPhone 5

For me, this update improved my Wi-Fi connection and may have lessened the blow of the random reboots while keeping my 4G LTE connection and battery life as solid as they always have been.

I realize that there are iPhone 5 owners out there that are complaining about issues, particularly the battery life, after updating to iOS 6.0.2 but thus far, I have not seen that issue occur on my device and I have it attached to my hip.

So, for the most part, I think most iPhone owners are safe installing this update. Those with apprehension can wait for iOS 6.1 to arrive, which should be in January or February, though I guarantee you hear complaints about battery life, connection issues and more after that update as well. It will just come from the vast minority.

How has your iOS 6.0.2 update experience been?

26 Comments

26 Comments

  1. Nick

    12/20/2012 at 7:25 pm

    Regarding the phone heating up and draining the battery, I think that is probably a hardware problem. I had the same issue when I first got the iphone 4. It would get hot and the battery drained to 0 in a matter of a couple of hours. The morning I scheduled to take it in to the apple store neither I nor the “geniuses” could get it to come on and it was replaced free of charge.

  2. Jane

    12/21/2012 at 1:46 am

    My Wi-Fi hasn’t improved at all since the update. I don’t really see any changes at all. My Wi-Fi is still virtually useless. Things thing forever to load, I feel like I have dial up Internet on my phone!

  3. Haroon

    12/21/2012 at 10:00 am

    My Wi-Fi hasn’t improved at all since the update. I don’t really see any changes at all. My Wi-Fi is still virtually useless. Things thing forever to load, I feel like I have dial up Internet on

  4. John

    12/21/2012 at 8:31 pm

    There seem to be another problem with the 6.0.2:

    https://estrategypro.com/discover-which-ios-apps-store-password-securely-with-ios-6-02-bug/

    That’s a password-remembering bug. Suspect something to do with keychain.

  5. TheTruthSquad

    12/22/2012 at 3:11 pm

    It is too bad Jobs is not still here. He would tell you to stop whining because all phones do the same thing.

  6. Tyger

    12/23/2012 at 11:18 am

    iPhone 5 doesn’t allow me to add my email account from yahoo. Says server is unavailable and relentlessly asks me for my pass word.
    iPhone 4 doesn’t have any issues accessing my all four of my email accounts. iPhone 5 will only allow me access to two of them~ I was recommended to add the yahoo app, (free), but WTF… I have to log on to each account separately. Not convenient at all~

    • John

      12/23/2012 at 2:57 pm

      It could the password remembering bug in iOS 6.0.2.

      Try play around with the case eg all caps in your Yahoo email address in the settings. It may just work!

  7. Tyger

    12/23/2012 at 11:25 am

    Two friends of mine had similar issues trying to add their email accounts and it took several employees and phone techs to only partly resolve. Additionally, when I synched my new iPhone 5, it only synched over photos and text messages from June 2012 and all prior but nothing from June 2012 to present~
    I’ve tried resets, talks to techs, no one seems to know how to resolve the issue<
    The touch screen is sloppy… Trying to move app icons from page to page is difficult in comparison to the iPhone 4. In the iPhone 5, the icon slips from your finger grip and goes back to its original position.
    I'm finding the IPhone 5 very disappointing.

  8. cypherstream (@cypherstream)

    12/24/2012 at 7:11 am

    If the battery is heating up and draining like crazy check and see if Waze is still running. This app drains the battery like no tomorrow. There is a bug in Waze that if you go through it’s menu to “shut off” it’s still running in the background. Double tap the home button and in your last launched application list find Waze and close it completely. This solved my battery drain. I went from not being able to go 8 hours on a single charge to finally getting through a day on a single charge.

    I put my phone on the charger every night when I go to bed.

  9. Simon Johnson

    12/25/2012 at 1:12 am

    My wifi has got considerably worse than before. Did a speed check DL speeds of 0.41mbps yet my laptop is getting 28.00 Mbps!! Thinking of getting something different now, this is my 5th iPhone the only one I never had is the 4s & this has been the worst for problems!!

  10. John

    12/26/2012 at 5:08 pm

    I have owned an iphone of some sort since the original iphone came out some years ago, i also have a company/work blackberry and owned an HTC android phone for about 6 months a year or so ago and have to admit, that this new iphone, the 5, is possibly becoming the worst iphone i have had and one of the worst phone exepriences i have had. Like a few people I know, I am now regretting buying the iphone 5 and believe apple has had its day and iphone is on the way out.

  11. alan

    12/27/2012 at 1:07 pm

    I just got the Iphone 5 yesterday and I’ve already experienced just about everything on this list. After a full recharge, the battery drained to 0 in only 6 hours with a moderate amount of internet access. It locked and booted a few times. My yahoo email no longer worked (server down and kept asking me for my password) I’ve also had slow connectivity to my WiFi. Sheesh, I wonder if it’s too late to get my iPhone 4 back… Should I ask the store to replace it with another, or is these issues in all of them?

    • Tyger

      12/27/2012 at 9:01 pm

      I’m just about ready to return mine and for a droid or iPhone 4~

  12. Katrina

    12/28/2012 at 4:08 am

    Check your battery usage in settings. If your standby and usage time are close to being the same you need to restore your phone as the update has not been put on the phone properly. Hardware faults with batteries are rare.

    • Tyger

      12/28/2012 at 6:55 pm

      What~? Reset my phone AGAIN~?

      • MelC

        01/03/2013 at 7:28 am

        After the 3rd time of being told to “reset” my recently upgraded phone to 6.0.2 I lost my marbles on Apple care and went in and got a new phone on 6.0.1 and viola it works again.

  13. Niffty

    12/29/2012 at 5:32 am

    I have had the 5 for a couple of months now, is my first iphone, battery was average to start but over time improved and i generally get 1.5 days now. As for the post from Katrina, I just checked my standby & usage & are exactly the same, so not sure how this would be an indication update has not installed correctly. Note I am still on 6.0.1. One thing though I have LTE turned off most of the time as I don’t get many places where it’s available yet. I have noticed though when using LTE battery life is terrible, halves battery life, also issues with personal hotspot not working on LTE and battery drain continues once LTE turned off until phone is recharged. Might wait a bit longer before installing 6.0.2 to see more feedback.

  14. Masta P

    01/01/2013 at 10:38 am

    My wifi sucked in my bedroom but now it’s working. Re battery life… It has sucked since day 1. I think maybe the battery is just too small for the demand of the new everything in iPhone 5 and blaming this update or anything else is just a cop out by Apple.

  15. MelC

    01/03/2013 at 7:24 am

    I had no issues with my 3 week old iPhone 5 UNTIL IOS 6.0.2. That day after the software update, it had severe battery drain on average about 10% every hour. Wouldn’t stay on wifi. My cellular data usage jumped up 1 GB during the week after the upgrade. After a week of doing multiple “restores”, resetting my wifi router, ect… I finally went to apple and they replaced my phone. I am NOT upgrading to 6.0.2 until they have fixes for this. Too many people reporting issues for this to be a “hardware” problem. At least they replaced my phone (new phone is on 6.0.1) so I can use it again. I love apple, but I’ve severely disappointed in this IOS and iPhone 5.

    • MelC

      01/04/2013 at 7:07 am

      Update: New phone from apple after a day is not, wouldn’t you guess, not staying connected to wifi. Don’t waste your time getting a new phone. We did everything last night also with our less than year old router from updating firmware to making it a open network. Husband manages high end servers for his job, so we are on this. This is ridiculous!

  16. Patrick

    01/03/2013 at 8:28 pm

    For some, you need to upgrade your wireless router if it’s more than 5 years-old. For some reasons, the new Iphone 5 does not work well with older wireless router; hence, many of you will experience Wi-Fi issue with these old routers. I had to do the same with my home wi-fi network and no longer had wi-fi issues.

    • Simon Johnson

      01/04/2013 at 12:27 am

      Well my wireless router is about 1 week older than my phone, so I really can’t see that being a problem. Especially when everything else works perfectly fine & at the right speed! It’s only this phone that struggles on my wifi both at home & when out & about!!

  17. Paul Peterson

    01/07/2013 at 8:39 pm

    Hi Adam,

    Thanks for your fine article. It debunked everything else I’d found on the web and gave me the confidence that the upgrade would be worth it. I wasn’t having any WiFi issues but since upgrading, my battery life seems to be better than before. Not sure what everyone is complaining about.

  18. Leo

    01/20/2013 at 9:25 pm

    Hi, I have an IPad mini WiFi model, i upgraded it to IOS 6.0.2 I’ve been having issues with the battery. It drains so quickly now and even the screen seems slightly pale. I blaming the IOS for it. Hope a upgrade to 6.1 come out quickly or I’ll have to downgraded somehow…

  19. James Crane

    01/26/2013 at 9:53 am

    Have had iPhone 5 since jan and have not had any probs apart from the prop. That my iTunes did not like my iPhone so had to do a restore and then worked fine had iPhone 4S and had no probs with this at all batt on iPhone 5 is fine about the same as my iPhone 4S just needs charging at the end of the night

  20. Erica Wehri

    02/25/2013 at 3:31 pm

    I just updated this morning. My phone was working great until about an hour ago, it shut off and now it won’t turn back on!!!!! What do I do know?

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