Connect with us

Apple

iOS 8.3 iPhone 4s Reviews: Should You Install iOS 8.3?

Published

on

Just a day after Apple delivered new emojis and almost 70 bug fixes and features iPhone 4s owners are asking, “Should I Install iOS 8.3 on the iPhone 4s?” While many users want the new emojis, they are very concerned with the iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 performance and battery life because you can’t send an emoji if your phone is dead and slow.

We’ve scoured the web to find early iOS 8.3 reviews from iPhone 4s owners to help you decide if you should upgrade. We also include a two important videos that show the iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 performance compared to iOS 8.2 and to iOS 7.1.2 so you can see just how fast the iPhone 4s is on iOS 8.3.

Keep in mind that the iOS 8.3 reviews from users come after just a day of use, so there is always a chance that opinions will change after more time with the device, but so far the reviews look good.

Read user iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 reviews to decide if you should install it.

Read user iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 reviews to decide if you should install it.

Although Apple doesn’t call out the iPhone 4s performance in the iOS 8.3 change log, Apple does mention performance improvements for many apps and services. The changes also include an incredible list of fixes that fix many huge problems that annoy and frustrate users. If you have a problem with your iPhone 4s, the iOS 8.3 update might be the thing that fixes it for you.

Check out what’s new in iOS 8.3 to see a highlight of some of the biggest changes in this update. You still cannot use the Apple Watch with the iPhone 4s, but this update delivers a lot of great fixes.

iOS 8.3 Installation

Overall the iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 installation is a smooth process for most owners. You should make sure that you follow our tips to prepare for the iOS 8.3 update and then use our iOS 8.3 installation guide to complete the upgrade.

The only problem we can find now is that some users cannot find the iOS 8.3 update on the iPhone 4s. If you experience this, you can try to update through iTunes. On our iPhone 5, the phone only sees an iOS 8.2 update still.

https://twitter.com/aviiiguru/status/585898958444199939

iOS 8.3 on iPhone 4s Performance

The iOS 8.3 performance on the iPhone 4s looks pretty good, especially once you are inside apps, but keep in mind that the overall performance can vary from one user to the next. This depends on the apps, services and how the person uses the device. We’ll continue to monitor the user iOS 8.3 reviews for the iPhone 4s for more information, but the early reports are mostly positive.

iOS 8.3 Speed on iPhone 4s

“How fast is iOS 8.3 on the iPhone 4s?”, you ask. You can watch the video below to see how the iOS 8.3 iPhone 45s performance compares to iOS 8.2. Overall the device speed is good, and inside apps it appears to be slightly faster. At the bottom of this article a second video compares the iOS 8.3 performance to the iOS 7.1.2 performance on the iPhone 4s.

On Twitter, the early user reviews of iOS 8.3 are also generally positive when it comes to performance.

https://twitter.com/thepoch/status/586034279852994561

Apps

There are some scattered reports of app issues, but we see this with any update. Overall there are no problems with apps and users report that some of the stock apps load faster and work better on the iPhone 4s with iOS 8.3.

If you do run into any problems with iPhone 4s apps on iOS 8.3 the first thing you should do is update those apps on the app store. Even small app updates can bring changes that fix problems that appear after updates.

Battery Life

There are not widespread reports of iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 battery life, but one user reports that the battery life is still bad. That likely means it is the same as on iOS 8.2.

https://twitter.com/thonyrozzy/status/586061804947648512

Some iPhone 4s battery life problems may come from using a very old device where the battery life degraded over time, rather than bad iOS 8.3 battery life specifically.

WiFi, Cellular & Bluetooth

Here's the important details on iOS 8.3 iPhone 4s performance.

Here’s the important details on iOS 8.3 iPhone 4s performance.

Apple calls out fixes for WiFi and Bluetooth problems and so far we are not hearing from users that there are new WiFi, Bluetooth or cellular connectivity problems with the iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 update. Thee may appear after extended use, but for now it looks like this update is solid.

Bugs & Issues

There are some iOS 8.3 problems on other devices dealing with Touch ID, but so far we are not able to discover any iPhone 4s specific iOS 8.3 problems. We’re still investigating, so if you are concerned you may want to wait a while to install the iOS 8.3 update.

Should You Install iOS 8.3 on the iPhone 4s

Any iPhone 4s user  with iOS 8 problems should install the iOS 8.3 update now. The performance is good according to early reports and the videos show good iPhone 4s iOS 8.3 speed.

With fixes for apps, WiFi, Bluetooth and many other areas this is an update that solves many problems and doesn’t appear to add any show stopping issues. If you decide to update and want to go back to iOS 8.2, you can downgrade from iOS 8.3, but this option will only last for a week or two.

There is no iOS 8.3 jailbreak at this time, so if you use jailbreak tweaks and themes you should avoid this update for now. If you are on iOS 7 you can see how the performance compares in the video above. Once you upgrade to iOS 8.3 you cannot go back to iOS 7, so choose wisely.

Check out the slides below to see what’s new in iOS 8.3 and how it compares to iOS 8.2.

iOS 8.3 vs iOS 8.2: What’s New in iOS 8.3

New iPhone Emoji in iOS 8.3

New iPhone Emoji in iOS 8.3

Apple adds over 300 new iPhone emoji in iOS 8.3. There are new Emoji like the Apple Watch and a new Mac, but most users will focus on the addition of more family choices including more kids, families of two men or two women and now there is an option to change the skin tone of many emoji.

Read: How to Use New Emojis

With this update you can tap and hold to choose the skin tone of an emoji icon for many emoji options and then tap to pick the color option. Tap and hold on a new color option to make it the default.

The iOS 8.3 emoji keyboard for iPhone now offers continuous scrolling so it is easier to scroll through the emoji options and find the ones you want.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Alex

    04/10/2015 at 10:20 pm

    performance of ios8.3 on my 4s is certainly better (i mean faster) then previous update. But it is still very slower.
    Most disappointed with dictation while writing emails. I presume that dictation for Indian English will be improved with iOS 8.3. But it’s still not capable for day-to-day use .

  2. Ahmed karmaoui

    04/12/2015 at 7:00 am

    Hi, i have an iPhone 4s but still running ios 8.1.3 which i find stable and battery life is ok. I updated once to ios 8.2 but the battery & performance were bad. if ios 8.3 fixes both battery & performance i guess it is just 8.1.3 with extended emoji’s keyboad which is not a big deal for me to update just to get the later.

  3. Will Killyou

    04/18/2015 at 6:31 pm

    I am Still on IOS 6.x, I have a 4s with 32GB RAM. Honestly, I do not use the phones internet ability too much, I find small screens and mobile sites too slow and taxing to look at it, I mostly text and call. Performance is the most important issue for me and as far as I am concerned Apple could care less. New features for the most part I found just causes more work and slower performance. Most of these features are basically more of a nuisance then convenience. In addition I am not in love with social media and have my location services disabled. I am still using the 4s because it is small enough to carry when wearing shorts and does not interfere like a larger iphone 6 would, I am sure the 6 is great if you carry a purse… :) I was hoping that they may of finally created an IOS version that just runs smoothly but I am sure this is not he case. The fact that more power is being used tells me that something is constantly occupying clock cycles, WIFI, CELL or all of these; could be some monitoring built in that they do not want the public to know about..?? Hopefully someone has or will look into this. Eventually I am sure the fad large phones will fall out of fashion and we will once again have smaller offerings, after all for me and for many this is first and foremost a phone.

  4. Ozza

    04/25/2015 at 9:31 am

    Be careful!! I like others (just search forums) who have updated a 4S to 8.3 have seen the WiFi stop working, it has a greyed out enable button, and even following suggested workarounds freezes settings screens. Potentially this update fries the WiFi antenna/module or there is a software bug. This is too much of a coincidence, before the update wifi was fine post update it’s broken. I can’t even restore as iTunes did a backup of 8.3 when I connected it. Bad Apple!!!

  5. Dascot

    05/06/2015 at 12:40 pm

    read all the comments and decided to go for it. Put on our wonderful wifi (1.1m on a good day) and plugged in the charger anticipating a two hour wait. Er, no. Done and dusted in less than 8 minutes. Can’t see much difference apart from an extra load of silly faces which I don’t use anyway and the removal of the irritating (1) against settings. Might be a fraction quicker, but that might be wishful thinking !

  6. John Wilson

    05/13/2015 at 12:51 pm

    I have lost wifi on my 4S since installing iOS 8.3. WiFi continually drops out, so unusable, can’t seem to be able to roll back to 8.2 and so hoping 8.4 will sort this problem out.

  7. Ism is

    06/15/2015 at 12:21 am

    Hello there I’m on ios 7.1.2 jailbreak and I just wanna know if I should update now to ios 8.3 thx

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.