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iOS 6 on iPhone 4: First Impressions and Performance

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Along with many other iPhone users I was very excited to install iOS 6 on my iPhone 4.

Although the iPhone 4 does not receive all the new iOS 6 features, the new software the proposed benefits outweigh any potential downsides. After using iOS 6 on the iPhone 4 for several days, here are my thoughts.

The iPhone 4 has been around for about two years now and in that time it’s seen a decent amount of software updates. With iOS 5 my iPhone 4 ran decently, but there was definitely room for improvement.

Some of the major annoyances that I experienced with iOS 5 were slow app performance, issues with notification center, and general system sluggishness. I was hoping that the upgrade to iOS 6 would fix some of these issues and to some degree it has.

Read: How to Update to iOS 6

Software Update

The upgrade to iOS 6 has been better than expected for a device that is two years old. Installing iOS 6 took about eight minutes after downloading the large update file.

Overall the software looks the same, but Apple includes a number of new benefits in iOS 6 for the iPhone 4.

Before the update my iPhone was running okay, but I could tell that it was starting to show its age. So far iOS 6 has breathed some new life into it.

Overall Performance

In terms of performance iOS 6 brings mostly been improvements. In iOS 5, messages loaded slow on occasion and i encountered general system glitches from time to time.

With iOS 6 these issues have been alleviated to a degree. As soon as the update finished I put the phone through a stress test. I opened 15-20 apps and used multitasking to switch between them in rapid succession. With the older software, at minimum it would of created a major slowdown but not so in iOS 6 which is very impressive.

Another thing that is noticeable is the overall operation of the phone. While iOS 6 is still not perfect it seems to be better in terms of the simple tasks such as swiping between homescreens, and the typing response on the keyboard. in IOS 6, theses tasks are more fluid.

Battery Life

Concerning battery life, iOS 6 is as good, if not better than iOS 5 on the iPhone 4. It doesn’t matter what version of iOS is on my iPhone, by the end of the day it is usually screaming for the power plug. But with iOS 6 the battery life stretches a little further.

Feature performance

Maps

Apple Maps

With iOS 6 Apple decided to get rid of Google Maps, and replace it with Apple Maps. Although there are issues with Apple Maps, the performance on the iPhone 4 has been fairly stable. Turn by turn directions are pretty responsive and GPS accuracy is as good as before. Traffic response has also been decent, but not much has changed between google maps traffic and “apple” traffic.

Phone

Reply by Message

The phone app has also benefited from iOS 6. There is the option to reply with a text if the user is unable to answer a call at that moment. This feature is nice to have since it isn’t always the most convenient to answer a call, and by simply swiping up a message can be sent back in seconds.

Notification Center

Notification Center

On the iPhone 4 notification center worked okay but it had a lot of bugs. One of my personal favorites was the freezing of the drop down menu in the middle of the screen. With this in mind, a lot of these issues have been resolved with iOS 6. Apple even added the ability to tweet or send a Facebook status from Notification Center which is a cool feature.

Other

Settings Revamp

Another big advantage with iOS 6 is do not disturb. Do not disturb is a great way to have better control over notifications so they are less intrusive in certain situations. Whenever do not disturb is enabled the iPhone will not make any sound, vibration, or even light up the screen.

A small change that is great for users is better access to Bluetooth in the Settings. Before it was a pain to dig through several screens just to enable and disable bluetooth. The new bluetooth toggle is located in the main page of settings which is a good change.

There are also a lot of design changes for the built-in apps such as Music, Calendar, and App Store to just name a few. Also the YouTube app and Google Maps are no longer installed by default in iOS 6.

Should you upgrade to iOS 6?

Overall the iOS 6 upgrade is a must for iPhone 4 owners. The amount of features this update adds to a phone that is two years old is pretty impressive. Plus the performance has been great and although not all the features work like they do on the iPhone 5, it is nice to receive some of the upgrades.

103 Comments

103 Comments

  1. Snipzors

    09/24/2012 at 1:21 pm

    i have to completely disagree with alot of what you have said. First off i also have the iphone 4 and use mine for work on a daily basis, i can say without a doubt that my battery life has been nearly halved, to the point that i cant even get through the day where i could before. The loss of google maps was a HUGE hit, Apple maps is inaccurate, and the loss of street view is crucial…. i wish i could just go back to 5………..

    • Lisa P

      09/24/2012 at 2:48 pm

      I wonder if you can get google maps in an app. I would hate to lose that street view. Haven’t upgraded yet, waiting to hear more.

      • malcy34

        10/12/2012 at 11:06 am

        live street view in the app store for free…!!

    • Lemonaed

      09/25/2012 at 2:04 pm

      You can go back to ios5! I did! And it doesn’t involve a jailbreak. It does involve manually downloading the ios 5.1.1 file and then you manually install it via itunes. You will need to have backed up your phone recently while it was using ios 5.1.1 (if you want to retrieve all your files). IF YOU HAVE BACKEDUP RECENTLY WITH IOS6 ON ITUNES AND THEN PROCEED TO DOWNGRADE TO IOS 5.1.1 ITUNES WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO RESTORE TO YOUR LAST POINT – you will only be able to restore back to the last time you set a restoration point while using ios5. Here’s a link to the youtube video that I used to do my reverse engineering. I’m so glad that I did. Google maps is too good to give up at the moment.

      https://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/06/20/how-to-downgrade-ios-6-beta-to-ios-5-1-1/

    • malcy34

      10/12/2012 at 11:05 am

      live street view in the app store for free…!!

    • Isobel SoCal

      10/14/2012 at 1:05 pm

      This upgrade to 6 ruined completely my perfect iPhone 4 :-( Ggrrrrrrrr
      1-The battery drains incomprehensibly, even with all apps closed!
      2- very slow, both apps and normal processes.
      3- did you try to use the phone while it is on charge? It’s absolutely screwed up. You
      have to unplug.
      What a huge mistake I made!

      • Mal

        10/18/2012 at 10:47 pm

        To true, my phone was great, ios 6 now makes it junk. Apple lost one customer in me for this incompetent mess.
        Articals talk it up, yet comments speak the reality, thats the media for you, bought mouthpieces.
        I wish I had a phone that I could surf the web with!

        • Scott McMichael

          11/03/2012 at 7:01 pm

          I agree totally. I’ve been watching my battery drain right before my eyes. And I love Google maps, the detail was unmatched in my opinion. And apple took away the YouTube app that I really liked also.I had a lot of favorites loaded on that app that I looked forward to watching at times. Apple messed this one up for sure.

          • Joey G

            12/28/2012 at 1:35 pm

            I’m not sure what the big fuss is about, other than user error. i have a 4 AND a 3GS and decided to update the 3GS to 6.0.1 and not only is there a huge improvement in performance, but also battery life lasts a lot longer than before. Usually it would have to be charged every night on 5.0.1 but now it’s once a week with absolutely no change in daily routines. My 4 is jailbroke which is why it hasn’t been upgraded yet but from the looks of the 3GS performance I can say everyone downing the upgrade must not be doing something right…..

      • ethan

        10/29/2012 at 8:52 am

        Tips to lengthen battery life: first off, go into contacts/mail settings and turn off push mail, set it to manual.
        Also, in location services settings, go into the system set at the very bottom and turn off traffic and location-based ads, and turn off bluetooth.
        Second off, double click the home button, hold one of the recent app icons, and press the minus buttons to close each app from running in background

    • Lights

      11/12/2012 at 5:01 pm

      I disagree. It started out fine but now im getting slow performance in many areas. Whole phone developed a stutter. Sometimes it cant even get an message working properly.

  2. Stephen

    09/24/2012 at 2:21 pm

    Either the reviewer is using a iPhone 4S or he didn’t actually tried iOS6 on iPhone 4. From Apple website, iOS 6 turn by turn navigation doesn’t support iPhone 4.

    • Brian Moker

      09/24/2012 at 9:21 pm

      The iPhone 4 does have turn-by-turn, but the device does not speak the directions to you as it does on the A5+ devices. Also, only the top image can possibly be from an iPhone 4, the rest are definitely from an iPhone 5. The settings screen image is a dead giveaway.

      • Lashae

        09/25/2012 at 8:23 pm

        I have the iPhone4 and my settings screen looks just like the screen shot above

        • Zsolt Zele

          10/21/2012 at 1:41 pm

          that image is way too tall to be from the screen of an iPhone 4 or even 4S…

          I have an iPod 4g… (same stuff just without the phone) and I can only see the menu until the “Brightness & Wallpaper”… yet on the picture you can see the Privacy and the iCloud menu too… so no… this is not an article about iPhone4 made using iPhone4…

          shame on you whoever wrote this…

          also… pretty much everything you wrote is way off from reality.

          I use an iPod (same hardware as the iPhone 4, just half the RAM…) and yes, I see a slight battery life improvement. but it’s not significant and when I use apps, it doesn;t make any difference. though it’s not less either… however, iTunes, Podcasts and Appstore apps are useless. I can’t download my previous purchases anymore, coz iTunes just crashes. Podcasts won’t download anything, let alone updates, and whether the App store works or not depends on my iPod’s mood…

          maps looks awesome if you ask me, but the lack of functionality and painful inaccuracy is just plain ridiculous.

          so… technically my iPod has been downgraded to a £20 mp4 player with the iOS 6 update… and I am not happy with that… it’s not good enough Tim… this iOS may look like an iOS, but it certainly doesn’t feel like one… There was a reason why I kept using Apple products in the past… but now I’m quite seriously considering switching to Surface with Windows 8… no… I’m not desperate enough to even look at Android… XD

  3. Jennifer Beall

    09/24/2012 at 2:54 pm

    I hate the new update. My phone runs so much slower and my group messaging isn’t working where it did. If you are going to make changes and update software you should try it first……….I would so love to hit the undo button!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4. Shyday

    09/24/2012 at 3:38 pm

    Well I have great things about to software update for the iPhone 4 but I have the same phone and update n my phone doesn’t do most of what people says it does

  5. Nancy kuehb

    09/24/2012 at 5:01 pm

    My update significantly slowed phone down. Very disgusted

    • Moutaz

      10/03/2012 at 5:02 pm

      Try to reset, chose reset all setting it was helpful for my iphone 4 and speed it up, note that it’s self experience and not from any source.

  6. John

    09/24/2012 at 7:11 pm

    I’ve experienced significant improvement in battery life for both the iPhone 4 & 3GS after installing iOS6. The 3GS UI is also noticeably faster.

  7. Barbados

    09/24/2012 at 9:56 pm

    People, just dont update and stay with 5.1.1. Unfortunately, ios6 is not for iphone 4.

    • D

      09/25/2012 at 10:11 am

      I just upgraded to iOS6 on my iPhone 4 (not 4S) and I have to disagree with a lot (but not all) of what’s been said in these comments. So far 6 seems much faster than 5 ever did – Safari, Mail, and especially the iCloud syncing with Mountain Lion. The turn-by-turn directions do work for me (although no voice since there’s no Siri), however, I bought MotionX’s GPS Drive for 99c and it’s far, far better than what Google Maps ever was – turn by turn directions, talks to me, automatically re-routes – I feel like I have a Garmin in my phone now. What IS a big negative is that the battery life does go down faster, especially when using GPS apps.

      • Mary

        10/08/2012 at 4:27 am

        I don’t have Mountain Lion or the icloud. Would ios6 still work on my iPhone 4?

  8. Kenny

    09/24/2012 at 10:15 pm

    Well, my 3GS is having good battery life and smooth operations, my other 4S also having same stuffs although some games feel lagging due to IOS6 incompatability, perhaps pending upgrade by the developers.

  9. Olivia bebs. x0

    09/25/2012 at 1:38 am

    do you get siri on iphoen 4 when updated please answer xo

    • Keith Eastep

      09/25/2012 at 1:13 pm

      Olivia, no you do not get Siri on iPhone 4 iOS6. Try an app called Voice Texting Pro in the App Store.

    • crsmejia

      09/26/2012 at 3:23 pm

      No, no Siri, FaceTime over 3G, Apple Maps turn-by-turn… Pretty pointless update.

  10. AdamEvans

    09/25/2012 at 2:41 am

    like Carrie explained I didnt know that people can earn $7166 in 4 weeks on the computer. did you read this (Click on menu Home more information) https://goo.gl/wiKwc

  11. Greg Hill

    09/25/2012 at 3:48 am

    new iOS 6 very frustrating on 4s. When typing it is very erratic it seems that the keys are very sensitive. Also the screen being smaller than the iPhone 5 doesn’t show all detail when viewing text. Is there any way I can go back to iOS 5?

  12. Ptre

    09/25/2012 at 4:39 am

    I WANT TO UNDO !!! HOW???

  13. Ptre

    09/25/2012 at 4:41 am

    ARRRRGGG Why so SLOW !!!!

  14. lamelama22

    09/25/2012 at 12:49 pm

    Well I was on the fence, then I realized that Apple had automatically downloaded the iOS6 installer (as shown in your Software Update screenshot), effectively reducing the free space on my phone by 1/2, with no ability to delete it… and if I restore to get rid of it, it will automatically re-download the next time I’m on WiFi. & I had chosen NOT to upgrade, since the changes in Maps are a dealbreaker for me living in a city. So now I either have to update & hope for the best to get my space back, or live without it… or jailbreak.

  15. Justin

    09/25/2012 at 3:12 pm

    iOS 6 was a horrible upgrade for the iphone 4. I cannot make calls from my lock screen without the phone shutting off while still making the call. Not only frustrates me but the persons I am calling. Typing is slower. Maps is nothing like it was before. I used to love my I phone but since the upgrade I’m looking going to the android network. It took me about 5 min too long to type this message due to going back and fixing. I there is anyway to go back to iOS 5 some PLEASE let me know. I hope the apple programmers read all these complaints and fix the issues or they will lose a lot of business.

  16. Lisa P

    09/25/2012 at 6:29 pm

    I have a 4. No problems whatsoever. Battery life is fine, possibly better. Not impressed with passbook, though. Just another marketing tool, not really a big help. I shut it off. Turn off traffic updates and other non-essential location finders, especially passbook. It is programmed to send coupons when you get to a store, so its probably constantly searching. Get rid of anything that’s constantly searching and your battery life will be fine.

    • Alan

      09/27/2012 at 1:20 pm

      Hi Lisa…..How do you turn passbook off? I just have the app and when opening it all it gives me is 4 catagories and a button that when clicking gets me to the App Store where i can download “free” apps ranging from American Airlines to Wallgreens….
      Thanks!

    • Nabeel

      10/02/2012 at 8:22 am

      my view are the same as Lisa’s. just updated to 6 and find it Ok.

  17. Mike

    09/26/2012 at 1:49 pm

    So is better to stay on ios 5.1 having iphone 4

    • Akash Anand

      09/27/2012 at 6:05 am

      Thank GOD I have not upgraded my iphone4 to iOS6.

  18. Alan

    09/27/2012 at 1:24 pm

    When recieving phonecalls I don’t have the option to reply with a text msg :(
    Is it just me or do other people have that issiue?

  19. Chris

    09/27/2012 at 8:08 pm

    Why has no one mentioned space requirements? I’m guessing most people experiencing problems are maxed out on space after the update. It’s the main reason I won’t upgrade.

    • mama2three

      12/27/2012 at 7:36 pm

      Chris – you are absolutely correct! I waited a long time to upgrade, waited till my husband and our apple wiz friend decided it was all good…..big mistake!!! It has screwed up my storage big time! I even just recently purchased the minimum icloud storage and it still says that my storage is full.

  20. Gel

    09/28/2012 at 9:27 am

    I agree with Chris. I too noticed FIRST the required space that’s needed to update to the iOS6, and that’s why I haven’t updated yet. I have the 4 and only have 2.0 space available, and let’s say I do make room for it by deleting some things or BUY more storage, which I will not do, it still will probably run slow because of the amount of space I use for apps or videos. So those who are running slow and wondering why others are running faster it’s *probably because u need to make more space on your phone. Also I wanted to say Thank You to Troy Frommer for opening up this web page about the new update and how it works for the iPhone 4.

  21. Nichole

    09/28/2012 at 10:36 am

    At least all of your iphone4 is still working. Mine stopped working completely with the upgrade and keeps erroring when I try to restore it.

    I would not have upgraded if Apple didn’t send me a push message about upgrading.

    #unhappy with iOS6

  22. Jeff C

    09/28/2012 at 8:03 pm

    Interestly enough the experience I have had thus far with ios6 seems to adversely affected my telephone service using AT&T. Where I have never had an issue before I will have no service until I reboot the phone, or possibly go into airplane mode and back out. After a call is dropped due to reception I am unable to reconnect for several minutes. Really did not expect an issue like that, I do sort of thing the battery life is better but heck that could be because the phone service is not functioning.

  23. AJ

    10/01/2012 at 3:54 am

    Why even post a junk misleading article. Upgrade results in the death of your your iPhone 4

  24. AdamCalifornia

    10/01/2012 at 1:55 pm

    Bring Back Google Maps!!! You can make HUGE money with your cell phone and get FREE Unlimited 4G talk, Text and Data. Check it >> https://bit.ly/PRwgA3

  25. ian walker (@Ianthetechman)

    10/01/2012 at 2:41 pm

    I updated my iPhone 4 even though I’m gonna get the 5 this week and i gotta say its great better battery and everything seems a little faster.

  26. Dvl

    10/02/2012 at 4:01 pm

    I hate this ios 6 …after this update my phone is like a cart slow like hell jam’s all the time…wi -fi find’s networks very hard sometimes nothing at all eventhogh the router is at 1 m away the battery dies much faster…apps loads in a week or so :| …I hate this update …but i heard from a programer that this update has a very nasty bug that’s the reason we all have this problem’s hope apple fix this asap.

  27. Jackie

    10/03/2012 at 6:00 am

    what are the advantages, if any, for downloading this on IPhone 3gs? thanks

  28. Johnny

    10/03/2012 at 8:13 am

    I have an iPhone 4 and I installed ios6 the day it came out. Instantly I experienced many of the same things many have said. Overall, very slugglish. Seemed to be buffering all the time and locking up. However, a week ago I hooked it to the computer, did a complete back up (make sure you save your contacts somewhere as it may lose them), wiped the phone and restored. Every since then it’s ran like a dream! Faster than ever. If you’re having those issues I’d suggest wiping the phone and starting over. Took about 40 min total.

  29. Kurt

    10/04/2012 at 10:16 am

    i cannot seem to download ios6. It keeps giving me an error while trying to update. HELP!

  30. Fred

    10/04/2012 at 10:57 am

    My wifi connection IS NO LONGER WORKING after downloading iOS6. My Iphone 4s was working fine before and now connections issues start to surface. I have try to restore it but nothing changed!

  31. Jeff C

    10/04/2012 at 7:43 pm

    Hmm, maybe the restore will help. At least worth a try.
    Thanks for the advice.

  32. Mark

    10/04/2012 at 8:17 pm

    I honestly want to tell apple to eat shit although I do own a apple product I think it’s bullshit keep inventing/upgrading iPhones and iPod touches it waiting tax payers money to get better stuff instead of having them send in there iPhones to get a complete upgrade with upgraded software like the A6 chip wtf what about lower class people one reason ppl steal is cause rich ass little punks like apple rub the shit in lower class face do something good for the world and quit being so dam greedy

    • Dave

      10/10/2012 at 8:42 pm

      I sympathize with you 100%. Steve Jobs was a genius. Unfortunately, the little spoiled turds who Steve controlled are not. Apple quality will go down now that the little turds have the keys to the shop and big Steve is gone. iOS6 is just the beginning. iPhone 4S + iOS5 will be the highpoint of Apple. Rest in peace Steve. A true genius.

  33. n

    10/06/2012 at 3:33 pm

    iPhone 4, Don’t Do It

  34. Luis

    10/07/2012 at 2:25 pm

    I cant update the IOS 6 it asking me that to update it needs at least a 2.4 GB of available storage can anyone help me

  35. Colz

    10/08/2012 at 11:18 pm

    help! have just installed IOS6 on iphone 4S, entire phone has FROZEN! Plugged into the laptop it boots up iTUnes, but not the phone…can anyone help please??

  36. gwen

    10/09/2012 at 5:11 am

    He’s using an iPhone 5, obviously hasnt tried it on a iphone 4. You can tell by the size of the screen shots!

  37. sherkhan

    10/09/2012 at 2:22 pm

    ios 6 is very slow on iphone 4… disagree

  38. Chris Horn

    10/09/2012 at 3:13 pm

    Get an Android phone if you like google maps.

  39. Dave

    10/10/2012 at 8:36 pm

    I have a iPhone 4s. When I “upgraded” to iOS6 I noticed considerable performance degradation relative to iOS5. Sometimes, typing was extremely unresponsive, kind of like typing in slllowww motion. WiFi speed has taken a considerable performance hit, in particular upload speeds (I monitor using the speedtest free app). Before using the “improved” iOS6, my upload and download speeds using my home WiFi were approximately 25 and 6 Mbps . After iOS6 these are now measuring approximately 15 and 5 Mbps. Again, there is a very noticeable hit in WiFi speed. Another very common nuisance is that any apps that access the web will encounter “connection problems” and simply fail to load. A work-around is to quit the app, and restart it a few times. This is not what I’d call “an improved OS”. To make a long story short, if you have a iPhone 4s running OS 5.0 think twice about upgrading to OS6 and perhaps waiting a few months. My wife will not upgrade now especially since she’s seen how badly the performance has been affected. I would “downgrade” to iOS5 if only I could. The only good thing I can see about iOS6 is the drive-by-voice prompts which makes your phone just like a Garmin or TomTom. That said, the map app is not as clean nor as complete as the older Google app,..and yes,..it doesn’t load as fast either. I give iOS6 a D+

  40. Meesh

    10/11/2012 at 1:19 pm

    I think the idea is more that Apple are hoping that we’ll all update to the iPhone 5 once the iOS 6 buggers up our iPhone 4’s! They want to have complete control… which is exactly why I’m seriously considering going to the dark side!! A friend of mine commented that he has invested too much to do that (docking station, iphone, iPad etc)…that’s exactly where they want you, by the short and curlies!!

  41. anirban

    10/13/2012 at 10:27 am

    i’v got a iphone 4,which is locked.but unfortunately i update it by ios 6.it would remain till locked.it is possible to unlock my iphone 4 now?any one help me?
    i want to back my previous version.is it possible?

  42. Kelsey

    10/13/2012 at 1:14 pm

    disagree. i havent had a single problem with it. at all.

  43. Kelsey

    10/13/2012 at 1:16 pm

    ive had the ios6 update on my iphone4 since the day it first came out. i honestly havent had a single problem with anything. its just better. i dont think anyone has any room to complain about this new update. at all.

  44. Ian G

    10/15/2012 at 3:20 pm

    Man i wish we had STEVE JOBS… We wouldnt even be talking about all these issues. I really hope “Apple” does not push me over too android. I cant believe i just said that.

  45. Michelle

    10/16/2012 at 8:07 am

    I am not a conspiracy theorist and I USED to live and breathe Apple, but after this last update – I HATE my iPhone!! The phone just doesn’t work, which is the exact opposite of why I used to love it. I feel like the upgrade intentionally makes any other iPhone version not work so you have to upgrade to the 5. I am locked in unfortunately with the AppleTV, iPods, iPad, iPhone. But I promise, that if these issues aren’t addressed I will chuck it all and go elsewhere. The phone is just SLOOOW, safari doesn’t work, apps don’t load, I am consistently told I have network issues and my info can’t be loaded when I am less than 20 feet away from my router (nothing else is slow that isn’t Apple related BTW)! Never happened before this upgrade (I.e. downgrade). The release of all of this substandard crap is contrary to what I was used to. Total disgust.

    • Stephanie

      10/29/2012 at 12:22 pm

      These exact problems has occurred to me too. I loved my iPhone before the iOS 6.0 upgrade because it went smooth, apps weren’t crashing and everything worked perfectly. Now I can barely make a phone call because everything crashes. My Calendar, Reminders, AppStore, Contacts, Notes, Safari, basically every app I have in my iPhone doesn’t work because it crashes and I have network issues, settings issues etc. It feels like this upgrade made my phone go back to the 1980’s because I can’t use it anymore.

  46. Nagesh Naidu

    10/16/2012 at 8:33 am

    my iphone 4 very slow after update 6.0 , sometimes hanging also, i make a mistake that i updated my phone.

  47. Ian G

    10/16/2012 at 11:22 pm

    Hey guys its Ian again! I posted yesterday complaining about iOS 6 and apple. Well today was a new day, and now I can say I have SUCCESSFULLY restored back to iOS 5.1.1. Feels like a new phone and I once again love the Apple wagon now:) DO NOT UPGRADE TO iOS 6!!!!

  48. Caroline Victoria Murphy

    10/18/2012 at 7:31 pm

    I recently bought an iPhone 4 from my sister and she already uploaded it to iOS 6.. It words perfectly for me! It’s not slow and so far nothing bad has happened to me. I’m really pleased that it worked for me :P

  49. Anonymous

    10/19/2012 at 8:54 pm

    Seems like the Iphone isn’t very USER FRIENDLY anymore. Glad I did not upgrade my Iphone 4 to IOS6, still rocking IOS5.1.1. :)

  50. Charlene

    10/21/2012 at 6:28 pm

    I no longer have notifications since I updated on my 4s.

  51. Ano

    10/21/2012 at 7:55 pm

    I just upgraded to IOS 6 yesterday. Initially, was vr reluctant to upgrade due to bad feedback from users. however, after upgrading my iphone 4, i kinda agree with the author that IOS 6 did more improvement than degradation.

    Forget to mention that my original os version is IOS 4.2.1, which was super steady in my iphone 4. Currently available space is 5.0gb. Probably this is one of the reasons why i did not ecounter the performance hit.

  52. Clayton Law

    10/22/2012 at 3:43 pm

    iPhone 4S and iPad 2 both work fine with iOS6. If you are having a lot of problems, it’s most likely due to certain buggy apps that haven’t been updated, or problems caused when installing the update. Do a full restore and do NOT restore it from a backup. Start it as a fresh install. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s totally worth it and will improve speed tremendously. If you already have iCloud, it will also restore everything like it was once you sign in. If not, it’s a heck of a lot of work – but still, worth it!

  53. Collin wall

    10/24/2012 at 12:15 am

    I have a sprint iPhone 4 white which gave me 22 percent after a long day of work. Now I am lucky to have 10 percent at 3 pm!!!! Battery life sucks with this update. And yes I’ve tried all the home and power hard reset shit and the set up as new iPhone and location services is off, 5.1.1 here I come back, thank god you can do it with redsnow. Screw apple. #missin my android terribly

  54. Mc

    10/26/2012 at 9:02 pm

    I ONLY went to ios 6 bc my wifi stopped working randomly and upgrading fixed it. But FUCK im typing this right now and seeing how laggy the typing is….

  55. CSharp

    10/30/2012 at 11:52 pm

    Ok, can anyone tell me which version of iOS runs best on an iPhone 4 (not 4s, not 5 – just the original 4)? I currently run iOS 4.2.1 and it’s pretty stable, but I want to take advantage of the newer functionality from 5.1.1 or 6. Is 4.3.3 or 5.1.1 or 6.x a good upgrade choice? Does 5.1.1 run any slower than any version of 4.2.x or 4.3.3? I’m mainly looking at similar performance to what I currently have, but looking to improve on the software and functionality of my iPhone 4.

    Thnx in advance.

    • Adamw

      12/07/2012 at 3:14 pm

      I’ve had 5.1.1 for some time on my iPhone 4 and it runs fine. I also have plenty of storage available (8.0 gb) — I don’t know if that has anything to do with it but it can’t hurt!

    • Bekir Eser

      12/15/2012 at 1:54 pm

      I also have an iPhone 4 , i tried all the new ios’s including ios 6, some had much battery draining prob’s , some had performance issues. Finally im back with 4.3.3 and im so happy with it. Too bad that it doesnt support iCloud. Thats the only problem for me on 4.3.3. Some times i like to play games and for my oppinion , the 4.3.3 is graet for having some battery left after you finish with gaming. iOS 5 is running better with applications but most of the ppl who upgraded their iPhone 4 to ios 5 , had battery problems, including me. So , if you are a bit gamer , i’d recommend you to have 4.3.3 on your iPhone 4. If you like the applications run’s smoother on your iphone , go for the ios 5. Sorry if i made mistakes with explaining’s , my English is not that good. :)

      • Bekir Eser

        12/15/2012 at 1:58 pm

        Hope it helps you to decide on best iOS for your iPhone.

  56. Suri

    11/01/2012 at 10:09 pm

    What a disaster downloading iOS6. Brightness even when max shows pics very dark. Messages show blank or unread even when read multiple times. Very disappointed

  57. rahul

    11/02/2012 at 4:52 am

    I also updated the iphone 4 with iOS6 every thing is fine although I did not perform any test but one thing i am looking that..in my message icon it is displaying one message unread although in my inbox no message is unread. So how to delete that or find which message is unread…? is this a bug….or something else…? Any one help me to get rid of this ……..

  58. mahe

    11/17/2012 at 4:22 am

    i am affraid to update ios 6 in iphone 4.

  59. CSharp

    11/24/2012 at 9:07 pm

    It looks like iOS 4.2.1 is the most stable and fastest of all the iOS versions out there. I’ve also tried 4.3.3 and it’s a piece of crap on the iPad 1. 4.3.3 keeps crashing apps and it seems the battery drains faster on the iPad than what I’ve seen on the iPhone with 4.2.1. So, if anyone has any conclusive evidence that newer version of the iOS above 4.2.1 is better in terms of performance, features, and whatever, please let everyone know cuz Apple is really pissin’ me off with their OS updates.

    • Ken Chu

      12/02/2012 at 2:56 pm

      Yes, I agree with you. 4.2.1 is perfect! However, I need personal hotspot function and had to upgrade to 4.3.1. First generation iPad is struggling to run iOS5, very slow and not much improvements.

  60. rrr

    11/27/2012 at 6:46 am

    I am thinking of leaving apple after getting ios6. Apple map is just horrible.

  61. Lisa onager

    12/07/2012 at 10:09 pm

    I found very little value of ios6 on my iPhone 4. I’m not concerned about the maps, so it doesn’t matter. But except for the do not disturb, which is really nbd, I noticed very little. If the maps matter to you, don’t switch.

  62. Chris brown

    12/08/2012 at 1:21 pm

    Very afraid to upgrade to io6 after reading all this, you’d think apple could have done better

  63. Glenn

    12/16/2012 at 10:12 am

    Don’t update it. It’s no worth it. If your current setup works without any problems–don’t mess it up with IOS 6. The so-called benefits referenced in this article (which are really nothing) will not benefit iphone 4 users.

  64. Chuck

    12/26/2012 at 9:47 am

    For all that I ready here, I can only say taht it look like iphone’s “4” dont work the same way even when they have the same assemble date etc…, because my iphone4 with 6.0.1 semi untethered works very good and battery life is better then before with 5.1.1, no complains, but I dont call people a lot or play games a lot, in overall, now I can leave my wifi on and the battery goes trought the day fine.

  65. Hunter

    01/06/2013 at 11:27 am

    If you are having issues after doing an update, particularly if you did it over wi-fi you need to do a complete restore of your device connected to a computer running iTunes and then restore from backup. (Would recommend a DFU restore and of course backup to iTunes and iCloud or slightly risk losing all data on your device.)

    Most of the people upset about the update likely did it over a wi-fi download that either got interrupted or didn’t install properly for whatever technical reasons no one here would ever understand. Restore it and you should be fine.

  66. rj

    01/31/2013 at 10:23 am

    the Bluetooth is switched on by default on restore/update and if u have not paired any device with the phone u won’t be able to c the “B” icon on the top. So go to Bluetooth settings and turn it off, that will increase the battery life considerably.

  67. dkazaz

    02/09/2013 at 4:49 am

    I found ios 6.1 horrible on iPhone 4 (not 4s). It was slow and laggy, bateery drained faster and key apps like phone and messages were very slow. Typing was difficult (unresponsive) and the brighness seemed to be getting turned down way low all the time.

    I rebooted the phone and did a clean restore from iTunes but it made no difference.

    I eventually used redsnow to downgrade to ios 5.11 and that works really great agasin. The difference is really noticeable. I’m gonna keep my phone on iOS 5.11 unless apple bring out a version of iOS with better performance (which is unlikely I know).

    Strange how OSX is such a good OS on computers but on iPhones they seem to be getting it wrong.

    By the way, I had no problems on my iPad 3 with iOS 6.1. I do think it is a little “heavier” than 5.11 but the hardware is more powerful than on my iPhone 4, so the effect hardly noticeable.

  68. dkazaz

    02/09/2013 at 4:52 am

    Oh and this article is garbage – the guy clearly tested on iPhone 5 as canbe seen from his screenshots. The stuf about improved responsiveness? Complete nonsense and contradictory to practically everyone’s experience.

    The only way for ios 6 to improve performance is if your device had performance issues e.g. due to corrupted preference files, so it was the mere act of re-writing those during installation which solved the problem, not the new OS.

  69. swam

    02/25/2013 at 11:22 pm

    Hey people! This is obviously sponsored and partly fake article!

    DO NOT UPGRADE to iOS6.

    It will degrade your iPhone4, forcing you to throw it away and purchase iPhone5 shortly.
    This is proven Apple plot.

    • dreamz

      03/28/2013 at 9:38 am

      i agree

  70. Mark in Oz

    03/14/2013 at 1:06 am

    Well – I’m glad I googled again before trying the upgrade from iOS5.1 to IOS6.

    Looks like I’m going to keep on sticking to iOS5 for the time being in my iPhone4.

  71. natsumi

    04/14/2013 at 6:25 am

    why i can’t use my sim to my iPhone 4 after i upgrade it to iOS 6.1.3? i can only used my iPhone 4 now to music only… please can anyone help me.. thanks

  72. jay

    04/14/2013 at 10:36 pm

    ios 4 is the best upgrade an iphone 4 should have. nothing more. i have an iphone 4 and i am very comfortable w/ its ios 4

    • Elise

      07/01/2013 at 12:33 am

      true. Im sticking with ios 4 but what do you think about ios 5? Is it worth it?

  73. Noodles

    01/02/2015 at 6:58 am

    This guy is the ONLY person on the planet who likes ios6 on iPhone 4. The rest if us are trying everything possible to go back ios 5.

    Too many problems to list here !

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