iOS 8.0.2 on iPhone 5s Review

The iOS 8.0.2 update runs best on the iPhone 5s out of all a wide array of Apple devices, which is a surprise and good news for owners looking for the latest version of iOS on the year-old iPhone.

I spent the past week using iOS 8.0.2 on the iPhone 5s before I ship it off to a new owner, and it is surprisingly better than the iOS 8.0.2 iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6 performance.

In this iOS 8.0.2 iPhone 5s review I’ll share what works and what doesn’t and help you decide if you should install iOS 8.02 or wait for the rumored iOS 8.1 release that could come in the next few weeks.

Although iOS 8.0.2 is a small update there is a chance it can cause major problems. The iOS 8.0.1 update knocked out cell service for 40,000 iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units in September and small updates can also mess with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity in strange ways.

Our iOS 8.0.2 iPhone 5s review looks t five key areas that users need to know about and will help you decide it is worth installing the latest iOS 8 update.

iOS 8.0.2 Performance

The overall performance of the iPhone 5s on iOS 8.0.2 is very good. There are no major issues like I see on the iPhone 6 Plus and although some user are seeing poor battery life that is not the case on my iPhone 5s running iOS 8.0.2.

Almost a week ago I shared the initial iOS 8.0.2 impressions on performance and a look at any potential issues and not much changed since then.

Apps

With almost 50 apps installed on the iPhone 5s chances are most of you favorite apps have a home on my iPhone as well. During the last several days of spot checking popular apps like Netflix, Gmail, Twitter and others there are no major issues or problems. This is great news considering the app freezes and crashes I experienced on my iPhone 6 Plus.

iOS 8.0.2  Battery Life

Many users I talk to saw a hit in iPhone 5s battery life after installing iOS 8.0.2. I am not seeing any major shifts in usage, but I performed a clean install of iOS 8 instead of an over the air update, which can help remove any potential battery life bugs.

Use these tips if your iPhone battery life is bad after the iOS 8 update, and you may be able to cut these problems out.

Connectivity

I am experiencing some oddities in connecting to Bluetooth in my Ford vehicle, where the phone won’t stay on the car speaker system all the time. This is a sporadic issue, and not something I am experiencing on other iOS 8.0.2 devices, but readers are also experiencing this on a Mazda and Apple Support forums mention this problem many times.

LTE and WiFi are working great on iOS 8.0.2 on my iPhone 5s, connecting to multiple WiFi networks with no problems or lags and switching in and out of Verizon 3G and 4G LTE. I do miss the inability to use VoLTE, which is an iPhone 6 feature that sends calls over LTE and finally allows me to use my iPhone for calls at home.

iOS 8.0.2 Bugs & Fixes

My iPhone 5s no longer sticks in landscape mode like it did on iOS 8. This remains an issue on the iPhone 6 Plus, but thankfully the iPhone 5s runs like a champ. The iOS 8.0.2 Bluetooth issue mentioned above is something Apple still needs to fix, but it is something I can work around for now.

Speed

Overall the speed of the iPhone 5s remains the same as on iOS 8. I did not see any noticeable slowdown from iOS 7 to iOS 8 and certainly nothing going to this latest update. Apps launch and switch quickly and the overall iPhone 5s experience is snappy.

Should iPhone 5s Owners Install iOS 8.0.2

Although there are no major problems fixed with iOS 8.0.2 that iPhone 5s users need today, it does offer some small update to third-party keyboards and to the Health app — which may be reason enough to upgrade. The great news is that for most users there are no major iOS 8.0.2 problems that lead me to say don’t upgrade.

If you rely on your iPhone 5s for in-car connectivity over Bluetooth you may want to wait until iOS 8.1 arrives, which supposedly fixes this problem.

If this is the first update you are looking at as part of the upgrade to iOS 8, you can check out the iOS 8 features in a slide show below.

iOS 8 vs iOS 7 Walkthrough - Home Screen

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We start our iOS 8 vs iOS 7 walkthrough with the iPhone home screen, which is where you'll start your iOS 8 experience after an update this fall.  These screens are incredibly important as you see them anytime you turn on the iPhone or need to choose an app to launch. There is no way around using them, so Apple needs to make sure they work just right.  As you can see in the iOS 8 vs iOS 7 comparison above, there is no change between the home screen in the new iPhone software. Apple changed the status bar and some other small visual changes in iOS 7, but there are no updates for iOS 8.   We could see Apple change the home screen slightly for iOS 8 for the iPhone 6. The new iPhone will feature a larger 4.7-inch display with a higher resolution. This is something Apple may use to add more icons to the screen. Or they could stick with the current layout, it's tough to tell.

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