iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s: Impressions & Performance

iOS 8.4..1 doesn’t come packed with new features and software upgrades. It doesn’t let you stream content through a new subscription like iOS 8.4 did, for example. Still, it’s an important upgrade and definitely a sign of Apple’s dominance in the smartphone and tablet space.

iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s is exclusively devoted to bug fixes and quality of life improvements. That Apple can quickly get out changes in response to issues that cropped up last year is astonishing. Currently, Apple is the only company that can deliver promised fixes and feature improvements so soon after an update.

iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s – Impressions & Performance: Installation

Apple is the poster child for painless updates. The reputation seemed in danger recently when the company launched a huge iOS update that started disabling the features of some iPhones. Since then, Apple has opened up its process to public testing. The results speak volumes.

I had no issues installing the iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s update. I connected my iPhone 5s to a charger and headed to the Settings app to upgrade. Finding the upgrade went flawlessly, with the phone immediately noticing that I didn’t have the current software. The download finished quickly and within a 10 minutes I’d already tapped “Install” and upgraded to iOS 8.4.1 on the iPhone 5s. When it comes to updates, iPhones are still setting the standard, whether you are upgrading over your cellular network or not.

iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s – Impressions & Performance: Features & Bug Fixes

Apple release Apple Music and the Beats subscription service with iOS 8.4 just this summer. What everyone who installed the update took from it was that Apple wanted to quickly build out a presence in the subscription music space. There was a lot to love, and some very, very serious issues.

The collection that users built with Apple Music subscriptions and the iCloud Music Library was too hard to manage. Adding a song from a playlist you hadn’t created yet meant creating that playlist first then finding the song again. Users reported not being able to join Apple’s Connect Music service and getting errors for liking some songs.

iOS 8.4.1 on the iPhone 5s addresses some of these issues and concerns, but not all of them. The update does a lot to address the issues Apple Music created. According to Apple, the update “resolves issues that could prevent turning on iCloud Music Library.” It also “provides a way to add songs to a new playlist if there aren’t any playlists to choose from,” the iOS 8.4.1 release notes say. The update fixes broken liking on Beats 1. That’s an important feature to fix as Beats 1 is Apple’s new online radio station. Available the world over absolutely free, Beats 1 acts as a major music discovery tool for Apple Music, which isn’t free. Apple has given away three months of access to anyone who wants it, but the subscription service costs $9.99 a month, every month after that.

Before this week’s update, Apple Music would accidentally hide songs just added to collections because of an offline only music setting. That’s been fixed with this update too.

That’s it for all the fixes and changes. This close to the rumored launch of iOS 9 its unsurprising that Apple didn’t include any other huge feature.

iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s – Impressions & Performance: Bugs & Takeaways

After downloading the iOS 8.4.1 for iPhone 5s update I went about the rest of my morning routine. I start my morning with Beats 1 before transitioning into classic music streams for writing later. I didn’t have any issues doing either activities. I also created a few playlists from classical musicians I’d heard just discovered. I can confirm that liking worked just fine. Connect works as expected too.

I didn’t run into any serious issues in Music or anywhere else. Apps – all of them – worked just as I expected them to. I’m waiting a few days to declare the iPhone 8.4.1 for iPhones 5s update free of any newly created bugs.

iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s – Impressions & Performance: Should You Install

Whether you should install iOS 8.4.1 on iPhone 5s comes down to whether you have jailbroken your iPhone 5s or not. If you haven’t, there’s noting wrong with downloading this. At 57.4 megabytes its small and it fixes actual features that weren’t working correctly.

If you have jailbroken your iPhone 5s, than there’s some nuance to my answer. iOS 8.4.1 for iPhone 5s is very stable, but you likely modified the software on your device because you wanted features not currently offered in iOS 8. If that’s the case, and you don’t use Apple Music, you can skip this update without a problem.