iOS 8.4 Jailbreak on iPhone 6: Impressions & Performance

Hot on the heels of the iOS 8.4 update release was an iOS 8.4 jailbreak. Here’s how the new jailbreak performs on the iPhone 6 so far.

It’s been a busy few days for the jailbreaking community. Last week an iOS 8.3 jailbreak was released, and several updates were issued throughout the days following. However, iOS 8.4 was right around the corner at that point, and once the update released earlier this week, an iOS 8.4 jailbreak quickly followed.

There’s a lot to be thankful for with this new jailbreak, mostly because this will likely be the last major iOS 8 update, so the jailbreak will last throughout the summer until iOS 9 releases at some point in the fall.

That’s usually not the case, or at least a jailbreak usually doesn’t come this quickly. However, there were a few months where iOS 8.1.2 was the latest version that was jailbreakable, while iOS 8.2 and iOS 8.3 released afterward. Only just recently has the latest version of iOS been able to be jailbroken.

In any case, I was able to update my iPhone 6 to iOS 8.4 (despite the hammered Apple servers) and jailbreak it using TaiG’s updated jailbreak tool. Here’s how my iPhone 6 performs with the new jailbreak.

First Impressions

Installing the iOS 8.4 jailbreak was painless and rather quick. The TaiG jailbreak tool for iOS 8.4 works identically to the iOS 8.3 version, and you simply plug in your iOS device and click Start. A few minutes later, you’re greeted with a jailbroken iPhone or iPad on iOS 8.4.

Of course, though, it’s important to know that first impressions of a jailbreak can be rather shallow. In other words, as long as your newly-jailbroken iPhone works like it should and Cydia works fine, then it’s a good jailbreak.

When the iOS 8.3 jailbreak first released, Cydia wasn’t supported quite yet, so jailbreak tweaks wouldn’t work until the jailbreak was updated to support Cydia. That went on for a couple of days, but the iOS 8.4 jailbreak didn’t receive the same troubles, luckily.

Read: How to Jailbreak iOS 8.4 with TaiG

Furthermore, the iOS 8.4 jailbreak can only be installed using Windows machines at the moment, leaving Mac users hanging out to dry for the time being until an OS X version releases at some point, which should happen soon enough.

One thing that I’ve noticed more (even within just the first day of jailbreaking) is that my WiFi and LTE don’t randomly cut out, which used to be a frequent occurrence. I wasn’t able to get online at all without restarting my iPhone. I’m not quite sure if that’s a jailbreak thing or a bug with iOS 8.1.2, but it’s certainly nice that I don’t have to deal with that anymore on the iOS 8.4 jailbreak.

Performance

While it’s not a huge surprise, many of the performance improvements that I’ve seen on my jailbroken iPhone 6 running iOS 8.4 are mostly because of iOS 8.4, and it’s been incredible to see the difference in performance with iOS 8.4 compared to iOS 8.1.2 that was running previously before I updated.

However, the jailbreak itself is a lot more stable this time around. Cydia performs a lot better than before, and that makes it easier and better overall to install jailbreak tweaks.

Furthermore, battery life has seen an improvement. To say the least, it was horrid on iOS 8.1.2, getting down to 50 or 60% after the work day was over when I barely even used my iPhone. However, with iOS 8.4, my iPhone usually doesn’t get below 80% after the day is done, and I don’t have to constantly be wondering about if I should charge it or not.

Touch ID is also something that I’ve seen a huge improvement in. Beforehand I would try to scan my fingerprint and it would either take forever or it would tell me to try again because it couldn’t read it correctly the first time.

However, with iOS 8.4, Touch ID works a lot better and I feel like I don’t have to avoid it and just use the passcode. It works how it should work now, and that’s something worth writing home about, despite how pathetic that sounds.

Read: iOS 8.4 Jailbreak Release: 3 Things to Know

The only big downside that I’ve seen with the iOS 8.4 jailbreak is tweak support. There are still a handful of popular jailbreak tweaks that need updated for iOS 8.4, including Activator and F.lux. Both have beta versions available that work with iOS 8.4, but if you’re not comfortable with beta software, we’d suggest staying away until final versions release. However, beta versions of jailbreak tweaks are usually pretty stable.

The good news is that Springtomize has been updated for iOS 8.4. The jailbreak tweak didn’t support iOS 8.3 when that jailbreak came out, but the popular utility was just recently updated to work on iOS 8.4 and iOS 8.3.

However, it may take a bit of time for all jailbreak tweaks to be updated to support iOS 8.4, which isn’t too surprising, but it may cause some inconveniences for a while if you do decide to install the iOS 8.4 jailbreak on your device.