iOS 9.2 Review: Should You Install?

iPhone 5 iOS 9.2 Review

The iOS 9.1 update was like magic for the iPhone 5. Prior to its release, we had been experiencing major issues with the update's speed. UI lag was common and it felt like the beginning of the end for the flagship from 2012.

iOS 9.1 restored our faith in the device. It didn't fix everything but at least it helped the phone become usable again by eliminating most of the UI issues afflicting our iPhone 5.

We've spent several weeks with the iPhone 5 iOS 9.2 update and it remains solid on the now three year old smartphone.

iOS 9.2 isn't perfect. Let's get that out of the way. We continue to see lag with Control Center, the keyboard and when opening certain applications. But that's manageable and understandable given the device's old age. This is a fossil we're dealing with. 

The update excels in other areas though. Connectivity is still strong after all of these years (and after several weeks with iOS 9.2). Battery life isn't as good as the iPhone 6/iPhone 6s but we've been able to milk a whole day out of it. (The important thing of course is that we haven't run into any weird drain.)

Our apps are doing just fine and we haven't encountered any notable issues. All of the problems we've seen are related to speed. Some iPhone 5 users are running into other problems but those problems appear to be isolated. 

If you're already on iOS 9 and you're having problems, we recommend iOS 9.2 for its features, fixes and security patches. If you're coming from something older like iOS 8, you'll want to be extremely careful with iOS 9.2. 

This is the best iOS 9 update yet for the iPhone 5 but you'll still want to prepare.