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Carrier iPad 9 on 16,3?
- Thread starter RaphaZ
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Newer versions of iOS haven’t significantly impacted the performance of older hardware since the days of iOS 9 on the iPhone 4s and iPad 2. The A13 can handle iOS 16 no problem.
While performance hasn’t suffered on 64-bit devices like it suffered on 32-bit devices, it is a far cry from perfection, and performance issues are immediately noticeable if you update far enough. I have an iPhone 6s on iOS 13 and it is significantly slower, with notoriously bad keyboard lag than my 6s on iOS 10, which is flawless. Yes, it isn’t an iPhone 4s on iOS 9, but it isn’t perfect, either.
I will say, however, that Apple deserves praise for not obliterating performance as they used to. Battery life is the issue nowadays, with iOS updates rendering devices as useless as a main device.
Apple forced my 9.7-inch iPad Pro from iOS 9 to iOS 12 and I have to say that performance is almost perfect. Battery life isn’t, but performance is. And that is great. iOS/iPadOS 13 brought about severe performance issues on A9-based devices, however, relative to iOS 9-12. Up until iOS 12 it was perfect, then it wasn’t. Like I said, however, it is far better than it used to be, and they’re certainly far more usable, at least in terms of performance. Battery life is the complete opposite, and devices are now rendered useless through a massive degradation in screen-on time.
Thank you. Honestly that isn't my experience. iPad 5gen decreased its performance a lot since the last iPadOS version I had installed on it, years ago.
Yes, and actually, battery life is one of my main concerns. The iPad 9 Gen I have is perfect for my case, I don't want to ruin it. It is still perfectly running version 15.4.1.
I'm wondering if better versions (like the iPad Air 5th Gen with M1 processor and 8 GB of RAM) would handle better in these cases (future-wise).
I actually have an iPad Air 5, but I can’t tell you whether iPadOS 16 is perfect on it because it is running (and will run, forever) iPadOS 15.
Because iOS updates always worsen performance and battery life. Apple does not allow us to downgrade, so the only way I have to combat this is by staying behind.
Does it not affect the integration between other Apple devices? Or even with iCloud?
@FeliApple I mean, you have an M1 (which will absolutely shred anything you throw at it) and you can always go for a battery replacement in a few years when you get towards 80% battery life. Don't handicap yourself too much - enjoy your device and many of the new features.
My mom’s iPad 9 has been running iPadOS 15.7, until this day, with no major issues and a great battery life.
Yesterday I took it, and DFU-restored it with the IPSW of iPadOS 16.6.1 -still signed to this very moment-, and after doing the usual configuration such as disabling predictive keyboard, disabling live text and other features she’s not gonna use… the iPad is set up for the next year or so.
The iPad feels very snappy, surprisingly, thr keyboard feels better than on iPadOS 15, and battery life is pretty good as well, for now. To be honest, while I set up this iPad 9, I realize how good product is, in terms of value. This was priced at 360€ when I purchased it, new, with student discount, and the tablet has a really gorgeous LCD display, and the 3GB of RAM and the A13 are, for now, more than enough.
However, I’ve read a lot of complaints about iOS 17 regarding battery life, because of the more intensive Machine Learning features, that my mom is likely not gonna use in her entire life. iPadOS 16 had the weather app, which was a great addition and one of the reasons I restored and upgraded this iPad 9 (typing from it right now), but honestly I dont see much compelling reasons to update this iPad to iPadOS 17 right now. So I will wait, and see how it goes during the next year reading your experiences.
Yesterday I took it, and DFU-restored it with the IPSW of iPadOS 16.6.1 -still signed to this very moment-, and after doing the usual configuration such as disabling predictive keyboard, disabling live text and other features she’s not gonna use… the iPad is set up for the next year or so.
The iPad feels very snappy, surprisingly, thr keyboard feels better than on iPadOS 15, and battery life is pretty good as well, for now. To be honest, while I set up this iPad 9, I realize how good product is, in terms of value. This was priced at 360€ when I purchased it, new, with student discount, and the tablet has a really gorgeous LCD display, and the 3GB of RAM and the A13 are, for now, more than enough.
However, I’ve read a lot of complaints about iOS 17 regarding battery life, because of the more intensive Machine Learning features, that my mom is likely not gonna use in her entire life. iPadOS 16 had the weather app, which was a great addition and one of the reasons I restored and upgraded this iPad 9 (typing from it right now), but honestly I dont see much compelling reasons to update this iPad to iPadOS 17 right now. So I will wait, and see how it goes during the next year reading your experiences.