iPhone 5 with iOS 9 any faster than iPhone 4 with iOS 7?

[porcupine8]

Right now, I have an iPhone 4 running iOS 7. It's pretty dang slow. There are some apps that I technically can download and use, but in practice are so slow as to be unusable (Snapchat, for instance).

I'd like to upgrade to a 5, but I've read that on iOS 9 they can be slow, too. But would it at least be faster than my iPhone 4?

I've been digging through speed tests and everything seems to be 4 vs 4s or 4s vs 5 or else 4 vs 5 both on iOS 7. The few direct comparisons I've found have only shown time to power on or a benchmark app, nothing that shows how much they lag due to their OS. I'm guessing any iPhone 5 I buy will have iOS 9 installed on it, slower than 8 or not, so can anyone tell me how they compare?

It'd be nice to at least be able to run apps that require iOS 8 or higher (which is a lot of them these days), but if it's not going to be any faster then I might wait until I can afford a 5s for an extra $100.

 

[BenPB]

Short answer? I had no complaints on iOS 9. Even iOS 10 has been pretty good.

Long answer? I had a Note 4 and started craving something smaller and more elegant, so I was very tempted by the SE this spring but was worried I wouldn't be able to adapt to a screen so much smaller, plus wanted to wait for the 7 just incase it wow'd me (not really). I decided to pick up a used 5c as a low risk way to see if I could make it work and was really impressed with it's performance which was on par with or exceeding my Note 4. I would be lying if I said it was zippy fast, but it is very usable. Siri can take a second to load, but otherwise it feels fast enough. I have been debating switching carriers and upgrading to the SE, but really don't feel the need.

I have been running iOS10 beta since June and even that has been good, improving with every release.

Unless you are dead set on a 5, I would look into the 5c. It is a wonderful and highly underrated phone IMHO, has a slightly larger battery than the 5 and from my shopping was usually less expensive. I was able to get a flawless 32 GB 5C for $100.

 

[Paddle1]

Right now, I have an iPhone 4 running iOS 7. It's pretty dang slow. There are some apps that I technically can download and use, but in practice are so slow as to be unusable (Snapchat, for instance).

I'd like to upgrade to a 5, but I've read that on iOS 9 they can be slow, too. But would it at least be faster than my iPhone 4?

I've been digging through speed tests and everything seems to be 4 vs 4s or 4s vs 5 or else 4 vs 5 both on iOS 7. The few direct comparisons I've found have only shown time to power on or a benchmark app, nothing that shows how much they lag due to their OS. I'm guessing any iPhone 5 I buy will have iOS 9 installed on it, slower than 8 or not, so can anyone tell me how they compare?

It'd be nice to at least be able to run apps that require iOS 8 or higher (which is a lot of them these days), but if it's not going to be any faster then I might wait until I can afford a 5s for an extra $100.

There is no comparison between the (single core) iPhone 4 and (dual core) iPhone 5 or later processor wise. So even if it is "slow" it won't quite be the same as an iPhone 4. Additionally, the iPhone 5 can run both iOS 9 and iOS 10.

If you can get a 5s or newer though you probably should because it will probably be supported for a while longer and you'll be able to use the 64-bit exclusive features.

 

[porcupine8]

Thanks for the responses! I had a feeling maybe the people saying it was "slow" were not comparing it to the speed of a 4. I mean, just to get into the settings and turn Location Services on and off (which I do regularly, since leaving it on sucks the battery dry) there can often be lag of a couple of seconds between tapping and the screen changing. Anything better than that will feel pretty damn zippy to me.