There have been rumors for some time that newer versions of Apple’s iOS end up making some older iPhone slow. Some rumors have even suggested that Apple may do this on purpose to encourage you to buy a newer device, this is not the case.
Futuremark decided to test out whether of not newer version of Apple’s iOS ended up slowing down older devices. The company looked at the iPhone 5S and a number of other Apple devices, including the most recent ones.
Starting in 2016 Futuremark tested out a number of devices with a number of different tests, the picture below shows the GPU performance of Apple’s iPhone 5s. The tests was run longer than a year and included iOS 9, iOS 10 and the most recent iOS 11.
The next test shows the CPU performance of the iPhone 5S over the same period. again using iOS 9, iOS 10 and the latest iOS 11.
Similar tests were run on the iPhone 6, 6S and the iPhone 7 and the results were similar to the charts above.
Our benchmarking data shows that, rather than intentionally degrading the performance of older models, Apple actually does a good job of supporting its older devices with regular updates that maintain a consistent level of performance across iOS versions.
As we can see from the tests, Apple does not intentionally slow down older devices when they release a new version of their software.
That said, there are some factors that might affect people’s perception of performance after updating an older device with a newer version of iOS. An update might add new features that use more resources or require more processing power. New apps developed for the latest models might not run as smoothly on older devices. Conversely, apps designed for an earlier version of iOS might not take full advantage of optimizations in the latest version. And then there is always the psychological effect of knowing that there is a new and improved model available, which can make your own device seem outdated.
You can see the full results of these tests over at Futuremark at the link below.
Source Futuremark
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