When Apple announced iOS 8 a few months ago, one of the first questions on everyone’s lips was which older devices the new software would support. As it turned out, the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 along with the iPad mini are the oldest machines to be able to be updated to iOS 8. Owners of those devices rejoiced.
Except, as is so often the case, things aren’t always quite so simple. While technically it’s true that iOS 8 can be shoehorned onto an iPhone 4s, the real question was always going to be whether the phone would be able to run properly once the new software was installed. Each new big release of iOS gets a little bit heavier thanks to new features and, as a result, takes a bigger toll on the hardware that’s running beneath it.
In short, it may be possible to install iOS 8 onto an iPhone 4s, but should you really do it?
Initial reports of iOS 8 running on older hardware wasn’t promising, but it now appears that the recently released iOS 8.0.2 update may have not only fixed the cellular and Touch ID problems that were well publicized on the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, but has also given the iPhone 4s a new lease of life. As the embedded video shows, things really aren’t too bad at all.
Apple is rightly proud of the way it keeps older hardware alive via new software updates, and it’s good to see that it can increase the performance of those devices even after the initial release of a big new version of the operating system. If you’re carrying around one of Apple’s older phones, or indeed tablets, you can rest easy in the knowledge that it’s not going to be made obsolete too soon.
It would be more interesting to see whether or not future iOS 8.x point updates improves the performance on iPhone 4s, and considering how many users are out there using Apple’s aging smartphone, we’re ready to bet on the fact that the tiny brick has a lot of life left in it still.
(via: 9to5Mac)
You may also like to check out:
- iOS 8 Hinders iPhone 4s Performance By A Huge Margin
- Download iOS 8 / 8.0.2 And Install On iPhone 6, 5s, 5c, 5, 4S, iPad, iPod touch [How-To Tutorial]
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