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No, this isn't true this time. I have been using iOS 7 on iPhone 5 for a day now, and I have mixed feelings. I have always trusted Apple to 'get it right' and b

by Geee 13y ago

No, this isn't true this time. I have been using iOS 7 on iPhone 5 for a day now, and I have mixed feelings. I have always trusted Apple to 'get it right' and be delighted with thought-out details and just no-frills great UX. I know it's Beta, but it honestly looks and feels like Android with a bit of lag here and there, some stuttering animations, confusing unlock and answer call screens, too thin fonts for my taste, icons and iconography aren't that great either (opinion), completely unnecessary eye-candy with animated parallax background which doesn't even work very well, etc. Don't get me wrong, it's not that bad, but 'leaps and bounds better', I say no. I'm sure they'll redefine the design for final product though.

LowKarmaAccount 13y ago
Have you had a chance to beta-test any of the previous iOS releases? It is possible that other iOS releases had lag issues that were fixed before the release to the general public.
- jkubicek 13y ago
  iOS 7 (beta) seems just as fast/stable as any previous beta release. iOS 4 was completely unusable on it's first release.
- Geee 13y ago
  No, I haven't tried beta releases before. I'm sure they'll get rid of all minor annoyances such as bit of lag or weird layout reflows. It was reported that they are working on the new design behind schedule, so I think this release was made in a bit of hurry.
  - epochwolf 13y ago
    All of their beta releases have had these problems. Apple betas really are betas.
    - mrgordon 13y ago
      Exactly. You should have seen the Leopard nightlies. The top bar translucency was off for a while and it was basically non-functional. The dock would crash regularly, etc.
      - Alphasite_ 13y ago
        The lion beta was a nightmare as well. I have never seen an os with that many kernel panics (definitely not custom driver related), lag and just random flakiness. And safari was just in a league of its own - although I do miss the tabs on top.
bennyg 13y ago
What phone are you using? How much system memory do you have left? There's a lot of reasons for lag beyond just a new OS. Some of those things could be exacerbated by the new OS, but for another datapoint, I'm running an iPhone 5 with 3.1/16GB used and I'm not experiencing any lag. The animations are a delight. I am, however, not a fan of some of the graphical choices they made. A few subtleties like a thin 1px inset color on the NavBar text would do wonders for UI and contrast - but I'm not hired by them to make those decisions.
- cbrauchli 13y ago
  I have an iPhone 5 with 8GB free space and am experiencing lag and low frame rates quite a bit.
  - aet 13y ago
    I generally wait for the new hardware. Never have had a good "iOS upgrade" experience.
    - paul_f 13y ago
      Which is funny after seeing Apple bash fragmentation at the WWDC. Apple has their own version of fragmentation, newer OS versions don't work on older devices.
      - sjwright 13y ago
        I, and everyone I know has had a flawless upgrade experience. There have been a couple of exceptions -- the iPhone 3G (not 3GS) suffered with some point releases, but it was a horrifically underpowered device anyway.
        paul_f 13y ago
        How about Siri on the iPhone4? AirDrop on the 4S. The upgrade works, the most important features don't. I understand hardware is required for the features to work. But to suggest zero fragmentation is reality distortion.
pazimzadeh 13y ago
I have been testing the beta on my iPhone 4S and the animations do indeed seem sluggish compared to iOS 6, but I don't doubt that Apple is aware of this and is working on to restore snappiness in the next few months.
ruswick 13y ago
>I know it's Beta, but it honestly looks and feels like Android with a bit of lag here and there. This sort of lag has been a common artifact throughout the iPhone's history. Crashing apps, lag, and outright unresponsiveness are daily occurrences on my iPhone 5. It's honestly gotten to the point where, if I didn't have an astronomical amount of money tied up in their ecosystem, I'd switch to a Nexus 4 tonight.
- ricardobeat 13y ago
  You clearly have never used a pre-ICS Android device. A "flagship" Motorola Dext/Cliq/Droid felt like a chinese toy phone next to an iPod/iPhone runing iOS 1.
  - sigmar 13y ago
    what does any of his comment have to do with pre-ICS phones? he was talking about switching to a nexus 4
    - ricardobeat 13y ago
      Lag, crashes and unresponsiveness were much more common in Android < 4 than they ever were in iOS.
  - gagege 13y ago
    Eh, quite the opposite actually. Even pre-ICS Android made me feel like I could actually do something with the OS. I could completely change the way it looked by simply downloading a new homescreen from the store. iOS feels like being locked in jail, in comparison.
- nbuggia 13y ago
  I have one that I would be happy to trade for your iPhone 5. While the nexus is a great device, it has tons of lags, and hangs. Android seems to be an amalgamation of rough edges - and I love google! For goodness sake, to add a telephone number to a contact you need to select 'add field' and then select the field type before you can enter the value. Okay, I'll stop with my rant, but seriously, I would live to trade. The screen and FF of the nexus are perfect IMHO.
weixiyen 13y ago
It feels nothing like Android. The easing and physics are very different. I'm sure they'll fix some of the the visual design.
nikster 13y ago
I've been playing with iOS 7 on my iPhone 5 for a day now as well. It's utterly fantastic. What is surprising is how much all the apps have changed - all the functionality was seemingly ripped apart and put back together. It's definitely rough. This is a beta, not a Google "let's call it beta even though it's actually finished". A real beta. With plenty of bugs; occasional crashes. Lots of graphics glitches esp. when using 3rd party apps. Seems to use tons of battery. If you don't understand what a beta is, better don't install this. Beta means buggy. But as far as the UI is concerned, it's fantastic. It's beyond that - it feels as if a great weight has been lifted from iOS and I can feel the blood, sweat, and tears, as well as enthusiasm and sheer euphoria, of the people putting this together in an insane timeframe. 7 months! Sure there's inconsistencies in the design - those will get fixed over time, probably before the GM; there's so many glitches - I expect some will remain past GM. There's some weirdness that'll only get fixed next year. But all in all, this is one fantastic update. This is Apple at its best. If you can't see that, I feel sorry for you, but I also feel confident that you will see it in hindsight, next year, when everyone will talk about how Apple re-invented itself yet again with iOS7. Samsung meanwhile is already hard at work copying all those features, expect them to pop up in Android within the next 6 months. Parallax background will be first.
- spaux 13y ago
  I disagree. This seems to me like something that wouldn't have happened under the supervision of Jobs. I feel like the redesign of their UI hasn't gone far enough, that there attempt to copy other trends is different than what apple has done before. I believe that with this update, apple has put the final nail in the coffin to remove the stigma of "it's apple, so it's better."
  - annnnd 13y ago
    Exactly. Also, as they are becoming more similar to Android, it won't take much for users to actually switch to it. I am sure Google is happy to see this development.
    - flyinRyan 13y ago
pizza 13y ago
Android as in an Android device you personally have used for a while, or Android as a pejorative?
eddieroger 13y ago
It's beta 1. What do you really expect? The lag is because the code just isn't done, let alone optimized. I'm using it on an iPhone 5, and it doesn't feel like any Android I've ever used, and I was in the Android world from 1.5 on a Sprint HTC Hero through the Nexus 7. This feels like the first seed of every beta - there are problems, and they will be addressed.
jawngee 13y ago
It's fascinating how completely different people's experiences with the same thing can be. I've been using it on my phone and I love it. I always had to jailbreak my phone, but I don't feel like I need to with iOS 7. Though I wish they'd add Quick Reply and then I'd be set. But, so far, for me, it's been very fluid and smooth. Drains battery like crazy though. I went to bed 100%, woke up at 3% six hours later.
- nikster 13y ago
  I am excited by iOS 7. It's like discovering a whole new OS. I am actually thinking it's kind of shocking to do something as radical as that. Is my mom going to get it? She's barely gotten used to the old iOS. And for the jailbreak sentiment: iOS 7 finally has the ability to block calls and messages. So now I don't need a JB anymore.

by Geee 13y ago

LowKarmaAccount 13y ago

Have you had a chance to beta-test any of the previous iOS releases? It is possible that other iOS releases had lag issues that were fixed before the release to the general public.

jkubicek 13y ago
iOS 7 (beta) seems just as fast/stable as any previous beta release. iOS 4 was completely unusable on it's first release.
Geee 13y ago
No, I haven't tried beta releases before. I'm sure they'll get rid of all minor annoyances such as bit of lag or weird layout reflows. It was reported that they are working on the new design behind schedule, so I think this release was made in a bit of hurry.
- epochwolf 13y ago
  All of their beta releases have had these problems. Apple betas really are betas.
  - mrgordon 13y ago
    Exactly. You should have seen the Leopard nightlies. The top bar translucency was off for a while and it was basically non-functional. The dock would crash regularly, etc.
    - Alphasite_ 13y ago
      The lion beta was a nightmare as well. I have never seen an os with that many kernel panics (definitely not custom driver related), lag and just random flakiness. And safari was just in a league of its own - although I do miss the tabs on top.

bennyg 13y ago

What phone are you using? How much system memory do you have left? There's a lot of reasons for lag beyond just a new OS. Some of those things could be exacerbated by the new OS, but for another datapoint, I'm running an iPhone 5 with 3.1/16GB used and I'm not experiencing any lag. The animations are a delight. I am, however, not a fan of some of the graphical choices they made. A few subtleties like a thin 1px inset color on the NavBar text would do wonders for UI and contrast - but I'm not hired by them to make those decisions.

cbrauchli 13y ago
I have an iPhone 5 with 8GB free space and am experiencing lag and low frame rates quite a bit.
- aet 13y ago
  I generally wait for the new hardware. Never have had a good "iOS upgrade" experience.
  - paul_f 13y ago
    Which is funny after seeing Apple bash fragmentation at the WWDC. Apple has their own version of fragmentation, newer OS versions don't work on older devices.
    - sjwright 13y ago
      I, and everyone I know has had a flawless upgrade experience. There have been a couple of exceptions -- the iPhone 3G (not 3GS) suffered with some point releases, but it was a horrifically underpowered device anyway.
      - paul_f 13y ago
        How about Siri on the iPhone4? AirDrop on the 4S. The upgrade works, the most important features don't. I understand hardware is required for the features to work. But to suggest zero fragmentation is reality distortion.

pazimzadeh 13y ago

I have been testing the beta on my iPhone 4S and the animations do indeed seem sluggish compared to iOS 6, but I don't doubt that Apple is aware of this and is working on to restore snappiness in the next few months.

ruswick 13y ago

>I know it's Beta, but it honestly looks and feels like Android with a bit of lag here and there. This sort of lag has been a common artifact throughout the iPhone's history. Crashing apps, lag, and outright unresponsiveness are daily occurrences on my iPhone 5. It's honestly gotten to the point where, if I didn't have an astronomical amount of money tied up in their ecosystem, I'd switch to a Nexus 4 tonight.

ricardobeat 13y ago
You clearly have never used a pre-ICS Android device. A "flagship" Motorola Dext/Cliq/Droid felt like a chinese toy phone next to an iPod/iPhone runing iOS 1.
- sigmar 13y ago
  what does any of his comment have to do with pre-ICS phones? he was talking about switching to a nexus 4
  - ricardobeat 13y ago
    Lag, crashes and unresponsiveness were much more common in Android < 4 than they ever were in iOS.
- gagege 13y ago
  Eh, quite the opposite actually. Even pre-ICS Android made me feel like I could actually do something with the OS. I could completely change the way it looked by simply downloading a new homescreen from the store. iOS feels like being locked in jail, in comparison.
nbuggia 13y ago
I have one that I would be happy to trade for your iPhone 5. While the nexus is a great device, it has tons of lags, and hangs. Android seems to be an amalgamation of rough edges - and I love google! For goodness sake, to add a telephone number to a contact you need to select 'add field' and then select the field type before you can enter the value. Okay, I'll stop with my rant, but seriously, I would live to trade. The screen and FF of the nexus are perfect IMHO.

weixiyen 13y ago

It feels nothing like Android. The easing and physics are very different. I'm sure they'll fix some of the the visual design.

nikster 13y ago

I've been playing with iOS 7 on my iPhone 5 for a day now as well. It's utterly fantastic. What is surprising is how much all the apps have changed - all the functionality was seemingly ripped apart and put back together. It's definitely rough. This is a beta, not a Google "let's call it beta even though it's actually finished". A real beta. With plenty of bugs; occasional crashes. Lots of graphics glitches esp. when using 3rd party apps. Seems to use tons of battery. If you don't understand what a beta is, better don't install this. Beta means buggy. But as far as the UI is concerned, it's fantastic. It's beyond that - it feels as if a great weight has been lifted from iOS and I can feel the blood, sweat, and tears, as well as enthusiasm and sheer euphoria, of the people putting this together in an insane timeframe. 7 months! Sure there's inconsistencies in the design - those will get fixed over time, probably before the GM; there's so many glitches - I expect some will remain past GM. There's some weirdness that'll only get fixed next year. But all in all, this is one fantastic update. This is Apple at its best. If you can't see that, I feel sorry for you, but I also feel confident that you will see it in hindsight, next year, when everyone will talk about how Apple re-invented itself yet again with iOS7. Samsung meanwhile is already hard at work copying all those features, expect them to pop up in Android within the next 6 months. Parallax background will be first.

spaux 13y ago
I disagree. This seems to me like something that wouldn't have happened under the supervision of Jobs. I feel like the redesign of their UI hasn't gone far enough, that there attempt to copy other trends is different than what apple has done before. I believe that with this update, apple has put the final nail in the coffin to remove the stigma of "it's apple, so it's better."
- annnnd 13y ago
  Exactly. Also, as they are becoming more similar to Android, it won't take much for users to actually switch to it. I am sure Google is happy to see this development.
  - flyinRyan 13y ago

pizza 13y ago

Android as in an Android device you personally have used for a while, or Android as a pejorative?

eddieroger 13y ago

It's beta 1. What do you really expect? The lag is because the code just isn't done, let alone optimized. I'm using it on an iPhone 5, and it doesn't feel like any Android I've ever used, and I was in the Android world from 1.5 on a Sprint HTC Hero through the Nexus 7. This feels like the first seed of every beta - there are problems, and they will be addressed.

jawngee 13y ago

It's fascinating how completely different people's experiences with the same thing can be. I've been using it on my phone and I love it. I always had to jailbreak my phone, but I don't feel like I need to with iOS 7. Though I wish they'd add Quick Reply and then I'd be set. But, so far, for me, it's been very fluid and smooth. Drains battery like crazy though. I went to bed 100%, woke up at 3% six hours later.

nikster 13y ago
I am excited by iOS 7. It's like discovering a whole new OS. I am actually thinking it's kind of shocking to do something as radical as that. Is my mom going to get it? She's barely gotten used to the old iOS. And for the jailbreak sentiment: iOS 7 finally has the ability to block calls and messages. So now I don't need a JB anymore.