14 DAY TRIAL // With iOS 11 completely ruining the experience with an iPhone, it was just a matter of time until hardcore critics brought back the myth claiming Apple deliberately makes old devices slower to encourage purchases of new models.
But this isn’t true, according to benchmarks conducted by Futuremark, with old iPhones running on new versions of iOS just as fast as they did on the previous versions.
In other words, if you thought that Apple uses the latest version of iOS to make your old iPhone feel slower only to convince you to buy the latest-generation model, that’s not true. Or at least, that’s what Futuremark claims after running several tests on both older and newer iPhone versions, and it turns out that performance remains similar most of the time.
A test conducted on the iPhone 5s indicates that GPU and CPU performance figures are nearly identical on iOS 9, 10, and 11, with some very small differences caused by the new features that are part of each update.
Slowdown caused by apps and new features
In most of the cases, every time Apple publishes a new version of iOS, there’s an increase in searches for “iPhone slow” on Google, with many people claiming this is the living proof that older models are being deliberately slowed down to push customers to newer devices.
But the researchers at Futuremark claim that degrading performance is a result of new features being added and apps getting updated, requiring more powerful hardware and coming with content, such as graphics, that require more processing power.
“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psychological effect of knowing that there is a new and improved model available, which can make your own device seem outdated,” the firm says.
Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that older iPhones will run like new when installing a fresh version of iOS. In fact, with iOS 11 the experience has been completely the opposite, with many iPhone owners, including those of the recently-launched iPhone 8, complaining of terrible battery life and app crashes.
