iPhone 2.0 verdict: It is painfully slow
July 29th, 2008 by ktula
Turtle icon by Presse (Browse Mascot)
iPhone 2.0, aka iPhone Software Update 2.0, has added quite a few useful features for the original iPhone, including several much needed but missing basic features that you can find on a much cheaper phone. The newly added features, not listed in any particular order, are:
- Multiple delete/move of emails (finally!!!).
- Ability to install official third party apps.
- Geotagging of pictures taken using iPhone’s camera.
- A search tool in Contacts (yes!!!).
- A scientific calculator when iPhone is held horizontally.
- Over-the-air synchronization of Mail, Contacts and Calendar via the Push mechanism of MobileMe (when MobileMe is actually working).
- Chinese input supporting Handwriting and Pinyin modes.
Even with the added features in iPhone 2.0, many other basic functionality that are commonly found on other phones, are still missing in action. For example:
- What??? There is still no copy and paste? How do you expect me to remember the long-ass URL or the UPS tracking number? To memorize it or to write it down on paper?
- I still can’t receive a call when i am using the EDGE data network. Contrary what many Apple fanboys posted on the Apple Support Discussion forum, this IS NOT a limitation of the EDGE technology. I had a Nokia N73 and a friend of mine has a Nokia N95 and both phones are able to prompt when where is an incoming call, instead of sending it straight to voicemail like the iPhone. Why does the data usage get a higher priority over voice call? After all, the iPhone is still supposed to be a phone, isn’t it?
- There is still only one option available for call-forwarding. The iPhone can either forward all calls or none. I would like to set up call-forwarding ONLY when my iPhone is out of service but not when i am busy or when i do not pick up the call. But i can’t do it.
- Why i still can’t capture video?
- Trying to forward text messages to others? Forget it.
One undesirable “feature” that came with iPhone 2.0 is the extreme sluggishness in switching from app to app. Since there is no way to directly switch from one app to another, switching app requires pressing the home button to go back to the home screen and then touching on the icon of the target app. Going from home screen to various apps is painfully slow, especially if i have not rebooted my iPhone for several days. In addition, i have also experienced sluggish response using the virtual keyboard. Apple’s own Support forum are full of posts from users complaining about the unbearable slowness ever since they upgraded to 2.0. Several users have reported successes in speeding things up by restoring their iPhones but this appears to be just temporary. On top of the sluggish performance, going from iPod to the Home screen while a song is being played causes the song to be paused for about half a second. Going back to iPod has the same unwanted effect as well.
I timed going to the following apps that i commonly use from the Home screen with the iPhone in Airplane mode (i have no reception at work):
- Home screen to iPod: 3.4 seconds
- Home screen to Clock: 5.0 seconds
- Home screen to Calendar: 5.8 seconds
- Home screen to Settings: 8.0 seconds
- Home screen to Text (SMS): 8.9 seconds
- Home screen to Photos: 9.1 seconds
- Home screen to Camera: 10.0 seconds
- Home screen to Notes: 10.0 seconds
- And the mother of all slowness/freezes: Home screen to Contacts (with 156 contacts): 18.1 whopping seconds before Contacts became responsive!
What the hell was the Contacts app doing prior to becoming responsive after more than 18 agonizing seconds? Was it trying to contact the MobileMe cloud for synchronization? But wait, my iPhone was in the Airplane mode with WiFi off, which means the Contacts app SHOULD NOT be trying to locate the MobileMe server, if indeed that’s what it was trying to do.
The iPhone 2.0 Software Update has rendered the iPhone pretty much unusable in terms of responsiveness. Personally, this is the first time that i have witnessed what is supposedly an enhancement making a product performs worse than before (this may be a recurring theme for Windows users but it is quite rare among Mac users). There are rumors floating out there that a 2.0.1 update or a 2.1 update will be coming out soon. Hopefully this serious performance problem will be one of, if not the top issues addressed by the update.
alc277
Says
Did you calculate based on opening each after a hard reset? I obtained these timings in Airplane Mode:
Home screen to iPod: 0.2 seconds
Home screen to Clock: 1.6 seconds
Home screen to Calendar: 1.8 seconds
Home screen to Settings: 2.9 seconds
Home screen to Text (SMS): 3.1 seconds
Home screen to Photos: 1.2 seconds
Home screen to Camera: <.2 seconds to app, 3.3s to able to take a picture
Home screen to Notes: instant
Home screen to Contacts (with 1281 contacts): <.2s to see contacts, 3.2s to scroll
Jul 30th, 2008 at 12:24
ktula
Says
No. The timings were collected when my iPhone had not been rebooted for several days. Naturally after i did a hard reset, the timings were a lot better. But rebooting the iPhone daily can’t be a permanent solution.
Jul 30th, 2008 at 12:27
scott wy
Says
I am so glad someone has taken this issue and started to put a light on it. I am getting very similar benchmarks since updating, but on top of that I now have the very irritating issue where “remember playback position” only works 50% of the time. I listen to very long mp3s (4 hours plus) of a particular sat. radio show, and about 50% of the time when I leave the ipod to check email, or to take a call, upon returning, I find myself back at the beginning of the program, even with “Remember Playback Position” is selected on this file. I pray 2.1 helps, but i am not holding my breath.
Jul 31st, 2008 at 02:37
Steve Groenier
Says
I just downloaded the 2.0.2 update and it appears to have improved the performance. However I’m only a few minutes into it. I’m wondering what others will experience with this update and if it improves the responsiveness.
Aug 28th, 2008 at 10:45
ktula
Says
@Steve:
You are probably experiencing the beneficial effect of a reboot as part of the firmware update process. Wait a day or two without rebooting your iPhone, and you will realize that the 2.0.2 firmware offers no improvement in the delay or lagginess in launching apps.
Aug 28th, 2008 at 11:12
Steve Groenier
Says
Oh well, I can always hope they get it right. My first fear was that the software update was designed to slow things down on the original iPhone and thus push people to upgrade to the 3G model. I’ll let you know if things slow back down.
Aug 28th, 2008 at 11:54
BfromB
Says
Upgraded my 1st generation iPhone to 2.0.2 and reponse time is very slow (Contacts is certainly the worst). Rebooting helps, but for how long? I’m now considering to downgrade to 1.1.4 again …
Aug 31st, 2008 at 23:58
Michelle
Says
Thank you so much for bringing this to light. I’m seeing this as well. Until this is addressed, I will probably either downgrade or bring the damned thing into a store and claim a hardware problem. I have restored 3x since “upgrading” to 2.x
Sep 9th, 2008 at 10:03
ktula
Says
@Michelle:
What are the reasons for your restore? Slowness? Restore will not fix the slowness issue introduced since firmware 2.0. If you don’t mind not having the features in firmware 2.0 and higher, then going back to 1.1.4 is an option.
Sep 9th, 2008 at 10:30