iPad Air and iOS 7 - Poor Performance - slow, sluggish, jerky, choppy

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Level 1

10 points

iPad Air and iOS 7 - Poor Performance - slow, sluggish, jerky, choppy

HI all, this is a question as well as a statement because as I know others are suffering it's worth considering more opinions too.

I bought an iPad Air two weeks ago or so and have been using it extensively while away on holiday and at home. With iOS 7.0.4 the device is slow, somewhat unresponsive, shows lag throughout the OS and many apps and this is all from a new device touted as the latest and greatest iPad yet. The iPad Air simply just doesn't feel new, certainly not optimised anyway on iOS 7.

The following things are getting to me most:

Using gestures to return to home screen is laggy and causes strange graphical anomolies.
Tapping on the screen, for example to choose another e-mail or link often fails and needs another go.
Opening or selecting another tab in Safari can be slow and tedious.
When entering an app it often takes a second to a second and a half to be ready even though the controls have appeared.
After screen unlock the animations take a while to "sit" before the screen is ready to be scrolled or used
Tapping the Home button is ocassionaly unresponsive.
Unlocking the phone leads to missed audio clicks on the PIN code screen (Minor, however an example of slow keep up).

It should be remembered that this device got an upgraded chip, the A7 running faster than the iPhone 5S and new graphics chips too.

For those who will point out the obvious, I have restored the device back to factory image and what's more set it up as a new iPad and there are no differences, so it seems to relate directly to iOS 7. I'm wondering if the rest of you have been experiencing something similar with iOS and iPad Air.

I feel the pain of others as I had an iPhone 5 on iOS 6 and that was truly a joy to behold. The Phone and OS were simply waiting eagerly for your next move and you could not do something faster than them. The same was true with an iPad 4 I used on iOS 6 - it was truly a joy, an OS matched to a device.

While I understand iOS 7 is new and it's a lot to expect perfection from something new, this argument wears thin in numerous ways. Apple match their hardware to their software and have got a tiny amount of platforms to optimise for. iOS 7 has done away with the textures and gradients of the past - iOS 6 was constanly called the flashy pre-cursor to iOS 7. The new OS is now solid colours, mostly whites with some lines, no shine, some opaque effects but even when these are turned off (Increase Contrast setting) the difference is neglibible.

I understand iOS 7.1 will be on it's way soon and I'm really hoping for some optimisations that will make this OS / device a joy to use.

Let me know what you all think?

iPad Air Wi-Fi, Cellular, iOS 7.0.4, 32GB

Posted on Dec 18, 2013 12:17 PM

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Answer 1

ckuan

Level 10

120,686 points

Dec 18, 2013 12:30 PM in response to johnmacward

My 3rd Generation iPad is running just fine with IOS 7.0.4.

What troubleshooting steps have you done?

Let me know what you all think?

Polling is not allowed in this forum.

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Answer 2

JimHdk

Level 7

28,880 points

Dec 18, 2013 12:35 PM in response to johnmacward

My iPad 3 and iPad 4 as well as my iPhone 5 all run fine on iOS 7. I have not seen these problems on the iPad Airs that I have used.

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Answer 3

bobseufert

Level 6

15,844 points

Dec 18, 2013 12:38 PM in response to johnmacward

I'd bring it to the Apple store and let them have a look.

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Answer 4

Dec 18, 2013 12:39 PM in response to johnmacward

I certainly have not experienced issues like that with my iPad 4 and iOS 7 and I do use some fairly CPU intensive apps (several chess with coaches games and some other strategy games like battle academy and panzer corps).

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Answer 5

johnmacward Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 18, 2013 12:48 PM in response to ckuan

I had a 3rd Generation iPad on iOS 7.0.4. It's what I sold to buy the Air. It was terrible. I mean if the criteria you are using is efficiency and speed in moving around and using the OS, then it was terrible.

Safari was sluggish in scrolling with basic pages, closing apps, opening new ones, the Music app would take 4 to 5 seconds to open with a small library of around 12 to 15 artists. Tapping on items would result in a delay leading you to thinking you missed it and hitting it again.

I think the criteria you are using is "Did it work", then yes. Did it work well? Certainly not. It was a bit like Windows on an Intel Celeron CPU. it worked but drove most of us mad with how poor it performed.

When you say:

Let me know what you all think?

Polling is not allowed in this forum.

This is a discussion, I'm generating some discussion on this topic, not doing a poll.

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Answer 6

ckuan

Level 10

120,686 points

Dec 18, 2013 12:53 PM in response to johnmacward

Again, what troubleshooting steps have you done?

Try the 4Rs basic troubleshooting steps listed below:

Restart:

1. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the red "slide to power off" slider appears, and then slide the slider.

2. Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears.

Reset: Hold down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears. Note: You will not lose any data

Restore from backup

Restore as new

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

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Answer 7

johnmacward Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 18, 2013 12:59 PM in response to Michael Black

I don't think it relates at all to 3rd party apps, I mostly have issues with iOS 7 in general, not necessarily with a specific app.

I'm very familiar with the OS so I don't move around it slowly anymore as I would have in the early days due to not being so familiar with it. So when I open the Mail app and see mails in front of me, I select them quickly and nothing happens, I do it again a second later and then it's ready...

If you move around iOS as fast as me you would notice it, certainly when comparing it to the "readiness" of iOS 6.

This all falls under the dreaded heading of poor and frustrating UI design. You should only display items when they are ready to be clicked. Too early gives an expectation of use being possible and when it's not the user ends is frustrated and learns they have to slow themselves down for the OS.

I know it's not just me as quite a few developers that have received iOS 7.1 beta 2 have reported great performance increases over 7.0.4 and I only hope Apple keep those increases in palce right to the end of Golden Master.

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Answer 8

ckuan

Level 10

120,686 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:12 PM in response to johnmacward

I know it's not just me as quite a few developers that have received iOS 7.1 beta 2 have reported great performance increases over 7.0.4 and I only hope Apple keep those increases in palce right to the end of Golden Master.

All developer are tied to NDA so I am not sure why you want to bring up Beta software.

Also iPad sold out millions of them and I do not see any reports on what you saying.

Use Google and search "iPad Air review" and see the results.

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Answer 9

johnmacward Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:15 PM in response to ckuan

Done it, read my post. I say...

"For those who will point out the obvious, I have restored the device back to factory image and what's more set it up as a new iPad and there are no differences, so it seems to relate directly to iOS 7. I'm wondering if the rest of you have been experiencing something similar with iOS and iPad Air."

I should point out that the following things help a little: Reduce Motion (reduces the length of time animations "animate" for) and Increase Contrast (stops the opaque glass effect and obviously reduces graphics needs). So as you can see this is not because my iOS is broken and a restore or reset it needed, it's a problem at the fundamental OS level.

I can't troubleshoot something that is fundamentally unoptimised in the code.

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Answer 10

bobseufert

Level 6

15,844 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:17 PM in response to johnmacward

To echo ckuan, have you done anything to correct your problems. I've seen simple resets perform miracles.

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Answer 11

johnmacward Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:22 PM in response to ckuan

Hilarious ckuan, I've followed most iOS new features from beta versions of the software being discussed on forum sites or by BIG Apple sites like MacRumors or 9to5mac.

MacRumors don't care about the NDA as they openly talk about new features on their homepage:

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/12/13/apple-seeds-ios-7-1-beta-2-to-developers/

NDA's don't stop anybody from talking here on the hopeful performance increases:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=18506236&postcount=317

And ironically the next post is about the exact same thing:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=18507113&postcount=318

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Answer 12

johnmacward Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:25 PM in response to bobseufert

Hi Bob, a full restore of the software and I set up the iPad as new rather than from iCloud backup - no difference.

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Answer 13

ckuan

Level 10

120,686 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:26 PM in response to johnmacward

johnmacward wrote:

...

I can't troubleshoot something that is fundamentally unoptimised in the code.

Sorry you are wrong again. Your device might be faulty is the only explaination.

Did you read the search results?

If not, I choose one for you

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7460/apple-ipad-air-review

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Answer 14

bobseufert

Level 6

15,844 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:42 PM in response to johnmacward

Once again bring it to the Apple store and let them have a look.

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Answer 15

johnmacward Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 18, 2013 1:49 PM in response to ckuan

HI Ckuan, have you read the endless articles on slow animations on iOS 7 from the exact same reviewers? Search for that and you'll get many pages of results, it's the one of main discussed issues around iOS 7, not the individual devices.

http://osxdaily.com/2013/09/23/ios-7-slow-speed-it-up/

When the device is reviewed the review is in regards the device, not iOS 7 which they leave for a different review. So for example there's a lot said about the very thin and lightweight design, the cases, the Wifi performance, LTE and so on...

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