As early as in December, 2013 Apple made a statement requiring developers to optimize all updates and new apps for iOS 7 by February 1, 2014. And here we are in February. According to iOS 7 adoption statistics there are still 20% of devices run on previous operational systems, which persumes not all the Apple’s cusumers will be able to update their apps.
What keeps users from upgrading to the lastest OS? Could it be the fear of “ruining” your not-the-latest-generation-devices? Let’s say you have an iPhone 4, since it’s the oldest iOS 7-friendly device, what would happen if you upgrade to the latest operating system and how to fix drawbacks.
Why you might want updating iPhone 4 to iOS 7?
Since the iPhone 4 is the oldest model capable of upgrading to iOS 7 many users are full of doubts if it would worth adopting it and what impact it would have on their phone functionality. As it was said above, starting February 1, 2014 all native apps and app updates must be iOS 7-optimized. That means if you keep your device running on the previous iOS version your apps would be no longer up-to-date, not to speak of brand new apps. But what else would you get upgrading to iOS 7 besides upgraded apps? Well sure enough it would bring you:
- New interface
- New control center
- Upgraded notifications
- Enhanced Siri functionality
Till now everything sounds quite nice, isn’t it? But don’t hasten to happy-upgrading-station right away and let’s exercise caution first.
Pitfalls or hardware issues
It should not be ignored that iOS 7 is optimized for iPhone 5S with 1GB RAM and 1.3GHz dual-core A7 processor. If you claim that it’s also perfect for iPhone 5C you would be correct but still it’s equipped with A6 processor while the iPhone 4 has only 512MB of RAM and an A4 processor. No need to be a tech geek to suspect there would be a huge difference in the way iOS 7 runs on the iPhone 4. This device isn’t as powerful as the latests generations and it would be wrong from the beginning to expect it to work as efficiently as the iPhone 5S, 5C, 5, and even 4S.
Slowing down after adopting iOS 7
Let’s presume you have upgraded to iOS 7 what you would find out. As I already mentioned above you would get new features and enhancements. What also I was happy with is that even if the new operational system slowed down the phone it made it work smoother. If you don’t mind to wait an extra fraction of a second to switch between apps you would enjoy more smooth transition between them through multitasking.
Battery drain
The only real issue that might would disappoint you since upgrading to iOS 7 is the battery drain. Battery dies much more faster, even if the iPhone is turned off.
But no panic, there are ways to prolong the battery life. And, without any further ado, let’s run through tips to save the battery:
- Turn off Parallax Motion
- Disable Location Services
- Swipe away/delete unnecessary apps from Notification Center
- Turn off Background App Updates and
- Switch off Auto Updates
- Don’t forget to erase Background Apps
- Turn off Wifi and Bluetooth when you don’t use it
Second thoughts?
When everything is done, and hopefully you would find yourself happy having your iPhone 4 running on the iOS 7 and not having second thoughts, anyway it would do no good having them since you can not downgrade back to iOS 6, how might you feel?
By disabling most of the eye-candy and fancy features your phone would be able to live on a single charge as long as it used to do before the upgrading. You might think if you upgraded your phone and then turned off its new key features what was the reason for upgrading. One important issue it that now you could get your apps updated and also since iOS 7 has a totally new design, your iPhone 4 gets a new look and becomes literally a new device all over again. Not bad, isn’t it?
I would be happy to hear from you, so please let me know what you think in the comments below.
Byline:
Faina Babintseva is a contributor to mobile and web development resources and blogs. She mostly writes about iPhone app development tips and tricks, project management and implementation.
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