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Is iOS 10 faster than iOS 9?

Published Sep 14th, 2016 9:41AM EDT
iOS 10 vs. iOS 9.3.5: iPhone 6s 6 SE 5s 5
Image: Apple

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iOS 10 is out and you should be able to install it on any iPhone or iPad made in the past few years. But is it worth upgrading to iOS 10 on older iPhones? Will the new operating system bring any performance issues, as we’ve seen in the past with similar upgrades? A video comparison between iOS 10 and iOS 9.3.5 shows us how the two different operating systems work on every iPhone from iPhone 5 all the way up to Apple’s iPhone 6s.

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In previous years the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 would be the most affected by iOS upgrades, but these two devices can’t run iOS 10. That means the iPhone 5 is the oldest iPhone to support iOS 10.

YouTube channel EverythingApplePro, which has performed similar tests before, installed fresh copies of iOS 10 and iOS 9.3.5 on the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE, and looked at how the phones performed in various real-life tests. The conclusion is that iOS 10 and iOS 9.3.5 are similar when it comes to speed and responsiveness. You should have no performance issues upgrading older devices to iOS 10 right now.

The video below reveals that iOS 9.3.5 might boot a bit faster, and it may also be slightly faster in some cases, depending on iPhone model. But iOS 10 is also slightly faster than iOS 9.3.5 at opening the camera app or unlocking the iPhone, and it offers more fluid animations. Benchmark tests offer nearly identical scores, although iOS 10 seems to optimize single-core performance. Wi-Fi speeds stay virtually the same.

We’ll also point out that iOS 10 is the first public iOS 10 release, which means that it will only get better from here. Meanwhile, iOS 9.3.5 is an iOS 9 version that has pretty much ironed out the various bugs encountered along the way since iOS 9 was launched last year.

Chris Smith Senior Writer

Chris Smith has been covering consumer electronics ever since the iPhone revolutionized the industry in 2008. When he’s not writing about the most recent tech news for BGR, he brings his entertainment expertise to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and other blockbuster franchises.

Outside of work, you’ll catch him streaming almost every new movie and TV show release as soon as it's available.