iOS 4.1 on iPhone 3G speed + performance

Update: iOS 4.1 fixes iPhone 3G slow speed for the most part, I highly recommend installing this update.

Apple announced iOS 4.1 to a big hooray from iPhone 3G owners, since the iOS 4.1 update supposedly fixes the speed problems on the 3G. But how does the iPhone 3G actually run with iOS 4.1? I like real world tests, and this video from LifeHacker demonstrates the speed of the 3G with iOS 4.1.

iOS 4.1 + iPhone 3G performance

If you own an iPhone 3G and you are running iOS 4, you’ve certainly suffered from the performance and speed issues. To say that iOS 4 runs slow on iPhone 3G is an understatement, it runs terribly slow almost to the point of being unusable.

The big question is about iOS 4.1 speed… here’s the video:

As you can see in the video iOS 4.1 runs much better on the 3G iPhone. It’s mostly good news: Google Maps is responsive again, you can actually type a text message in under 5 hours, and opening apps is quicker again. Lifehacker notes that Photos and Safari are just barely faster with iOS 4.1, but any speed improvement is better than none in my view. Just don’t expect to achieve the performance of the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 since their hardware is vastly superior to the 3G.

I look forward to further testing iOS 4.1 with my older iPhone 3G and seeing if some of the tips to speed up the slow iPhone 3G + iOS 4 work doubly well in the newer iOS version. I don’t use Spotlight on the iPhone so I’ll certainly keep it disabled. Perhaps with the latest update and some tweaks, we can actually get a usable iPhone again? Woohoo!

You can download iOS 4.1 right now if you’re a developer, the rest of the world has to wait until sometime next week for the full release with its various fixes and feature improvements. iOS 4.1 is only for iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch. The iPad will get iOS 4.2 in November.