The new iOS 7 has been live for a few weeks now and over 200 million devices have made the switch. I updated both of my devices (an iPad 2 and an iPhone 4S – before I upgraded to the 5S). I heard mixed reactions while iOS 7 was in beta, but for the most part people liked it. I didn’t get a chance to try it out when it was in beta so I experienced it with the rest of the world the day after it went live.
Overall, I really like it. In my opinion, it seems cleaner, more modern and edgy. It’s easy on the eyes (unlike some other OSs whose “lively tiles”, according to some experts, may induce diarrhea). I’ll admit, it did seem a little sluggish on my 4S and I had to go in and make a few changes under the hood (as it were) so I could get a little more out of my battery. Honestly, that’s pretty typical of Apple. The latest iOS always seems to zap your battery and you have to go in and turn several background features off if you want your device to last longer than a day. In fact the first day I had my iPhone 5S the battery was nearly gone by the end of the day, which shouldn’t happen with a new phone. After turning off several features (such as Background App Refresh and Automatic App Updates) the phone battery performed much better.
On the other hand, the battery on my iPad 2, since updating to iOS 7, doesn’t seem to have been affected at all. With that said, I like iOS 7 more on the iPad then I do on the iPhone. Perhaps its because the screen is bigger and therefore easier to notice the subtle design changes in some of the icons and overall picture quality. Or maybe I’m just strange (which we all know has always been true, regardless).
I freaking love the Control Center. It’s so nice that I can just swipe up and toggle DND, WiFi, Airplane Mode, and several other Settings and Utility apps (such as calculator, camera, stop watch, flashlight). I’m a lot less likely to get caught looking at my phone in church when I forget to turn on DND because it can be toggled so much faster now. I know, I know. Android did it first, and I’m glad Android users have had that luxury longer, but its nice to finally have it on an Apple device.
If you haven’t updated your devices yet, I am going to encourage you to do it. Make sure you read about some of the tips folks have posted for improving your battery life, especially on older devices (and by older I mean pre-iPhone 5). If you have already updated, what do you think? What things do you like about it? If you don’t like it, I encourage you to share that as well.
/cheers