Wesley's Tool-Box

I've been using an iPhone ever since it started going on sale in Korea back in December 2009, with iPhone 3GS. The original iPhone was not compatible with Korean mobile networks and at the time of the release of iPhone 3G, laws effectively prevented anyone from using foreign cellphones on the domestic networks other than in the form of roaming. People seeking to use the latest phones from abroad eventually succeeded in persuading the lawmakers to change the rules and paved the way for an official domestic launch of the iPhone as well.

I sought to get the latest iPhone as they were up for pre-order on the domestic carrier's website. So I was able to get mine usually on the first day of the Korean release day. This continued all the way up to iPhone 5, when I was invited to the carrier's launch event, as evidenced by a certain media photo. But wanting to get my hands on even quicker, I sought out the first-wave releases from overseas starting with 5S. And with that I started doing some in-depth reviews, too.

In this way, I went through seven generations of iPhone for the past six years. The only ones I skipped were either the lower-cost version (5C) or the smaller version (6 and 6S).


Since I never sold the iPhones, they always circulated within the family. And with the most recent upgrade cycle, all the older phones not in use were returned to me for a big reunion. Yes, I now had seven iPhones in my hands.

Luckily, all of the phones were in good working conditions in general, needing just a recharge or a change of battery to return it back to life. This prompted me to do a big comparison that let me see how far iPhones have come during all these years.

After the recharge, the first line of business was updating to the latest OS. iPhones 4S and up received iOS 9.0.2 update. The 4 and 3GS were too old for that, getting 7.1.2 and 6.1.6, respectively. Everything went without a hitch.


As a warm-up, I compared the boot times of the iPhones, as you can see in this video. Curiously, the oldest device was not the slowest. This honour(?) went to iPhone 4S instead. The fastest one was the iPhone 6 Plus.


There are some good explanations for this result. iPhone 6S Plus was the only one that was tested without getting a factory reset, so the contents in the phone may have slowed it down a bit. It was nevertheless still one of the fastest. The other fastest ones, 5S, and 6 Plus, had gotten a considerable speed boost since iOS 8, booting nearly twice as fast.

The iPhone 4S is the oldest one to get iOS 9, so this seems to be the burden that made it boot the slowest. Running older OS has helped the boot times of 4 and 3GS, so much that 3GS actually booted faster than 5. It's not just boot time, either. 3GS runs fairly competently with iOS 6 in general, as long as you don't run heavy apps. In a way, getting latest OS updates is both a blessing and a curse.