iPhone 3G with iOS 4.1 Shows Modest Performance Improvements

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At long last Apple has released iOS 4.1, which includes bug fixes for iOS 4 performance issues on the iPhone 3G.  Having suffered for months with 4.0 on my 3G,  I rushed home yesterday to upgrade when hearing that 4.1 had gone live.  After a day of use my impressions are definitely more positive than with the change from v3 to v4, but I wouldn’t describe the improvements as overwhelming.

The worst delays appear to be gone.  Under iOS 4.0 my 3G was experiencing delays of up to 10 seconds when opening  apps like Messages and Settings, these now launch in a few seconds.  Email messages load quicker, the on-screen keyboard is responsive with a shorter initial delay, and searching my contact list is relatively efficient again.  I was also able to start a song playing in iPod mode then jump around to several other apps without any skipping in playback.

I’m still experiencing notable delays when loading the Calendar app.  The iPhone appears to update my calendar via MobileMe each time I load the app, blanking out the screen before returning a few seconds later with my data.  I thought this was a bug in 4.0 but perhaps this is a change in the app’s behavior?

My overall (subjective) impression is that iOS 4.1 on the iPhone 3G is a tune-up of iOS 4.0, but isn’t a performance improvement over iOS 3.  The most egregious problems do appear to be fixed and the device is useable again.  That’s most important.

iPhone 3G owners, what’s your experience been so far?  Let us know in the comments.

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