Should I upgrade from iOS 7.1.1 to 8.4?

[It's Not Lupus]

I have an iPad mini 2. I'm liking the ~12 hour battery life. Should I upgrade to 8.4?

 

[razel]

Yes, only because iOS 9 is coming out in a month or so and you don't want to leap frog from 7 to 9 or at least I wouldn't. Install 8.4 now before 9 comes out to avoid it. You still can install 8.4 after 9 comes out, by way of a developer account.

Do the usual, connect to a computer and use iTunes to make a backup prior. In fact just use iTunes via PC to make a backup and perform the upgrade. By the way Apple doesn't get enough credit for how damn well their backup/restore works for app and app settings. I made a backup of an iPad 4 before it broke and restored to a far newer replacement iPad Air 2 and everything apps/data restored flawlessly! No need to retype any app specific account passwords for each app either where you specify to save it either. My jaw dropped.

 

[Cal166]

I would hold off, I upgraded my ipad 3 to 8.4 and it lags badly. Can't get it to downgrade, always throws this generic error message.

Do a search on 8.4 and lag, many people are experiencing the issue.

 

[mmntech]

I would hold off, I upgraded my ipad 3 to 8.4 and it lags badly. Can't get it to downgrade, always throws this generic error message.

That's just Apple gently nudging you to fork over another $500 to them.

I've noticed some minor lag on my iPad 3 on iOS 8.3 but it's still plenty usable. I can't imagine 8.4 being any different. Though I've hard of varying performance on iDevices before. Try doing a clean install if you haven't already.

The OP's Mini 2 runs the A7 so it shouldn't have any performance issues. If you jailbreak, you should upgrade to 8.4 to ensure long term app support. iOS 9 sounds like it might be a tough nut for hackers to crack.

 

[Eug]

I would hold off, I upgraded my ipad 3 to 8.4 and it lags badly. Can't get it to downgrade, always throws this generic error message.

Do a search on 8.4 and lag, many people are experiencing the issue.

As mmntech suggested, you cannot really compare your iPad 3 with the iPad mini 2. The mini 2 is way, way faster. The iPad 3 isn't even in the same league.

In your shoes, I'd stick to iOS 7.1.x for a while, and then eventually consider making the jump to iOS 9. Just skip iOS 8 altogether.

That said, I'm running iOS 9 on the iPad 2 already. Works OK, albeit not as fast as iOS 7.1.x. You don't get all the new bells and whistles but at least from an end user point of view you do get some benefits like more matched UI details etc., and more importantly, it's not any slower than iOS 8.x. In fact, Apple said they're aiming to speed things up on iOS 9 over iOS 8 on older hardware, and I'm optimistic they will because iOS 9 is already as fast as iOS 8.4, if not faster, and iOS 9 will likely get faster with subsequent updates.

P.S. Congrats on your 5000th post!

 

[Excelsior]

Skip to 9.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Anyone try 8.4.1? Claims the Apple Music issues were fixed.