The iOS 7 Review
by Brian Klug & Saumitra Bhagwat on September 19, 2013 1:25 AM ESTLike any major design change, iOS 7 definitely takes getting used to. My initial reaction to a lot of iOS 7 was honestly more surprise and aversion than I thought it would be, but over time the changes have grown on me. I like to think that we're pretty open to change, especially as enthusiasts, but it's a natural human response to want things to be familiar and closer to what came before. Considerable time spent running the beta and watching parts of the platform change over time in response to feedback from developers and other third parties makes me optimistic that the new iOS 7 UI will continue to change and evolve the same way previous versions did.
The flip side is that I can't shake the feeling that some of the iOS 7 design is reactionary. Pundits lambasted Apple with iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 release for being pretty much the same OS with minor tweaks and very few stylistic changes. Those vocal members wanted dramatic change in visual appearance just for the sake of having it, and like the idiom goes, be careful what you wish for because sometimes it actually does come true. No matter how you sugar coat it, iOS 7 is a dramatic departure from the visual style that came before.
I like the use of translucency and transparency, and the new eye candy and visual effects in iOS 7 did initially solicit a bit of the same "wow" reaction that I had the first time looking at iOS on the original iPhone. The use of parallax and the translucency really does convey a sense of depth and order without being as garish as drop shadows or the shiny faux-3d buttons of yesterday's iOS.
The downside is that after a few weeks of it, some animations are really just a lot more gratuitous than they need to be – after the thousandth time watching the tiles fly in or application zoom out into the multitasking interface you want it to just happen instantly. I have no doubt that iOS will go the route of OS X and Windows Phone and gradually increase the speed of these animations to make the platform feel faster. They're also bound to have a power penalty at some point.
I guess that's the ironic part – the flagship devices don't drop frames during the transitions, they just feel long. I can speak to iOS 7 performance which is good on the iPhone 4S and above and newest generation of iPads, performance however on the iPhone 4 and iPad 3 leaves a lot to be desired. The iPhone 4 stutters through all of its animations, has sparse use of transparency, and generally feels like it's on its last legs. The iPad 3 unfortunately is much of the same – sparse transparency, occasional stuttery parts throughout, although a lot more usable than the iPhone 4. I guess I'm just surprised to see the iPad 3 get to that point of feeling slow so fast.
Although a lot of iOS 7 is visual, the functional changes and new features that are standouts really do make a difference. Control center is a long overdue functional improvement that makes controlling a subset of commonly used settings very fast. There's still more Apple could do here to smooth over a few more friction points, but it's a welcome addition. Notification center also feels a lot more well thought out, with logical separation of information that's useful and notifications themselves, even if there's still no "clear all" button.
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akdj - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
@rrecine...glad you're digging your Note. My contract can't mature fast enough. Of all the smartphones we've purchased for development (Android, iOS and Windows)---it's hands down my least favorite. I just bought the 5s and can honestly tell you the new iPhone bests the GNote 2. The SD card. What an absolute joke. And no wonder Google is trying to get the OEMs to get rid of it. Can't put apps on it. Can't store any app info on it. Media essentially only. I bought in hook line and sinker. I'll never buy another Samsung or TouchWiz device as long as I live. Like I said though...glad you're digging yours. The iPhone 5s is definitely a big step up so don't go playing with one. You may just end up coming to the dark side. Removable battery isn't necessary on a phone capable of excellent and often all day use. That's one of the biggest downfalls of the Note 1 & bit less so on the 2. Battery life (stock) absolutely sucks!Crono - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
iOS 7 needs less transparency/translucency elements, a slightly darker color or solid color palette, and less animations. Otherwise the UI changes are a step in the right direction as far as lessening skeumorphic icons and moving toward a flatter look.tim851 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
The color palette was probably chosen to hide the extend to which WP7/8 was copied.As a WP7/8 hater, I don't like this iOS 7 look. On the iPad, there's too much (literal) white space. It starts with the greeting screens, which are just big black text on white. Looks like a no-nonsense powerpoint presentation. And at times, iOS 7 appears unpolished.
I disliked some of the skeumorphism in iOS 6, but generally preferred the look-and-feel. But as Brian said, there were lots of people who called for change - for change's sake. And that's what they got.
Also, on the iPad 2, performance is borderline. Every once in a while an animation stutters. Temple Run 2 now stutters all the time. Might be an app issue, might not be. But it's 2013 people, the operating system should NOT do things that slow down the interface. Another thing I have to grudgingly give to Windows Phone.
nathanddrews - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
Maybe it's just a hold over from the old days, but the first thing I do with any OS is disable every animation possible. Much like disabling startup videos on games. When I click something, I just want it to work immediately.Ain't nobody got time fo dat. /mandatory
Impulses - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
OTOH, aren't WP app load times still behind everyone else? I don't know that they necessarily emulated WP too much, seems like they took interesting bits from both it and stock Android (roboto font was a big deal on ICS, etc).OzedStarfish - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Yeah they are still quite long. It's especially frustrating for me, a developer for WP8 because it seems it's a deeper problem than what can be addressed with smart application design.It's most evident when looking at the settings app, launching is effectively instant (animations withstanding) while any third party app takes noticeably longer. To Microsoft's credit, it is far better than it used to be with WP7, switching from JIT to MDIL as well as other back end changes have definitely helped.
NeXTguy2 - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
It's interesting. Load times can be slow to the point of being seriously annoying. I'm looking at you, WhatsApp. At the same time, though, there are enough apps that launch in 0.5 seconds or so, even on my old Lumia 800 with WP7.5, which indicates to me that there is no fundamental "penalty" in the OS itself.Maybe it has to do with the number of resources an app depends on? The apps with fast launch times include 1Password, the Blizzard and RSA authenticator apps, while stuff the needs an internet status, Twitter and TripIt for example, are slowish. Worst seem to be apps that have a lot of local data. This is all suspicion, I have not tested any of this. Maybe I should...
OzedStarfish - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
There is a huge correlation between loading data and launch time, especially when developers are lazy and run their routines on the UI thread. But I think the difference between first party and third party apps is most clear comparing 'music+video' or 'photos' or any other complex native panorama app to even the SDK sample, the sample drops frames on opening whilst the native ones are smooth and seamless.Just comparing the settings apps from my Lumia 920 and Nexus 7 (2013) I swore that the phone opened quicker from general usage, but comparing side by side the nexus is noticeably quicker, the animations on the phone really did well at masking the loading while I felt that looking at the grey screen on the nexus made it feel slow. I can see how it takes an adjustment period when switching platforms.
Wolfpup - Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - link
Windows Phone feels fast to me. Both iOS and Windows Phone generally feel really fast, while Android (even on better hardware) feels sluuuuuggish (still, as of 4.3).Daniel Egger - Friday, September 20, 2013 - link
Really not sure where all the WP7/8 references are coming from; one Windows-affine techsite suddenly confesses liking iOS 7 because they copied so many good parts from WP and others start hating iOS 7 because they only copied the worst parts. As a WP7 and 8 user I cannot see at all where this is coming from because the few things they have in common now (like the task switcher which is still quite rudimentary in 8, to be improved in 'Blue' to an iOS 7ish level) or a sans serif font (which is still quite a different choice between the two) are not coming from WP originally at all.