iOS 7.1 review

iOS 7.1 FIND MY iPHONE

Find My iPhone and Find My iPad are brilliant tools to help you track down a lost or stolen device. However, the option could be turned off if your phone’s lock screen was bypassed. With iOS 7, turning off the service requires your Apple ID and Password to be entered, making it even more secure. Activating the device requires your Apple ID and password, too, effectively helping make stolen devices useless to thieves.

iOS 7.1 DEVICE RESTRICTIONS

Not all of the features are available on all device. Panoramas can only be used on the iPhone 5S or later and iPod Touch 5th generation.

Square formats are limited to iPhone 4 or later, iPad 3 and later, iPad Mini and iPod Touch 5th generation. Filters in camera are for the iPhone 5 and later, and iPod touch 5th generation. Filters in Photos are available for iPhone 4 or later, iPad 3 and later, iPad Mini and iPod Touch 5th generation.

AirDrop is available for the iPhone 5 or later, iPad 4, iPad Mini and iPod Touch 5th generation.

The iPhone 5S also gets the Slo-Mo video mode and some custom features based on its M7 motion coprocessor. You can find out about these in our full review.

iOS 7.1 CONCLUSION

Generally speaking, although it takes a while to get used to, iOS 7.1 is a big improvement over iOS 6. It’s cleaner, slicker and generally stops you having to delve through menus and settings to make simple changes. Aside from a few niggles, it’s a far superior OS.

Upgrading to iOS 7.1 really depends on the device you’ve got. We’d say that it’s worth upgrading the iPad 3, iPad 4 and iPad Mini. The iPad 2, performance wise, is on the edge. It’ll work, but it will be slower and you don’t get so many new features. If you’re happy with current performance, we’d be tempted to leave it alone.

i

For iPhones, the iPhone 5 is a definite upgrade (iOS 7.1 is standard on the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C). With the iPhone 4S, the same rules apply as for the iPad 2: if you’re happy with performance at the moment, don’t upgrade. You’ll get some new features by upgrading to iOS 7, although you are on the edge of the phone’s performance. With the iPhone 4, we’d recommend leaving it alone. This phone’s single core processor isn’t really up to the job and there have been a lot of complaints about performance.

For any device currently running iOS 7, now’s a good time to upgrade to iOS 7.1. You don’t get a lot in the way of new features, but the interface tweaks and better stability are worth it alone. On top of that, the improved Calendar fixes one of the most annoying features about iOS 7. With all of that in mind, iOS 7.1 is a decent upgrade to iOS 7, ironing out some of the teething problems and making it a better all-round OS.