Tips to Speed Up Your iPhone 3G

With all of the fuss surrounding the elegant and speedy iPhone 4, it is easy to forget about its curved backed forebear: the iPhone 3G. While many 3Gs and iPhone 4 owners enjoy multi-tasking merriment under iOS4, plain vanilla 3G users are having a radically different experience. Instead of an enhancement, iOS4 on iPhone 3G feels more like a downgrade. Though the promised new features do make an appearance, the update slows the phone’s performance to an almost unusable crawl, and causes frequent crashing and freezing.

This might be considered permissible performance on an ancient piece of hardware, but the 3G isn’t old! In fact, Apple sold the device alongside the 3Gs models until the iPhone 4 was announced a few months back. Personally, my 3G will turn two this Fall, but there are thousands who purchased a 3G as little as three or four months ago. To have a relatively current, in some cases warrantied, and fully supported device disabled to an unusable state is unacceptable, and very unlike Apple. While recent reports suggest that Apple is looking into the matter, there are some immediate steps you can take to relieve your anguish.

Restart the Hard Way

As many may be aware, restarting your iPhone quits processes and frees up valuable system RAM. Though this can temporarily boost the speed of the phone, the effects wear off quickly as new apps are launched. For a more permanent solution, try performing a hard reset on the phone. This is accomplished by holding the Sleep/Wake button + the Home button for about 10 seconds. When restarting using this method it is normal for the phone to take up to 5 minutes to start back up. As the phone is actually re-launching iOS4 as opposed to opening a disk image it can take substantially longer than a normal restart.

Sayonara Spotlight

Spotlight, a feature first implemented in 3.0, is a quick way to browse the contents of your phone. While convenient, the trade-off of using it is a major performance hit. Spotlight constantly indexes your phone’s applications in the background, and this can take up a lot of RAM if left unchecked. To disable Spotlight simply tap: Settings > General > Home Button > Spotlight Search. In this menu, proceed to uncheck every item on the list. Though this method doesn’t actually disable the Spotlight screen, it prevents the phone from indexing data, and results in a noticeable speed increase.

Wipe Out!

Still reading? Unfortunately we’ve hit the end of the line. This is the last resort, and it means saying goodbye to your application data. Many users are reporting that restoring their iPhone 3G through iTunes and selecting “Set up as a new phone” gets the 3G running iOS4 at an acceptable clip. Obviously the huge compromise made here is that all application data (game saves, preferences, entered text, sms logs, etc) are permanently wiped out. Though some select apps have the option to backup data and export via email, the vast majority lack this functionality. Since none of this information is synced to your computer when you backup your device, it will be PERMANENTLY LOST if you choose this method. I personally cannot attest to how well this solution works, as I just can’t bring myself to part with my Plants Vs. Zombies high scores. Try this solution at your own risk!

All of these solutions will hopefully remedy frustrations to some extent, but keep in mind their effects are very subtle. iOS4 simply seems like bloated software inadequately optimized around the 3G’s slower specifications. Until Apple officially addresses this situation, I urge all 3G owners who haven’t “upgraded” to stick with 3.0!