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Three months after its initial release, iOS 9.2 finally provides a solid and stable experience for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. This article examines iOS 9.2 and whether it’s worth upgrading.
I’ve been holding off on upgrading my iPhone to iOS 9. After testing iOS 9 releases on my iPad, I found that they just weren’t good enough for my mission critical iPhone. With iOS 9.2, that’s changed. Waiting three months for a quality release is reasonable. No software is perfect, including iOS 9.2.
A small number of users are experiencing problems with iOS 9.2. My experience and the overall consensus is that this is finally a quality release. Let’s take a look at installing iOS 9.2, new features, bug fixes, security fixes and a few problems that some users are facing.
Installing iOS 9.2
Upgrading to iOS 9.2 can take between one to two hours, depending on your device and current iOS version. If you have an older device that hasn’t been upgraded recently, it may take a few hours to upgrade. On a newer device running iOS 9.1, the update should only take 20-30 minutes.
iOS 9.2 also varies in size. The update will be smaller on recently upgraded devices. Also, older devices don’t support some of the newer iOS features, such as Siri. Updates to older devices don’t include these modules. On my iPad 2, the update was only 145 MB. It is older and was already running iOS 9.1. The iOS 9.2 upgrade for my iPhone 6 was 1 GB, because it supports more features and was running iOS 8.4.1 prior to the update.
Make sure to backup any critical information using iCloud or iTunes before upgrading to iOS 9.2. For more information on best practices for upgrading iOS, please read “How to Upgrade iOS”.
You can start the iOS 9.2 upgrade process by tapping Settings > General > Software Update. Next, tap Download (it may be downloaded already) and Install to begin the process. You must accept the legal agreements to proceed.
If you have already installed iOS 9, you have another option. Users can choose to upgrade their device overnight. Simply tap on Install Later when prompted to upgrade to iOS 9.2. There’s no way to set an overnight update directly in Settings. You have to wait for the dialog box to pop up and accept it. The scheduled update runs between 2 AM and 5 AM, if your device is plugged in to its charger.
When the upgrade is finished, simply unlock your device. Unlike previous iOS releases, there are no greeting screens or prompts to login to iCloud. This is a major release with a lot of new features, but Apple seems to have forgone the post-upgrade fanfare. If iOS 9.2 is your first iOS 9 upgrade, you will be welcomed, informed of new features, and asked to complete some minor configuration tasks.
GeekBench
iOS 9.2 scores slight better on GeekBench 3. Prior to iOS 9.2, my iPad 2 got a single-core score of 262 and a multi-core score of 496. iOS 9.2 doesn’t improve the single-core score, however, it bumps up the multi-core score by 1 point.
You won’t notice this difference in performance, but it’s good to know that iOS 9.2 is a slight improvement, and not a regression. (continue…)