iOS 7 on an iPhone 4

[iPhone4NL]

Hey guys!
I was wondering if someone knows more about the differences in iOS 7 on different iPhones (4/4s/5)
I have an iphone 4 myself and I'm wondering which features I am missing.
iOS 7 seems to be slower than 6.1.3, but that might be due to the beta fase.
So far I've noticed:
- no parallex effect on the homescreen
- no filters in the camera
- less transparency!
The "less transparency thing" kinda sucks..
When entering the multitask screen the homescreen is shown as a grey field with icons, just like all folders and the dock is grey as well.
Though both the command and notification center have a small transparency effect.
It takes away some of the beauty and "depth" Ive was talking about, which is a shame..
Hoping they might add some more transparency in the next beta/final
Anyways, are there other features/GUI elements that I'm missing on my older device?
Anyone who wants to share his/her experiences on the iPhone 4?

 

[kch50428]

The iPhone4 is not getting camera filters...

http://forums.imore.com/ios-7/257301-ios-7-devices-get-features.html

 

[iPhone4NL]

Hey, thanks for the link!
Luckily there are other apps for that and you always have the option to apply some filters in the Photo app
What I still don't understand is why the GUI on the 4 is different from the 4s/5.
I always assumed Apple wanted a single UI for all iDevices, but with some features reserved for newer devices.
The lack of transparent elements bothers me (it feels like some sort of "light" version of iOS 7)
Especially when when part of the OS got it (command/notification center) and part not (folders/dock/homescreen in multitask view)

 

[klturi421]

From what I am guessing, and purely is a guess is that Apple is feeling out how iOS7 will respond on the iPhone 4. I am pretty sure it can handle the transparency and just fine. I've noticed that it seems a bit incomplete graphically so it may have been an after thought and just thrown together to get something out there. I would expect that beta 2 or 3 should be a bit more refined.

Some of the other elements that I have noticed as well include the way it looks when you answer a phone call or power off the device, for me the text is barely visible, almost just looks like there weren't any styles applied. At the very least I would expect the next revision, if they decide to completely leave transparency out of the picture, to at least give color change options to the background of the dock and folders.

Like you mentioned I Apple couldn't possibly want to have even a slightly different UI across devices that can support it. But only time will tell what will happen here. I am still on the hunt for a setting that I am missing or a hidden feature to adjust these, I dont think I'll have much luck though.

 

[wamadden4]

Just get a 5 dude... no reason to have a 4 still...

 

[iPhone4NL]

The appearance is like I said before, it's missing some of the beauty and depth Ive was talking about during the introduction.
They grey fields look awefull..
Apple always tries to give you the same experience on every device (some features excluded for older iDevices), so I guess we'll get it in the future
And the iPhone 4 seems to handle iOS 7 quite well. Animations can be a little laggy sometimes, but what do you expect for a first beta

I agree with you on the "slide to unluck" / "slide to power off" etc. text and it's poor visibility.
When I first booted into iOS 7 I thought they had removed the "slide to unlock" text to make the lock screen more clear
And I've been looking at the settings as well, but you'll find nothing that changes iOS appearence rather than the background.
Luckily they've got plenty of time to refine the UI before GM comes out.

 

[klturi421]

Just get a 5 dude... no reason to have a 4 still...

Unless you'd be willing to provide me with a 5 I unfortunately cannot afford it at this time. And since the 4 does everything I need it to (phone calls, texting, light web browsing) I dont really have any need to upgrade at this time. If it were to go the way side of the 3G I probably would.

 

[iPhone4NL]

As long as my old 4 works I'm not going to spend €700 for a new 5..
In my opion there are no extra features on the 4s/5 to get a newer iPhone.
Siri is useless here, I hardly use the camera and only 1 provider offers 4G in my country (but the iPhone doesn't support their 800 MHz frequency)
Don't get me wrong, the iPhone 5 is a wonderfull device, but for now my iPhone 4 seems good enough for everyday tasks.
Who knows the next iPhone (5s/6?) could change my mind

 

[klturi421]

As long as my old 4 works I'm not going to spend €700 for a new 5..
In my opion there are no extra features on the 4s/5 to get a newer iPhone.
Siri is useless here, I hardly use the camera and only 1 provider offers 4G in my country (but the iPhone doesn't support their 800 MHz frequency)
Don't get me wrong, the iPhone 5 is a wonderfull device, but for now my iPhone 4 seems good enough for everyday tasks.
Who knows the next iPhone (5s/6?) could change my mind

Im on the same page as you. I really have no need for Siri, seems more like a novelty to me. I wouldn't mind the updated cameras, but that's not worth either $700 or a new contract, especially when I am looking to switching to a prepaid service.

Edit:

Also my wife's phone is crapping out (android) and unless I'm willing to get her a brand new phone I am going to have a classic time of trying to get an iphone for myself.

 

[ninjamattic]

They'll probably have to pull out some of the transparency and effects for the 4 just because of the lack of available RAM. All of those effects are very taxing on the device's low memory, and Apple hasn't had a problem reducing the pretty a little bit to make sure the device doesn't get 3G'd into uselessness.

 

[abazigal]

Even on my 4s, the parallax effect appears very sluggish and lackluster (in that the blobs do move around, but seem to be missing that energy and vibrancy displayed in the demo). I suspect this is largely a GPU constraint (since the iphone5 has 3 GPU cores).

The folders and dock also lack that transparency, as do overlapping apps. Animations when opening folders and closing apps also seem quite drawn out. Hopefully, they will be much speedier in the next update.