I'm seeking some advice about my experience with the iPhone 12. I've been using it since October 2020, and while my first unit was great, it stopped working in late 2024 due to a logic board issue. I bought a brand new iPhone 12 because I liked the design and didn't need the latest features. Now, in January 2026, this new phone feels much slower compared to my original. Common apps like Instagram, Maps, and Spotify freeze for 2-3 seconds before responding, and the phone gets noticeably warm even with basic tasks. I'm wondering, is this just what happens when using an A14 Bionic chip with 4GB of RAM in 2026? Is the iPhone 12 officially considered outdated now? Is anyone else still using one, and how's their performance? Could the latest iOS updates be slowing down older devices? For reference, my phone's battery health is at 87%, I'm running iOS version 26.1, and I have 128GB of storage.
4 Answers
You might want to start by updating to iOS 26.2 using a computer. I have family members with older iPhones like the 11 and 13, and they noticed improvements after updating.
I'm still rocking an iPhone 7, and I feel your pain! Occasionally, my apps lag too. Can you even load Reddit smoothly on your end?
Yeah, the older models definitely feel the effects of newer software updates. It might be a tough road ahead, and your experience could get worse as more updates roll out. It's one of those things where Apple tends to optimize for newer hardware.
I’m using an iPhone 11 that I got on launch day, and I've replaced the battery and screen last year. I noticed apps take a few seconds to load sometimes, and there can be slowdowns, but it doesn’t really bother me too much. Low power mode really messes with performance, though! It’s definitely a bit slower, but I'd say it's still usable on iOS 26.2.
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