iOS 10 plagued by frame drops, skips, and horrible user interface bugs

iOS 10 has been out for almost a month, and Apple's latest mobile platform continues to be plagued by problems that really shouldn't be present in a flagship platform. And things are far worse for iPhone 7 users.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor Oct. 10, 2016 at 8:56 a.m. PT

I awoke early Saturday morning, and after a yawn and a stretch to try to come to life, I grabbed my iPhone so I could see what had been going on in the world while I'd been asleep. It slowly dawned on me that there was something horribly wrong with my iOS 10 home screen.

iOS 10 plagued by frame drops, skips, and horrible user interface bugs — Here is where the iOS 10 dock should be.

Yup, the dock had vanished. Again.

After the first time it happened, a quick search of the Apple support forums confirmed that I'm not the only one experiencing this problem, and that while a reboot (or sometimes running an app that appears in the dock) makes it reappear, only Apple can deliver a proper fix for this issue.

So, in the meantime, it's time to chalk up another iOS 10 bug.

Problem is, they're really starting to pile up.

I've been using iOS 10 since the earliest betas, and it's fair to say that I've not been happy with what's coming out of Cupertino. Right now, I'm at that point where I feel I either have to make the most of the mess or make a transition to another platform (which is not something I do lightly).

But at least I can console myself with the fact that no matter how bad iOS 10 is on older hardware, the performance is far worse for those who have shelled out to upgrade to an iPhone 7.

Technology expert Chris Pirillo has upgraded to the iPhone 7, and he's far from pleased with how iOS 10 performs on the latest iPhone. Alongside his iPhone 7 review, he has published a master list of issues with iOS 10 on the iPhone 7, in which he meticulously lists dozens of issues, ranging from frame drops to bugs and other user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) bugs.

It's a very long list. Here are just a few of the items on it:

In particular, iOS 10 on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus appears to suffer from significant and reproducible frame drops when carrying out certain tasks (frame drops that are not present on hardware such as the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s).

Smooth animation is critical to good UX. A shaky, jumpy UI is hard on the eyes and constantly gives you the feeling that something has gone wrong or that a crash is imminent. A jumpy UI also breaks the illusion that the icons and apps running on the screen are real, as opposed to just a choreographed series of animations.

These frame drops suggest that either iOS 10 code is not well optimized for the iPhone 7, or that Apple is allowing for frame drops on the iPhone 7 -- perhaps to improve overall performance to increase battery life.

Either way, these problems are destroying the user experience for owners of Apple's latest hardware, and that's not a good thing at a time when iPhone sales are predicted to go soft and Apple can ill afford to have people eyeing Android handsets.