Installing iOS 5 on iPhone 3G

MoRT489 · 2 Apr 2012 at 08:19

Is there a way to force install iOS 5 on the iPhone 3G (not 3GS) which seems to be restricted to iOS 4.2.1?

If anyone can provide a guide or link that would be great. If it requires a flash to unofficial firmware is there a risk of bricking the phone or can i just restore it?

PR. · 2 Apr 2012 at 09:21

I doubt that would work, the 3G has only half the RAM of the 3GS and a slower processor. Seeing as iOS 4.2 on the 3G is a bit slow iOS 5 would be painful.

MoRT489 · 2 Apr 2012 at 12:40

Did a bit of searching and seems like it may be possible to install a modded iOS 5.1 called whited00r http://www.whited00r.com/, which seems to work well on a 3G despite the RAM limitation. Will try installing it this evening.

Kainz · 2 Apr 2012 at 15:50

I hope that modded OS is stripped down because as said, iOS will run like a dog on that hardware. iOS 4 on a 3G was already pushing it to its limits.

MoRT489 · 2 Apr 2012 at 15:55

It wasn't pushing it to the limits, it was badly optimized for 3G. The Whited00r firmware is based on iOS 3.1.3 (so the last fast firmware for 3G) but with features of iOS 5. Seems fast so far but i don't want to lose all my messages so i'll probably reinstall my last backup of 4.2.1 and put up with the slowness.

From what i've seen so far whited00r looks and functions similar to a 3GS, speed is increased but folders are not as well implemented (harder to drag and drop) and is not customisable from iTunes, App store only works through iTunes and not on the phone. For me the increase in speed isn't worth the loss of the other functionality.