While a large percentage of iPhone users are enjoying the new features and performance improvements in the latest iOS, some iPhone 3G users have reported that iOS 4 has slowed down their iPhone, which has forced some of them to downgrade to iPhone OS 3.1.3. It has also caused some to create a spoof of an Apple advertisement demonstrating iPhone 3G and running iOS 4. Comex, the iPhone hacking expert who has brought popular jailbreaking tools like Spirit is recommending that iPhone 3G users to disable Spotlight for iPhone to make it faster.

According to a ModMyI forum user:

iPhone 3G apparently has trouble keeping up with indexing, ever since 3.x. Two days ago, I turned off Spotlight search (Settings-General-Home Button-Spotlight search-switch off all you don’t use) because I rarely, if ever, used it.

Up to this day, my poor old 3G with iOS is way snappier than it was before, and I wouldn’t hesitate to say it’s as snappy as with 3.1.3.

If you want to compare the iPhone 3G running iOS 4 with an iPhone 4 running 3.1.3 check out the video below:

If you want to disable Spotlight for iPhone, follow the simple steps below:

  • Launch Settings app
  • Go to General –> Spotlight Search
  • Deselect indexing for all or as many items as possible

We haven’t yet had a chance to try this out but if you’re observing a performance issue on your iPhone 3G after upgrading to iOS  then there is no harm in trying this tip before you decide to downgrade to iPhone OS 3.1.3.

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Also – in case you haven’t seen the spoof:

This bringing positive results in the iPhone 3G makes us wonder if similar results will come from disabling Spotlight on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. If you happened to try it and observed any improvements (or didn’t) share your experience with us in the comments below.