iPhone 3GS and iOS 5+

Just curious, has anyone here experienced how the 3GS is with iOS5, most especially with the hardware accelerated canvas? And if so, how was it performance wise in relation to 1. games on canvas, and 2. other canvas applications?

I'm thinking of getting an Apple platform (iPhone or iPad) for testing purposes, but I'm on tight budget, so I'm wondering if the 3GS' performance with iOS 5 can still be considered as baseline as far as mobile game development's concerned...

The 3GS has quite a weak benchmark as compared to the iPhone 4, and especially iPhone 4S.

Most games on the App Store don't cater to the 3GS users anymore.

<img src="http://cdn.gottabemobile.com/wp-content/uploads/browser.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://cdn.gottabemobile.com/wp-content/uploads/java.jpg" border="0" />

<img src="http://cdn.gottabemobile.com/wp-content/uploads/ios51.jpg" border="0" />

Though if you really do manage to get a game working on the 3GS, it should have no problem at all running on a newer hardware.

Yeah, the 3GS should work OK but the hardware is a lot weaker than the newer devices. So if it's playable on a 3GS it should absolutely fly on the 4 and 4S. You'll just have to be even more careful with the number of on-screen sprites, memory usage, and so on.

Thanks guys! So given the gap between the 4 and 4S, normally, how does a game developer target this platform? 4 or 4S being the baseline?