Tests demonstrate much-improved performance of iOS 4.2 on iPhone 3G handset

For those of you hanging onto an iPhone 3G and hoping for something good to come out of the new iOS, there may be some good news in store.

Per TiPb, a recent series of tests has shown that the iPhone 3G’s performance is much improved under iOS 4.2:

According to the tests, entering text into Apple’s Notes app was acceptably snappy. Browsing the Web was also noticeably improved, especially scrolling and load times (over Wi-Fi). Some pinch-and-zoom was a bit laggy, but definitely worlds better than iOS 4.0 on a 3G.

Apple was recently hit with a class action lawsuit from California iPhone 3G user Bianca Wofford, who claims that Apple “…knowingly and intentionally released what it called a system software ‘upgrade’ that, in fact, made hundreds of thousands of the Third Generation iPhones (sic) that were exclusively tethered to AT&T data plans ‘useless’ for their intended purpose.”

iOS 4.2 is expected to be released this month with some media outlets citing the launch date as early as today.