diff --git a/wp-settings.php b/wp-settings.php
index 109a32c2b..8778a0c96 100644
--- a/wp-settings.php
+++ b/wp-settings.php
@@ -202,7 +202,7 @@ if (defined('WP_DEBUG') and WP_DEBUG == true) {
 	error_reporting(E_ALL);
 } else {
 	// Unicode Extension is in PHP 6.0 only or do version check when this changes.
-	if ( version_compare( '6.0', phpversion(), '>' ) )	
+	if ( function_exists('unicode_decode') ) 
 		error_reporting( E_ALL ^ E_DEPRECATED ^ E_NOTICE ^ E_USER_NOTICE ^ E_STRICT );
 	else if ( defined( 'E_DEPRECATED' ) ) // Introduced in PHP 5.3
 		error_reporting( E_ALL ^ E_DEPRECATED ^ E_NOTICE ^ E_USER_NOTICE );