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Apple's Alleged Throttling of Older iPhones With Degraded Batteries Causes Controversy (macrumors.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: A Reddit post over the weekend has drawn a flurry of interest after an iPhone 6s owner reported that a battery replacement significantly increased the device's performance running iOS 11. The ensuing discussion thread, also picked up by readers in the MacRumors forum, has led to speculation that Apple intentionally slows down older phones to retain a full day's charge if the battery has degraded over time. According to TeckFire, the author of the original Reddit post, their iPhone had been very slow after updating to iOS 11, especially compared to their brother's iPhone 6 Plus, so they decided to do some research with GeekBench and battery life apps, and ended up replacing the battery.
Who makes their phones BLAZING fast
But they shouldn't force it.
So when does speculation make the leap to fact?
When a phone is in a lower power state, power management can do several things to extend longevity: run the processor slower, dim the screen, operate the cellular radio in a lower power state. A worn out battery could potentially cause one or more of these things to happen.
On the one hand it's eminently sensible to slow the device if that will eek out enough battery for the expected usage - a dead phone has zero performance. And batteries degrade as they get older, that we know... but if the user has no visibility of this, if they have no idea that it's happening or how to fix it then their device is being hobbled without an obvious fix.
Everybody knows that if battery doesn't last, you should replace the battery. But if the phone gets slower... the fix isn't visible. And we know Apple employees aren't the most honest when you ask for diagnosis...
Sensible thing to do, but as all closed-source bundles, if the user isn't informed then it's still pretty anti-consumer.
Vehicle manufacturers routinely detune engines as they age, reducing their maximum power output and relaxing the timing to reduce detonation.
Most drivers don't notice it because it is incremental. Volvo has been doing this for a couple of decades now with the 5 cylinder turbo - pushing new timing and fuel maps in 30,000km increments as the cars age. Of course you have to get your service done at the dealer pretty routinely to get these updates, but still..
So Apple checks my battery voltage, sees that it is below spec, and then they limit performance to ensure the phone keeps working. Sounds like a good plan to me. Perhaps they could/should add a battery health report in settings>battery so I know when to take it in for a new battery. Not a Apple freak, unlike many that act like phone OS is a religion. I have a 6S Plus 64GB and a Pixel XL 128GB. Love both and switch daily driver every few months.
Yes I know, most Apple users aren't nerds, etc.
However, it would be nice to do the same thing Tesla does with their cars: always keep the battery between 30~70% (or was it 40~80%?). Letting the phone charge its battery to 100% every time and letting it drop to 0% just kills lithium-ion batteries.
Just let the user set "maximum battery run time" or "maximum battery longevity".
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Make it optional. Surface a settings option that says âoe your battery is old so you can either run at full speed for 6 hrs or 1/2 speed all day. You pickâ
There. Solved it.
That's communism!
Is it really that hard to understand that Apple isn't boring you with details. You just want your phone to work.
Put it in your MacBook, wait and see what happens. macOS will activate the burner to "scratch" the disc, leaving an innocent-looking mark, so you can't use it anymore, even if you wanted to. Then come back and talk about how honest Apple are, and how they never lie or do things behind the user's back.
Android's already got a paired-down version of Oreo specifically meant for underpowered devices, would it be too much of a stretch for Apple to make a paired-down iOS that allows users to run newer apps on aging hardware rather than specifically throttle the hardware?
... to get 1000 cycles out of the battery before it reaches 80% of its capacity. They use the middle 80% but it's scaled so that you see it as 0% to 100%.
The very least they should do is to inform the user: "Your battery is degraded and performance is reduced as a result. It is recommended you have the battery replaced."
Having said that, I don't agree that an advanced option somewhere an average user won't even know to look, is "increasing complexity in configuring". Heck, it seems every time my iPad gets a major update I have to go through a handful of screens worth of iCloud logins and what not. This is stuff I _already_ configured. If Apple feels that is OK, I really don't see the argument against an option tucked away somewhere.
I continue to rebuff the 11.x upgrade nag screens on my iP6 until the bad news about the newer iOSes subsides. Have no reason to upgrade - the existing version does everything I need, and more. Just wish there was a way to turn off the nags and auto-downloading of the upgrade.
because it can't suck enough energy fast enough.
News at 11.
Conspiracy theories right now.
my kid has had 4 iPhones, and every single one lasted about 18 months before it started having tons of problems, performance degradation, etc. I figured the heat was killing some of the cores or the ram or something. But this makes much more sense. The best part being you can't even replace the battery.
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And I can use it fine for days. I see no reason to upgrade ever. I am also getting tired of smartphones and don't follow or buy into the hype anymore. They're all surveillance equipment now.
What are the benchmarks like when the phone is plugged in and charging?
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
"Apple intentionally slows down older phones to retain a full day's charge if the battery has degraded over time" -- I would do this myself, if Apple didn't put it there and if I knew how. The iPhone is a phone in the first place. You want to be able to make phone calls, first and foremost, particulalrly in case of emergencies. It's a safety measure. This is the expected behavior, from a user's point of view. So cut it off and get a life.
Your explanation makes sense, but if that's what's happening Apple is being overly cautious.
My iPhone 6 worked fine running the final version of iOS 10. I can remember 2 spontaneous shutdowns over the last two years. Those were annoying when they happened, but they didn't happen often.
The day I upgraded to iOS 11, performance on my phone went into the toilet. It was sluggish. The screen stuttered. I had trouble switching between apps. I had to tap buttons on the screen several times before the taps registered. It has gotten better since then, but my phone still is much less usable than it was with iOS 10.
I get hit by this every day. I would much rather have my phone spontaneously shut down once a month or even once a week than have it be unusable for long periods of time every day.
And yes, it does appear to be directly related to the battery. If my battery charge level is 93% or greater, my CPU runs at 1125 MHz. When the battery charge drops to 91% the CPU drops to 818 MHz. When the battery charge drops to 89% the CPU drops to 600 MHz.
If I could go back to iOS 10, I would. But Apple makes that impossible. They could, however, release a software fix that would make my phone usable again. If there are tradeoffs, they should let me choose among them.
So now to cover up battery problems they throttle their phone and wreak "User experience".
Quality apple.
It was not "over time" - it was in less than 4 months. Apple would not or replace my battery until some lawsuit came about. "Apple has admitted that some iPhone 6S devices can suddenly shut down for no apparent reason. The tech giant is offering owners of the problematic smartphones free replacement batteries. ... Apple's battery replacement offer for the iPhone 6S applies worldwide."
Here is an interesting difference between Apple and Google.
The CPUs in the Nexus 5x and 6p are prone to burning out the fast cores. When this thermal damage takes place, the phones go into boot-loops.
If you were smart enough to unlock the bootloader, you are able to install a version of TWRP that locks down the fast cores, and only uses the slow ones. From there, you can load a custom kernel that does the same, and restore limited functionality.
You would think that any sane company would immediately roll this into their stock ROM. You would be wrong - Google/Qualcomm did not, and there are a LOT of Nexus bricks now. Instead there is a class action, and Google is extending liberal trade-ins on Pixels (that have their own hardware problems).
The right answer to both Apple's battery and Google's Snapdragon fast-core meltdown is to detect, report, and compensate. At least Apple (unlike Google) was able to do two out of three.
hedging against the X?
We keep buying phones with non-user replaceable batteries. I've done it myself.
I read elsewhere that itâ(TM)s not just a good idea from a usability perspective but itâ(TM)s also a good idea from a safety perspective. Namely if you are pushing further into and old batteryâ(TM)s low voltage regime you may be altering the battery chemistry in a way that degrades the battery faster, or builds up excessive heat is you demanded the same current as a new battery.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
By Torx screws, surely you mean the pentalobe screws. Apple pentalobe drivers and screws only have five points, not six like Torx. Look near the lightning port.
This is all speculation. No proof.
Also, Iâ(TM)d like to remind people that there is a quality program for iPhone 6s batteries. Perhaps itâ(TM)s related to that? The other claims I read about here could all be software related. Did you try a reset before bringing the rage to Apples door?