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.

Comments

Unlike samsung

[Anonymous Coward]

Who makes their phones BLAZING fast

Might be a nice option

[Anonymous Coward]

But they shouldn't force it.

Re:Might be a nice option

[Oswald McWeany]

But they shouldn't force it.

You think that because you come from Android. Obviously I'm talking generalities here and there are plenty of exceptions but Apple and Android have a different philosophical approach.

Apple try to provide a good service, in part by making it simple to operate so the end-user doesn't have to make any decisions. They make an educated decision on behalf of their user base. (many who are old and don't really understand the technology, so appreciate that).

Android try to leave many decisions in the hands of the users. A lot of them make poor decisions, but it is their decision to make. A lot of them are uneducated about the decisions, but again, if they wanted to they can learn and customize the operating system and the whole experience much more minutely than can be done on Apple's part.

Apple understands their customer base. By and large, it's older and more wealthy than the Android customer base. It's less tech savvy, and wants an experience provided for them. They don't want an operating system that is work for them to configure. Yeah, it might be nice to default it on and give them an option to change it, but the more options there are, the more complexity there is in configuring.

Re:Might be a nice option

[TWX]

And basically this is entirely invalidated by designing the phone such that the battery is not user-replaceable.

Apple designed a device that will intentionally run slower without the end user paying someone else to disassemble the phone to replace parts. Given the cost to service an older device weighed against the cost of a new device, a lot of users are going to opt for the new device, especially if they don't realize that the reason the phone is operating poorly is because of the battery.

Re:Might be a nice option

[jon3k]

And basically this is entirely invalidated by designing the phone such that the battery is not user-replaceable.

First of all, I've replaced batteries in iPhones many times and its incredibly easy. Here's a guy replacing one in four minutes. And you can even get a specific set of tools that will make it simple including the battery for around $25.

If that's too complicated there are thousands of places both local and online that will replace your battery for a very nominal fee.

It would take me probably half an hour to replace the PSU in my PC but I don't refer to it as being "not user-replaceable".

Re:Might be a nice option

[Archangel Michael]

How many people have access to a tech enthusiast or professional who can perform such a thing? And in every mall is a kiosk that will do it for $25 plus parts while you wait (30 minutes tops)

This is not a problem.

Re:Might be a nice option

[pastafazou]

Because the cables from the old PSU are run under the motherboard, through all sorts of openings in the chassis, and zip tied to everything? It's 5 minutes to actually change the power supply, but 25 minutes of cable management.

Huh - a subject I'm entirely divided on

[jareth-0205]

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.

Re:Huh - a subject I'm entirely divided on

[jareth-0205]

"eke". Not "eek". That's the sound a mouse makes.

Actually, the original spelling was correct. I use a hamster-wheel generator to charge my phone.

Re:Huh - a subject I'm entirely divided on

[marcansoft]

This isn't about making the battery last longer. It's about making the phone work at all. It has to do with battery chemistry.

Old batteries don't just "last less". They also have an increased internal series resistance. That resistance actually limits the amount of power you can pull out of it. The more current you draw, the more energy is wasted as heat, and the lower the output voltage. As internal series resistance increases, it becomes physically impossible to get more than a certain amount of power out of the battery, and this limit also decreases as the battery drains during a given discharge cycle. It's a hard physical limit. The I-V curve just never hits your power target. If you try, your voltage sags and then the phone shuts down. This is what triggers a common syndrome in old devices, where the battery meter shows 30% but then you try to open up a CPU-intensive app and the device immediately shuts down. Chances are that's not the battery meter being wrong or miscalibrated: there really was 30% charge remaining in the battery. It just wasn't capable of handling that much power draw at that charge level. There's 30% charge remaining and there's a hidden limit as to how fast you can drain it.

It's almost certain that what Apple did here was start throttling phone performance when battery voltage sags below a critical threshold, to prevent hard shutdowns. On older batteries, this would appear as a performance limit as the battery empties. But it was never about making the phone last longer. It's just a physical limitation. The alternative is your phone shuts down. That's obviously not good.

The right solution, of course, is to have a notification or something that tells users when this is happening. Something along the lines of "Your battery cannot supply enough power to keep your device working at full performance. To maintain optimum performance, a battery replacement is recommended.".

Re:Huh - a subject I'm entirely divided on

[leonbev]

The thing is that Apple DOES give the user some visibility to this issue. When iOS senses that the battery is failing, it puts up a "Battery Performance Degraded" warning in the Battery section of the Settings screen. I saw it on my iPhone 6, but not until it got to the point where the phone would only last 3 hours on a charge and the phone would just randomly power itself off when the battery got below 40% charge. I got the battery replaced, and now it goes 2 days on a single charge again.

They might want to put that battery warning in a place more prominently, but it is there.

Why is this a problem?

[leeosenton]

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.

Re:Why is this a problem?

[Bing Tsher E]

Perhaps they could include a battery door so you can swap in a fresh battery at a small cost.

Re:No real controversy, IMO

[Bing Tsher E]

The real controversy is the lack of communication to the owners of the devices. They should be fully informed of this 'innovative technology' so they can spend the $40 to get a new battery installed, instead of giving up and buying a new iGadget.

Give us OPTIONS

[DontBeAMoran]

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".