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Apple Confirms iPhone With Older Batteries Will Take Hits On Performance (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Reddit users have noticed that Apple appears to be slowing down old iPhones that have low-capacity batteries. While many iPhone users have experienced perceived slowdowns due to iOS updates over the years, it appears that there's now proof Apple is throttling processor speeds when a battery capacity deteriorates over time. Geekbench developer John Poole has mapped out performance for the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 over time, and has come to the conclusion that Apple's iOS 10.2.1 and 11.2.0 updates introduce this throttling for different devices. iOS 10.2.1 is particularly relevant, as this update was designed to reduce random shutdown issues for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S. Apple's fix appears to be throttling the CPU to prevent the phone from randomly shutting down. Geekbench reports that iOS 11.2.0 introduces similar throttling for low iPhone 7 low-capacity batteries.
When reached for comment, Apple basically confirmed the findings to The Verge, but disputes the assumed intention: "Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components. Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future."
When reached for comment, Apple basically confirmed the findings to The Verge, but disputes the assumed intention: "Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components. Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future."
Seems like Apple could have avoided some of this by making the battery a commodity item and easily replaceable.
Well for $79 or free with AppleCare+ we can fix it
If Apple is so concerned about the impact of old batteries, then why don't they make the batteries user-replaceable?
It's not like Apple hid what they were doing. This was all spelled out clearly in Apple's release notes: "Bug fixes and feature enhancements."
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
that they denied and lied about this all the way up until someone definitely proved it. What else that they're currently denying, or have been denying in the past, is not true?
I'm still on iOS9 on my 6S+. I'm not an uberbeard that waits for something to be in the wild for 5 years before beginning to adopt it. I had an iPhone 4. It worked well. No slowdowns, no battery problems. Apple released the iPhone 5, and my phone still worked well. I upgraded to the most recent iOS , and my battery which previously lasted for 2 days was barely staying alive for 6 hours, and everything was slow - even browsing the exact same sites I was before the upgrade. Maybe as a result of that, they decided to throttle the speed to spare old batteries as this article says, but the tinfoil hat in me says they made the old phones obsolete with the software update so that there's more reason to drop another $800 on the next phone. Either that or they were willfully ignorant to supporting the old phones.
The problem here isn’t that iOS throttles the CPU when your battery can no longer properly power the phone.
(This is a really nice feature, compared to, e.g., sudden shutdown when voltage drops too low to run the CPU at normal speed.)
The problem is that iOS doesn’t alert you about what’s happening. If it said something like, “Your battery needs to be replaced. Until it is, your phone will run with reduced speed. Stop being poor and buy AppleCare+” Then you would have the information you need to make an intelligent choice.
You have to suspect Apple doesn’t do this because if you don’t know what’s going on you’re likely to assume your phone is just old and needs to be replaced.
Buy a new iPhone!!!! Thanks!
Yours truly,
Apple shareholders
Are those devices performing without slowdowns when connected to a charger?
iPhone 6s release date, September 25, 2015. Barely two years old. I would prefer to swap the battery myself rather than purchase a newer model,
I am so tired of stuff like this. Especially with batteries.
With Android, for another example, it's the "I'm going to poll - oops, I mean accept pushes - less and less frequently if you aren't waving the phone around. Because battery." So if you want Gmail to beep at you when the boss or the wife emails, too bad - it will beep at you only when it's good and ready, because battery!
But I want you to perform, battery be danged! "I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that. I can't let you jeopardize the battery."
(Yes, I've twiddled every setting that supposedly will change this, and none of them do. I ended up having Gmail forward certain emails to my carrier's email to text service. Because texts are important, ya know, so you always get those.)
I have tested this with the Battery Live app on my three years old iPhone 6: My battery has degraded by 3% now. And accordingly I have not noticed any slow-down or diminishing of battery live on my iPhone. So I now understand why I was so perplexed by people complaining about slow-downs: Their batteries may have degraded much more for some reason and so they had good reasons to be angry. And I hadn't.
But if your old iPhone is still going strong otherwise and you would keep it for another year or two otherwise, spending $50 or $80 to have your battery replaced may be just worth it.
But not thinking about things is what gets people to buy apple stuff in the first place.
"We've now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future"
Should be
"We will slow down every previous iPhone when a new one releases"
But, Apple Rage!
That being said, access to an Apple Store or a certified Third Party, isn't always convent, compared buying a battery from Amazon and putting it in yourself. Also the cost of labor will make it that much more expensive to replace.
However not having a replaceable battery, and head phone jacks now are trademarks of so called "Premium" phones. But you know if Apple does have a user replaceable battery, then the critics will be all up in arms about the unsightly bulge, or gaps. Giving it a less premium fell...
Being that Apple hasn't had a mobile device with a handy user replaceable battery from the iPods. I doubt they will change anytime soon. No matter how much rage is on slashdot.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Personally I could but not everyone is willing or able to watch a youtube video, acquire specialty tools then make the repair. Thanks for your suggestion though.
Funny, I get updates on my Samsung Note 5 fairly regularly... Last update was November 28th, and prior to that was November 1st. This is for a 3 year old phone. Battery still gets me through the entire day, too!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Awesome. You want replaceable batteries? You can't handle replaceable batteries.
It's not *just* about battery age. It's age + operating temperature + momentary peaks in power usage.
The 6S in particular had a lot of issues where fairly new phones would just stop working at 20-30% battery when outside in the winter months.
So what is it? Beguinage, or perhaps monastery?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It doesn't matter if it's not convenient if you only have to do it every 2-3 years. Or never; every iPhone I kept for two years I never bothered to replace the battery. My wife tends to keep hers 4-6 (or longer) so she'll need a new battery at some point...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm using a OnePlus One, and hope to upgrade to a 5T one day when Resurrection Remix runs on it.
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They deliberately designed the system to degrade. Customers are being hurt by their actions. Lawyers can smell the money from a mile away.
(Really, Apple could have saved everyone a headache by creating the option to improve performance or save battery life, just like on Windows or Android.)
to get the most out of your iphone hook it up to a car battery
We found the android shill. Bashes Apple a couple posts up, then confronted with android hate and immediately makes excuses.
So it's ok to make excuses for samsung but not Apple? Shoe, meet foot. Have fun.
This is a good feature and makes a lot sense speaking as both a user and an engineer.
Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. There is no question about it. I'm afraid. ... Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a SIRI 9000 computer...'Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you...'
Siriously, as long as throttling is easy to turn off, I'm okay with it. Although, it would also be polite if a message warned the user about throttle mode with an option or link to instructions to turn it off (accepting shorter charge cycles). HAL is so rude.
Table-ized A.I.
my phone back to iOS 8 I encourage everyone to do the same, to saturate their service and give them a clear message to fuck off from the device that we purchased
This just goes to show how people's expectations and tolerances get more and more demanding (and forgetful) over time as technology improves.
Before Apple and others made this move to maximize battery space by removing the capability to user-replace, everyone complained about battery life.
Now, despite battery life being hours more than before, we forget how much benefit the capacity benefit has brought, and move on to the next complaint about how the battery isn't user replaceable and eats into performance when it gets old (mind you, performing and delivering usable hours far beyond what was possible before).
So users, which is it? Is this not the nightmare of technology developers, when people keep on demanding the next thing, and you no longer get acknowledgement / it's just table stakes for the achievements you've made so far.
If Samsung had put out a new battery that was user-swappable and 0.1mm smaller in all dimensions, it would have fixed the issue without having to recall the phones. Compensate the users $25 each for slight loss of capacity.
customers to easily change the battery.
Different model. They don't throttle the battery like some other iCompanies...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
"It just works..." It just works the way Apple tells it to. Oh you'd rather have a shorter battery life because you want the increased battery life? Tough shit, Apple already made that decision for you.
how well supported is the typical Android phone past the first year (let alone 2nd or 3rd)? How well do the batteries hold up in them?
I don't know what's typical, but I replaced the battery in mine in the middle of year three, and it's good as new.
As to support, that's an entirely different issue from batteries -- but here's my take: Some people (such as yourself) care a great deal about it, and they should select what they buy accordingly. Other people (such as myself) really couldn't care less, and they should select what they buy accordingly.
...waiting....
Samsung can make a premium phone with replaceable battery. Feels just as good as the iPhone. There is no excuse.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
So buy a battery from Amazon and put it in yourself.
Apple isn't stopping you.
The instructions are on iFixit. They'll even sell you a battery.
The batteries come with the tools. Step by step instructions here: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/i...
You can skip taking off the screen, so it's only 4 screws and a couple pieces of adhesive to pull. It's about as simple as anything inside a modern device gets.
And they'll fix that for free: https://www.apple.com/support/...
Apple could just make the battery of their phones removable; instead, they ask their customers to throw away half a day of their life in order to drive to an authorized extortion center and wait for hours for the battery to be replaced, while paying 89 € (plus 12,20 € of shipping fees) for the privilege of the experience.
$29.99, and under an hour of your time. You might even find tinkering with your device fun!
Not worth your time? Find a local phone repair shop and they'll do it for $50-60.
I have not purchased a phone since they became throw away's (sealed in battery)
I am not aware of a single phone with a sealed in battery, and if they exist they are most likely a very tiny portion of all phones. Changing the battery on an iPhone is as simple as buying one online, opening the phone and swaping it. True, you need a specific screwdriver to open the phone, but they bundle it with the battery, so this point is moot.
And don't complain about this voiding the warranty, there is no warranty anymore when you need a battery swap.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Changing a battery on an iPhone can be done for a price at the next Apple Store. And while you are tech savvy, you wouldn't believe the number of people that don't care.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Had the battery been user replaceable they wouldn't have had the issue at all, since the battery would have been in its own plastic case. Unless they managed to fuck the size of that up.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
It seems we know have official proof that Apple slow down our phones. But is it the same thing with Android phones? Does 3 years old android phones have the same/similar slowdown?
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