Apple Confirms iPhone With Older Batteries Will Take Hits On Performance (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday December 20, 2017 @08:40AM from the opaque-business-decisions dept.

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."

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Easily replaceable battery? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-12-20 08:43 · Score: 5, Insightful

Seems like Apple could have avoided some of this by making the battery a commodity item and easily replaceable.
1. Re: Easily replaceable battery? by MachineShedFred · 2017-12-20 10:53 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If it was "as quickly as possible" we wouldn't see further updates after a new model ships. And, by the way, that would still be better than some Android OEMs who ship with old software with known vulnerabilities and never update it.
  Bitching about Apple's support lifetime on their phones is going to ring hollow with anyone that is actually paying attention - they are far better than practically any one else.
  
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If Apple is so concerned by JohnFen · 2017-12-20 08:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

If Apple is so concerned about the impact of old batteries, then why don't they make the batteries user-replaceable?
Why are people complaining? by msauve · 2017-12-20 08:46 · Score: 4, Funny

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."

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"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
When connected to a charger by ark1 · 2017-12-20 08:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

Are those devices performing without slowdowns when connected to a charger?