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Apple Will Replace Old iPhone Batteries Regardless of Diagnostic Test Results (macrumors.com)
After apologizing to customers for slowing older iPhones down as the batteries degrade, Apple has started offering battery swaps for $29. This has led to some confusion as Apple did not clarify how it qualified batteries as eligible for the discounted replacement, as the Apple Genius Bar uses a diagnostic test to check whether a battery can retain 80 percent of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles. According to Mac Rumors, Apple has confirmed that they will replace the battery if your iPhone 6 or later even if it passes a Genius Bar diagnostic test. From the report: Apple has since independently confirmed to MacRumors that it will agree to replace an eligible battery for a $29 fee, regardless of whether an official diagnostic test shows that it is still able to retain less than 80 percent of its original capacity. The concession appears to have been made to mollify the anger of customers stoked by headlines suggesting that Apple artificially slows down older iPhones to drive customers to upgrade to newer models. Anecdotal reports also suggest that customers who paid $79 to have their battery replaced before the new pricing came into effect on Saturday, December 30, will receive a refund from Apple upon request.
Yes... I signed for the work order and pickup. It was mostly a push about Apple will not cover 3rd party parts or be responsible for any data loss and they may use new or "equivalent" parts. There's a lot of usual service language about warranty and claims and not being responsible for other stuff. I would guess there would be something enforceable about me paying and accepting a discounted battery as the resolution for any performance complaints. I'll take the $30 battery including the labor to install it. I spent more on a new battery for my Android phone and I had to take it apart myself to install it. I think Apple should have been more up front about reducing the CPU speed on old batteries to ensure phone stability and usability. Maybe they would have sold more replacements at full price if they were honest about the battery health vs. performance. My ThinkPad has a battery health tester so I know what's going on and it does not slow my CPU, it just runs for less time until I buy a new battery. Batteries are consumable but companies should not be doing sneaky things to hide the issues.
I do think it is not a bad idea to manage the old batteries the way they did it. My worn out iPhone 6 Plus (could keep 1/3 of the original charge) didn t suddenly shut down but yes it slowed down, and after battery replacement 2 weeks ago it works well again. Replacement took 2 hours, a reasonable small inconvenience after 4 years, really I prefer a slim phone with better water resistance over a battery lid.
The one thing where they messed up was communications, they should have been transparent about it from the beginning and most people would turn have found it reasonable.
Had my battery replaced on 12/17/2017. They announced this later than that, so I contacted Apple about a refund for the $50. Turns out they have a refund program if you had your battery replaced on or after the 14th of December. So, give them a call and they'll get your refund processed.
If it was my phone, I would still be mad. They built something with a design flaw
The "design flaw" is that batteries are batteries and electronic circuits take a minimum amount of power to run. In other words not a flaw, it's how the real universe works.
The fix they delivered ensured that your phone would not just simply die randomly if the battery was getting really old. Instead it would do it's best to stay on for you.
Phones that are not doing this are screwing you over, because ALL PHONES WORK THIS WAY since they all have electronics and batteries. You can certainly find other makers of phones that let you phone randomly crash as the battery ages - if your preference is random data loss by all means choose that option.
In the meantime Apple users now enjoy not only a sane battery management policy that keeps the phones alive longer, they also enjoy cheap battery replacement.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Today I took the iPhone 6s Plus in for a battery replacement. They must have damaged something so they gave me a brand new phone. They performed the test and asked some questions, had no problems (in Canada) $35 + tax
Yes, slowing down the system to conserve energy is a good thing, but only if minimal usability is preserved
Usability is preserved - the system is slightly slower, but the battery lasts longer than it would have otherwise, and you avoid mysterious crashes under load. Indeed this is the ONLY approach where usability is preserved, if you keep the processor at full speed with shorter battery life you ALSO have the side effect of random phone reboots well before the battery is actually out That is simply less usable.
the system warns the user that the consumable part needs to be replaced.
I totally agree Apple should have done that, and I guess so does Apple because it sounds like they are adding that feature. But you naturally get that signal to some extent simply through shorter battery life as the battery ages (software can only compensate so much and I'm sure they have some floor on processor slowdown that is practical or possible).
The upcoming battery diagnosis tools Apple plans to add to iOS sounds ideal; because it will let anyone judge at any time if they think the battery is degraded about to be worth replacing...
It's worth remembering that these are all issues that surface after about two years of use, before then the battery is usually performing pretty well the whole time.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley