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iOS 12.1 Extends Controversial Processor Throttling Feature To the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X (mashable.com)
With iOS 12.1, Apple introduced a bunch of new features like Group FaceTime and dozens of new emoji. But the company also elected to add a controversial new performance management feature to the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X. From a report: For the uninitiated, back in December 2017, Apple confirmed that it would sometimes slow down older iPhones through a software update in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The result was that certain models -- iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, 7, and 7 Plus -- would often perform poorly after being updated to the newest version of iOS. Users had long suspected Apple was throttling older iPhones, but it wasn't until Geekbench published an expose that the company publicly admitted it was, indeed, slowing down older iPhones -- albeit, for a good reason. Apple said in its explanation of the throttling issue that its goal was "to deliver the best experience for customers" and essentially argued the practice of throttling was a feature -- not a bug as it had been reported. Apple's solution was to give iPhone owners some extra control over the feature and offer a reduced cost for battery replacements.
Don't like it? Turn it off. If your battery is old and has trouble providing current, Apple gives you the choice between throttling or unexpected shutdowns. I'm not sure what more people could want them to do on this subject.
I'm not sure what more people could want them to do on this subject.
What people want is for Apple to be up front and transparent about this sort of "feature". Apple basically hid the fact they were doing this from everyone despite strong suspicions that something like it was happening. This makes it look (true or not) like Apple was up to something shady and/or coersive. Their explanation of trying to save the battery isn't implausible but by hiding the fact they were doing it it looks strongly like they were degrading performance to force upgrade sales. Had Apple been transparent about it from day one it would have been a non-issue.
personally - I'd like them to offer a phone that is maybe a few mills thicker but has swap-able batteries.
It's not just you but I think there is a better option because some people like the thinner phones and that's just as valid a viewpoint. What I think they should do is make an interface that you can attach a battery case (or other equipment) so that people who want a bigger battery can have it without the bulky kludge of doing a pass through off the lightning/usb port. Think about it for a second. Virtually everyone puts their phone in a case anyway. Why not make it easy for the case to be the mechanism to add hardware features like a bigger battery or a better camera or a headphone jack? Then people can customize the hardware to suit their particular preferences and Apple (or other smartphone makers) don't have to compromise on the core product design. Win/win and it's fairly cheap to do.
The battery in modern smartphones isn't soldered in. Not on iPhones, or Android or anything else. Glued maybe, but that's to save size and money, not to prevent people from being able to replace the battery. That's not at all iPhone specific though; every modern Android phone is in the same boat. Neither Samsung, Google, nor any others seem to offer user-replaceable batteries.
The market has spoken. People prefer thin light phones with bigger batteries over fat heavy ones with short battery lives that they can replace themselves.
- Vincit qui patitur.
I have an iPhone X, currently, and a Samsung J7 Prime.
I've had an iPhone for work, and an Android for personal use since the iPhone 3G, and the HTC G1 (the original).
So I'm really not a "fan" of either. I use both regularly.
The random shutdowns on my previous iPhone (6s) were very real, and pretty obviously related to some kind of poor battery handling on the iPhone's part. It randomly shut down at as high as 50% all the time if you did something that you'd imagine was CPU intensive, refused to turn back on until you plug it in, let it charge for 20 seconds, and boom. Starts right up with 60%.
I can also attest though, that no Android I've owned has ever done this.
That *also* being said, my Samsung laptop definitely did this when its battery got really bad.
I do believe they do this to handle their battery issue. I also however believe that it's a problem they've made themselves by either poor battery power statistics (not reporting that battery health at being like 5% when it should be), or poor quality batteries.