Unless you have been living under a rock during the past few weeks, you probably know by now that Apple have admitted throttling overall performance for phones that have an "old" battery.

After years of rumours, Apple has confirmed that it does indeed slow down older iPhones, a feature introduced last year to protect against problems caused by ageing batteries.

The feature was implemented on the iPhone 6, 6S and SE last year during a software update, and on the iPhone 7 as of December with the release of iOS 11.2. The feature is planned to be rolled out to newer devices in the future. [...]

The reason invoked by Apple is to prevent phones from shutting down completely when batteries don't have enough power.

The company explained that when a battery is in a poor condition it may not be able to supply the required maximum current demanded by the phone’s processor at full speed. If that happens, the iPhone can shut down unexpectedly to protect the internal components.

Where do you stand on the matter? Do you believe this makes sense from a technical standpoint? Or do you think it is an elaborate scheme to get people to buy new phones every couple of years? Vote and tell us what you think.

 

[codezer0]

Simple solution? Force apple to design their iphone with a replaceable battery. Lithium ion should not be in a sealed form, ever. We've seen enough of them exploding to prove how ridiculous it is.

 

[Foxi4]

Throttling the hardware for the sake of battery life is an absolutely ridiculous excuse - any cheapy phone store can replace them perfectly fine. This is just a thinly veiled con to sell new iPhones, it's disgusting and I don't understand how anyone could possibly agree that it "makes sense" - it doesn't. The statement simply confirms what we already knew - many iOS updates exist exclusively to make devices virtually unusable.

 

[elhobbs]

then they should put better batteries in their phones, not ones that degrade quickly...
considering the manufacturing costs there is more than enough room for it

given the volume and rate of manufacture of the devices that may not be an option.
I would not be surprised if Apple is conflating several issues - defective batteries, aging batteries, and possibly even unsafe conditions. The last point because the throttling is not optional and there is no notification either on the device or as a general policy.

 

[SANIC]

It's completely wrong. Just make the battery removable.

 

[wicksand420]

That sounds like apple, why not when you offer an inferior product at ridiculous prices

 

[dpad_5678]

No, its just because you are too busy trying to delete viruses from your beloved Android.

I have had Android devices for 6 years and never got a single virus. And I do some pretty weird shit.

Edit: meant since 2011

 

[pustal]

Do you think it is OK to throttle smartphone performance as the battery gets old?

It's debatably ok, but not OK as Apple is doing it:

a) On their first year, they are running the race for the fastest phone, allowing the CPU every boost it requires, and the batteries only degrade to a slow down point after all reviews of the phone are made;

b) Users have no control over it. Neither at the beginning nor when it slows down. The end user should have a say about what tradeoff foes he prefer;

c) Batteries aren't user replaceable, and Apple has kind of a monopoply on certified repairs. Most users will simply be compelled to buy a new phone.[/QUOTE]

 

[RedBlueGreen]

While I think that the slight throttling is better than your phone randomly cutting out at say, 36% battery life, I think that this should have been communicated better, or perhaps implemented a little differently. (For example, the phone could ask to enter Low Power Mode— or do so automatically— when the system thinks the battery might not be able to handle the workload. The user can see that the phone's under throttling, and turn it off if they don't care.)


As stated in the linked Guardian article: "The problem can be fixed by replacing the phone’s battery."

One thing to note: A third-party battery will address the throttling issue, but Apple has been known to flat-out refuse servicing iPhones with a third-party battery, regardless of what needs repairing. (This policy is not related to the throttling issue— I want to say it's to avoid issues with cheap third-party batteries that may be prone to exploding.)

It's so they can get out of repairing your devices. They want to be able to weasel out of it and force you to buy a new iPhone. I question whether a lot of third party batteries would even be worse than an Apple one (assuming you're not buying the cheapest and most generic Chinese battery you can find). I've had Android smartphones for yrars at a time and haven't had sort of problems even with years of gaming on them. I know even Android phones may have battery issues after a while but there's something to be said if Apple has to throttle phones to deal with "ageing batteries". Either their batteries are shit or they're just full of shit.

As someone who works in the mobile industry I’d say as manufacturer’s perspect, I’d do the same. It’s better have a slow working device than an unstable device. It’s not just about selling more newer devices, but lower down the customer service cost and maintaining reputation of a brand. You see lots of Android phones just give up on phone, but iPhones can last a lot longer due to lots of reason.

Some people just hate Apple, I didn’t say they are saint but they are not as evil as many Android companies than you think.

The iPhone 6 was realeased in late 2014. 3 years in and they're throttling it. They're throttling the 7 too. I used an Xperia Play from 2011 to 2015 and experienced no noticeable drop in battery life in that time. Summer 2015 until the end of Summer 2017 I used an Xperia Z3 and gamed on it a lot. Watched a lot of online videos and streaming among other battery intensive stuff. No noticeable drop in battery life. Either Apple is using incredibly shitty batteries or they're just bullshitting.

 

[GamerzHell9137]

I'm pretty sure that iPhone users don't care.

 

[Foxi4]

Anyone who says that this is justifiable fails to see the big picture. I test phones for a living and I can guarantee you that they record the number of discharge cycles, they have been for many years. That's not the trigger for throttling though - the actual health of the battery is irrelevant, Apple throttles certain models of phones. This is done deliberately to force people to upgrade. There is no legitimate reason for hardware not to work exactly the same as it did day 1, regardless of battery life, and I sincerely hope Apple gets slapped with a tsunami of class action lawsuits for screwing over their customers.

Edit: I stand corrected, battery state is a part of the equation, read on to find out more.

 

[_______]

There is a large difference between having a limp home mode or harsher battery conservation mode you can select as an option and display the results of prominently for those that want it, and having it as a hidden mode that can not be select and seemingly not as much as mentioning it in the manual.

If you let the user choose over anything, 10% of them might make the correct decision and use that feature when needed and turn it off to protect their devices for the rest, while 90% of them will just read some media and destroy their devices. And most of the time, non-pro users seem to think they are and knew better than those why have been trained years in EE/CS to have made those decisions.

If people were good at making right decisions, man, my work would be a LOT easier.

 

[Ryccardo]

Throttling the hardware for the sake of battery life is an absolutely ridiculous excuse

It's not "battery life" as in squeezing more minutes out of 100 to 0%, though - when a battery is low and/or worn out, the voltage drops more under load, and it may spontaneously power off (showing a still usable charge when turned back on), it's allegedly done to prevent this issue

The Lumia 950 also was made with crappy batteries having this same problem (but no artificial throttling), indeed random reboots when turning on the screen (and also the face scanner if it was enabled) are the norm until you replace the battery with a good one

Of course the fact this feature is mandatory and not mentioned anywhere is questionable, but the "feature" itself - not much

 

[guicrith]

If its a feature let the user disable it, simple enough.
Setting > General > Advanced > Underclock [ON/OFF]
Setting > General > Advanced > CPU Max Frequency [100mhz <-> Stock Speed]

It can even be on by default, just let people disable it.

That proves its fraud, its hidden, the user has no say, and its designed to make them more money.

 

[Foxi4]

It's not "battery life" as in squeezing more minutes out of 100 to 0%, though - when a battery is low and/or worn out, the voltage drops more under load, and it may spontaneously power off (showing a still usable charge when turned back on), it's allegedly done to prevent this issue

The Lumia 950 also was made with crappy batteries having this same problem (but no artificial throttling), indeed random reboots when turning on the screen (and also the face scanner if it was enabled) are the norm until you replace the battery with a good one

Of course the fact this feature is mandatory and not mentioned anywhere is questionable, but the "feature" itself - not much

Battery saving is already a feature of the iPhone - you can enable Low Battery mode that will gradually disable non-essential features as the battery drains. This isn't that - this is a deliberate attempt to make handsets seem outdated when they're perfectly fine. If you switch the battery in the phone, which you can do at any certified or non-certified store, you're still getting throttled - this has nothing to do with the battery and everything to do with crippling consumer hardware through malware integrated into the OS.

EDIT: I stand corrected, battery cycles are a part of the equation, follow the thread for more details.

 

[rileysrjay]

TBH I really think that they're throttling phones so people will get frustrated with their old phones and buy new iPhones. They are just using this whole battery thing as a copout. Glad to see they're getting sued over this as well.

 

[Foxi4]

If you let the user choose over anything, 10% of them might make the correct decision and use that feature when needed and turn it off to protect their devices for the rest, while 90% of them will just read some media and destroy their devices. And most of the time, non-pro users seem to think they are and knew better than those why have been trained years in EE/CS to have made those decisions.

If people were good at making right decisions, man, my work would be a LOT easier.

Since when is Apple in charge of their customer's phones? They can flush their iPhones down a toilet if they want to. Apple doesn't know the customer's priorities - maybe the customer is okay with their phone powering down because they *need* the processing power right away, even if the phone will die in 5 minutes as a result. It's not Apple's business to protect customers from themselves.

 

[Carnelian]

iPhone will die like Windows Phone...

 

[Deleted User]

I don't really care, my iPhone SE™ just works on 10.3.3.

 

[Deleted User]

>when you thought the rumors were true years ago when it took your old iphone 6mins to turn on then see this thread
lol
iphones suck

 

[Ryccardo]

If you switch the battery in the phone, which you can do at any certified or non-certified store, you're still getting throttled

Hasn't the opposite been claimed?