Apple admits they deliberately slow down old iPhones

[Manic!]

You're not crazy. Apple has been slowing down older iPhones.

https://twitter.com/i/moments/943591353891655685
https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-slow...attery-issues/

If you think your older iPhone seems to run slower, you're not crazy.

Apple on Wednesday said a software feature released last year makes your phone operate more slowly to offset problems with its aging lithium ion battery. As batteries get older, they don't hold their charges as well as newer batteries, and can have worse problems when the charge is low or the temperature is cold.

The aging battery means your phone could have trouble operating or might unexpectedly shut down, like happened to the iPhone 6 and 6S last year. The processors in those devices wanted to hit faster speeds, but their batteries couldn't handle the demand, prompting some phones to simply switch themselves off.

To address that, Apple's iOS software, starting with last year's iOS 10.2.1, included better power management capabilities, the company says. The operating system slows down your device to prevent it from shutting down, Apple says, but only in cases of cold temperature, a low battery charge or very old batteries.

Last year's software applied to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, 6S and 6S Plus and SE. This year's iOS 11.2 extended the feature to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. It will be applied to other Apple devices in the future.

Apple said in a statement:

"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."

The statement from Apple came in response to a report from earlier this week from Primate Labs, the company behind the Geekbench processor benchmarking software. John Poole, founder of the organization, said in a blog post that processors in iPhones slow down and decrease in performance as batteries age and lose capacity. Poole explained that users expect their phones to perform the same regardless of how old the battery is, but his tests indicated that wasn't the case.

iPhone users have long complained their devices seem to slow down when new models are released. Some have said they believe it to be effort by Apple (and other tech companies) to purposely hamper the performance in order to get users to buy new models. Apple has long denied this assertion.

For some people, the solution to a slower, older iPhone may be updating its battery instead of purchasing a brand new device. Apple charges $79 to replace the battery of an iPhone that's no longer covered by a warranty.

[Mr.HappySilp]

LOL on my IP6S I didn't update to the latest iOS and it runs fine smooth as butter while my ipad air got the update and now is slow as hell.

So no I will be holding off the update as long as I can.

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

dont get what the complaint is

either your device shuts down unexpectedly cuz the degraded battery can't handle the power load, or your device runs slower but doesn't unexpectedly shut down.

you should be replacing your battery every 2-3 years anyways. you can download a simple battery test app and see how degraded your battery is.

I believe anything beyond 80% capacity is considered "bad". in my experience most people hit that mark around the 2 year mark if the device is used everyday.

batteries only have about a 500 charge life cycle before the performance decreases exponentially.

[hi-revs]

Wonder if this applies to Samsung as well...

[Traum]

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

dont get what the complaint is

I know batteries wear out, and any typical consumer would be silly to not notice it.

For me personally, I'd much rather have my phone stay at the same snappy speeds instead of having the CPU throttled down on me. I can easily mitigate the crappier battery capacity by carrying a power pak or recharge the damn phone more frequently. And after the first couple of times of unexpected shut down, you pretty much know at roughly what battery percentage the phone might "unexpectedly" shut down anyway, so you just keep the battery charge beyond that.

But with an automatically CPU throttled scheme, I can't unthrottle the CPU, and everybody hates slow-responding phones. And don't forget that especially with iPhones, each successive iOS version already makes the phone massively slower. (OK, maybe not massively, but at least noticeably.)

[Spoon]

Blows my mind how Apple fans are actually accepting this as a good thing.

[underscore]

In other news, the sky is blue. Apple have always been screwing over users to try to force/trick them into buying new hardware. Remember when they artificially bloated the download of an update so that it was impossible to fit onto the smallest iphones?

[MelonBoy]

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

dont get what the complaint is

either your device shuts down unexpectedly cuz the degraded battery can't handle the power load, or your device runs slower but doesn't unexpectedly shut down.

you should be replacing your battery every 2-3 years anyways. you can download a simple battery test app and see how degraded your battery is.

I believe anything beyond 80% capacity is considered "bad". in my experience most people hit that mark around the 2 year mark if the device is used everyday.

batteries only have about a 500 charge life cycle before the performance decreases exponentially.

It wouldnt be bad if its a bit slower.. but its ridiculously slower.
My apps/pages take 10-15seconds to load at times, occasionally my phone will brick up and ill have it leave it for a min or 2 before it all the actions can "catch",and it down right just crashes my phone sometimes. This is with a new 7. It was worse on my 5 and from what i hear on the 6 too

Originally Posted by Spoon

Blows my mind how Apple fans are actually accepting this as a good thing.

Only the retarded ones are

[iwantaskyline]

Originally Posted by hi-revs

Wonder if this applies to Samsung as well...

It applies to any computer device that uses lithium batteries...I don't understand what the fuss is about, anyone with decent technical knowledge understands how an aging battery affects performance.

When I was using a Note 3, the battery lasted 4 hours after 1.5 years of use and yes even without an update it got terribly slow.

The risk of "go full performance at cost of battery life" is a battery puffing up and going full Note 7.

It's a result of compromises in battery tech, specifically Li-Ion. The main cost-effective, high capacity batteries we have today are Li-Ion and LiPo. LiPo has a high discharge rate but low cycle count whereas Li-Ion has a relatively low discharge rate but a much higher cycle count. With a new battery this lower discharge rate is more than sufficient for a phone, but when the battery ages combined with poor cooling, and more and more power hungry apps (snapchat's filters come to mind).

Anyways if you have 6 or 6s take advantage of this program Apple is doing...

https://www.apple.com/support/iphone...ectedshutdown/

I got a free battery on my old 6S.

[ilovebacon]

I thought everyone knew about this..

[ScizzMoney]

Thing is a lot of people are saying they're not doing it just for the battery, they're doing it partially because of battery and partially to slow down old phones. Who knows, people will believe what they want.

That said, if you have a brand new iPhone 5 still in its original wrapping, will it be slowed down right off the hop even though the battery has never been charged / drained? (reason is I have a family member with one kicking around as their backup for when theirs dies)

[bigzz786786]

I can understand throttling the cpu in a 2 year update. But this is every year! I personally don't own an iphone but the rest of my entire family sticks to it. From what i can tell, throttling happens to both ios and android for the same reasons mentioned above; lithium batteries can't sustain the same level of consumption over a period of time.

Another thing to consider is that ios requires more battery consumption to run snappy than an android does, which is why people with a 2 year old android dont suffer as much as an ios user.

Honestly its not that big of a deal, replacing the battery in an iphone is super easy. HOWEVER!!!! I've replaced batteries from a lot of my family and friends iphones and they STILL suffer slower performance when updating to the ios after their phone's initial software version. Granted, not as badly as they did with an old battery.

Iphone is just blanketing their statement to cover their ass. Which is what every company does. It's just business.

[twitchyzero]

it's crazy there are many people defending it

think about it: removable batteries used to be a thing
they took that away so the life of the phone is now limited to the finite cycles of the cells

they offered replacement battery service, but once they do, the waterproof seal is no good so you're losing out on a feature.

and now they want to throttle your device because of 'aging' battery? What level do they consider aged? 90%?

I want to have the option of having my phone run nearly as fast as it was brand new, and for the hardware to scale for the tasks without compromises. I can live with a slightly shorter battery life, esp now with wireless charging becoming more prelevant and with wifi charging probably not too far out, battery life is becoming less and less of a concern. If an app or operating system shuts down unexpectedly because of older battery, that should be addressed from a software perspective. Imagine buying a car, and they limit how fast you go once your tire or gas runs close to replacement/empty (they probably already do this for electric cars), how would you feel about the company controlling what you do with the hardware you own? You can void my warranty but don't limit my options.

Unless an aged battery poses a serious safety concern, this is a BS move and Apple should be condemned for it. Guess I won't be updating my iPhone X after 2019, I mean I kinda already expecting for them to pull this move but now it's finally out in the open.

[asian_XL]

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

dont get what the complaint is

either your device shuts down unexpectedly cuz the degraded battery can't handle the power load, or your device runs slower but doesn't unexpectedly shut down.

you should be replacing your battery every 2-3 years anyways. you can download a simple battery test app and see how degraded your battery is.

I believe anything beyond 80% capacity is considered "bad". in my experience most people hit that mark around the 2 year mark if the device is used everyday.

batteries only have about a 500 charge life cycle before the performance decreases exponentially.

Originally Posted by hi-revs

Wonder if this applies to Samsung as well...

I still have my Samsung Note 2 with brand new aftermarket battery, and I did several tests before. It was fully charged at 8:00am and I leave it on my desk.

When it has the latest Samsung firmware 4.4.2, the battery only last for 9hrs before it goes completely dead. Nothing was installed, only whatsapp, google apps, Bluetooth and Wifi.

If I flash it to the original 4.1.2 firmware, it can last for 20hrs.
If I flash it to Lineage 14.1 + aftermarket kernel, it lasts for 2 days.

sure the battery will go bad after 2-3 years, I would definitely flash to a clean aftermarket rom and replace the battery.

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

Originally Posted by Traum

I know batteries wear out, and any typical consumer would be silly to not notice it.

For me personally, I'd much rather have my phone stay at the same snappy speeds instead of having the CPU throttled down on me. I can easily mitigate the crappier battery capacity by carrying a power pak or recharge the damn phone more frequently. And after the first couple of times of unexpected shut down, you pretty much know at roughly what battery percentage the phone might "unexpectedly" shut down anyway, so you just keep the battery charge beyond that.

But with an automatically CPU throttled scheme, I can't unthrottle the CPU, and everybody hates slow-responding phones. And don't forget that especially with iPhones, each successive iOS version already makes the phone massively slower. (OK, maybe not massively, but at least noticeably.)

you know when your phone goes to like 50% or 30% or 20% or whatever, and just unexpectedly shuts down?

that's what will happen, not your assumed "snappy speeds". the battery literally cannot handle those snappy speeds cuz it's degraded. not that it just doesn't hold a much as a charge. it literally cannot handle the power demands and just shut down.

lol your little plan of doing your battery pack thing and memorizing when the battery level will shut down isnt shared by all the super casual technology dumb people that won't care to learn or want to plan what you have done. they just want a phone that works.

[Traum]

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

lol your little plan of doing your battery pack thing and memorizing when the battery level will shut down isnt shared by all the super casual technology dumb people that won't care to learn or want to plan what you have done. they just want a phone that works.

Not sure what you're trying to get at here. When it comes to phones, I kind of consider myself just another dumb user who wants a phone that just works. But when the phone "just shuts down" -- it has happened to me a couple of times -- at 20% or 30% or 40% whatever, and it never does it as long as I keep the battery level above 50%, I know I'm gonna try and keep the charge above 50%. It isn't some little plan or special memorizing; it's just typical human adaptation to make things work.

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

think about it: removable batteries used to be a thing
they took that away so the life of the phone is now limited to the finite cycles of the cells

^^ this

I know I can attempt a DIY battery replacement, or pay some mobile phone "repair shop" to do the battery replacement for me. But it seems to me that manufacturers are going out of their way to make the battery replacement extra difficult. Especially with high end phones being $800+ (or easily $1k+ for the Note 8 / Pixel 2XL / iPhone X etc.), it boggles my mind that people are OK with being forced to literally replace the phone simply because the battery doesn't cut it anymore. It's like being forced into replacing the whole damn car just because the OEM tires are worn out.

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

that's what will happen, not your assumed "snappy speeds". the battery literally cannot handle those snappy speeds cuz it's degraded. not that it just doesn't hold a much as a charge. it literally cannot handle the power demands and just shut down.

i'm not going to claim that I know how to design phones

but wouldn't it make more sense to limit the amount of background processes running or just shut you out of resource-intensive apps with a warning that you do not meet the min. requirement? instead of making you crawl 10 seconds just opening up Safari? That's basically how it felt when I was trying to use an iPhone 4 two years ago.

I mean if trying to sell you new phones wasn't their #1 priority

I don't know, I've seen many interesting things Apple try to pass off previously that I just scoff at, but this recent revelation just rubs me the wrong way

[underscore]

At $800+ for a phone, if they're only going to last ~2 years before the mfr nukes it then you're going through $400+/yr just in hardware. For a phone that can barely do sweet fuck all. I'll stick to my cheap phones and spend the difference on a computer which is actually capable of doing things.

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

lol your little plan of doing your battery pack thing and memorizing when the battery level will shut down isnt shared by all the super casual technology dumb people that won't care to learn or want to plan what you have done. they just want a phone that works.

I'll take a phone with an out of calibration battery level indication that *might* not work over a phone that *will* not work, and I'm guessing most people would agree.

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by Ulic Qel-Droma

dont get what the complaint is

I can think of a few

1) They aren't telling people that their 2 year old phone is being downgraded

2) They don't give users the option of maintaining high performance on the phone they purchased. I know I'd rather run my phone into the ground than have it run like a 5 year old piece of shit

3) They don't give users the option of not upgrading the OS

4) Batteries aren't easily replaceable

Basically this is a stealth downgrade of something people are paying a LOT of money for, only a couple years ago. No information, no choices, nothing. It's ridiculous.

As expected, there's a lawsuit forming, and I would be amazed if Apple doesn't lose it or settle. Here's hoping their customers get a good deal out of it.

[MSREE]

I hate Apple for this reason.....or any phone that doesn't have removable battery. Bf kept updating my IPad Mini and now the POS lags like crazy, cuts in and out of wifi and the touch calibration is messed up. The last update he did also makes my Ipad go on mute??? And I cant change it using the buttons or app volume....I have to turn it on and off a few times just so it works. He ended up buying me a used older regular IPad that's hasn't been updated and it works perfectly. I think it's the last model that uses the wider charging plug just before the lightning plug came out. Only downside is volume is not as loud as my iPad mini.

I never update any of my Apple stuff cuz I'm convinced it's how Apple is keeping consumers in the market. Ive never had any issues with any products when I dodge the updates.
Why would we keep buying new versions of shit if the models we buy can last 10 years?

I had an IPhone 5S for work that was only 2 years old and it did the random shut down thing and it would heat up...I made an appt with Apple and they do battery diagnostic or w/e and all they do is try to get you to buy another 5S or upgrade lol. I asked if they could just change the battery and they said nope not an option.
My bf previously had an LG Keybo for 10 years and it never gave him problems. I gave him my personal 5S that I've had since 2014 and it's already shut down on him 3-4 times since last year.

At the cost of Apple products personally I don't find it worth it. It's just going to fuck up after a couple years anyway when they release new models.

[bcrdukes]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

[Manic!]

I wonder if this is only for devices running on battery. What about apple devices plugged in running in kiosks and photo booths?

[jnesss]

in order to qualify for the $79 battery replacement, apple will run a battery diagnostic on your iphone and it must fail. mine wouldn’t fail. long story short, i had another issue and in the end, they gave me a new 6+ for $200, so i’m happy. (out of warranty too!)

with regards to ios updates slowing down the iphones, i’ve notuced it happening since the 4S got the multitask feature. since then, i never update my ios.

[Hondaracer]

what technology isnt slow after 3 years of use? unless youre buying high end shit, a sub $1000 laptop, pc, tablet, etc. will all be substantially slower after 3 years

Personally ive never had a problem with apple slowing devices because im always in an upgrade cycle every 2 years or so, but to expect an iphone 5 to work very well when we are into 8/X territory is a little much imo..

Blanket IOS updates wouldnt be possible and the people with the 5 would probably be bitching that they are losing out on the functionality of the new IOS if they werent part of the update

[ScizzMoney]

^
My NES loads up Contra just as fast as it did when I was a kid.