Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[TiggrToo]

Bottom line for me is that the issue Apple describe is exactly why I left Android and went Apple. Both mine and my wife's Nexus 6's would randomly power off with 50% or more battery the moment we would fire up something like Waze.

The system instability and total loss of confidence that resulted is the reason went we both are now iPhone 7Plus owners.

Folk whine how they'd like the choice - from experience I can tell you the alternative stinks to high heaven and back. I'd much rather a slower 2 year old device that runs the entire day to one that bombs out at 4pm just because I want to check traffic.

 

[chatin]

I received a replacement iPhone 7 in October (thanks Apple) and it seemed to be operating a bit slower than the one I got new a year earlier. At the time, I thought nothing of it because the reconditioned one worked fine.

 

[Phonephreak]

If you consider emissions that affect our health and power mgmt to be identical your sense of an equivalent analogy is a wee bit off.

Apple never guaranteed a cpu would run at x-speed, 100% of the time in every condition. If you believe you have that, let’s see it. In fact Apple doesn’t even Quote absolute cpu speed on its website.

Imagine buying that same 300 hp petrol car and on a trip your radiator cracks.
You have 10 miles to the next exit and your car gives you a choice:
A. 2 miles at full hp or,
B. Unlimited miles at 25% hp.

This is more of an apt analogy.

It’s more like 50 miles full hp. Your scenario is very one side. 2 mile/unlimited. Makes your scenario the better choice

 

[Act3]

Shouldn’t have to visit a store to figure a battery life out

agreed , but to have Apple fix it, they will test it first regardless what you figured out at home. And then decide whether it is unhealthy enough for them to replace it.

 

[halfapie]

I think this has been happening to the plus models too right? So bigger batteries wouldn't solve it?

It would require a battery that can put out a higher watt (current and voltage). Higher capacity would not solve the problem if that capacity cannot be pulled quickly all at once.

 

[1rottenapple]

If you consider emissions that affect our health and power mgmt to be identical your sense of an equivalent analogy is a wee bit off.

Apple never guaranteed a cpu would run at x-speed, 100% of the time in every condition. If you believe you have that, let’s see it. In fact Apple doesn’t even Quote absolute cpu speed on its website.

Imagine buying that same 300 hp petrol car and on a trip your radiator cracks.
You have 10 miles to the next exit and your car gives you a choice:
A. 2 miles at full hp or,
B. Unlimited miles at 25% hp.

This is more of an apt analogy.

The problem is the 300hp will hold for 7-8 years and will not degrade significantly until that time period. One year is REDICULOUS. Hiding this courageous feature is Cowardly.

 

[scaramoosh]

They all do this

 

[jasonsmith_88]

How about stop throttling my device down below half of the speed it's supposed to run?

The throttling prevents unexpected shutdowns on a degraded battery. If the battery isn't degraded, it isn't throttled. Did you even read the article?

 

[Abazigal]

No matter how much you slice and dice this, the reason Apple did not disclose this, or add a toggle switch with a full explanation (even if its implemented automatically) is to encourage users to buy a new iPhone.

The technical reasons are believable but the method reveals the motive and hence proves Apple is dishonest.

This is another nonsense “scandal” that the nerdosphere is trying to make into a big deal because it’s Apple. Apple is not trying to force you to upgrade; they’re trying to make your battery more usable and reliable so that your older device can keep functioning. Apple cares about user experience more than they care about you upgrading your phone every year. If your user experience is that your battery unexpectedly shuts down because it can’t keep up anymore, you’re never going to upgrade anyway--you’ll just get angry and switch to something else.

And no, a toggle doesn’t make sense, not when the consequence is your phone shutting down at random. This is precisely the sort of decision not to leave in the hands of the individual consumer.

 

[1rottenapple]

Now I feel much better leasing my iphone each year from T-Mobile. A new iphone every year, i won’t have to experience any of this shenanigans.

And Apple loves you for adding to their bottom line. Lol I really need to stop buying an iPhone each year.

 

[gijoeinla]

The comments for this story should be good. There is going to be lots of rage for something that actually seems logical. All batteries degrade at some point. So you can't expect hardware that relies on the power from that battery to still function the same.

Not to mention that many of the cryers are most likely the same people that demand kick and scream for more features more dark modes more more more and the ONLY way as the iOS gets more complex up goes the load on the processor and why would anyone think that slower cores would not put more pressure on their batteries. duh.

Funny. Of course it may not happen on droids most are never upgraded period.

 

[1rottenapple]

Shouldn’t have to visit a store to figure a battery life out

I know I HATE going to the Apple store for service these days. I mean they’re nice and all but I don’t want to spend my weekends for this ****.

 

[Tubamajuba]

The problem is the 300hp will hold for 7-8 years and will not degrade significantly until that time period. One year is REDICULOUS. Hiding this courageous feature is Cowardly.

Much more courageous to just let the processor draw too much power and shut the phone down.

I also question the comparison between a car engine and a phone battery. Cars would be absolutely terrible if they had the longevity and reliability of phone batteries.

The throttling prevents unexpected shutdowns on a degraded battery. If the battery isn't degraded, it isn't throttled. Did you even read the article?

Doesn't matter. Apple should just magically have battery technology that nobody has yet and make these problems go away.

All that said, I do think there needs to be a notification that lets you know if your battery is causing the performance of your phone to degrade. People should be made aware of this so they can get it fixed.

 

[jasonsmith_88]

The problem is the 300hp will hold for 7-8 years and will not degrade significantly until that time period. One year is REDICULOUS. Hiding this courageous feature is Cowardly.

No, what's "ridiculous" is people like you who don't know anything about battery technology blaming Apple for battery degradation. All batteries degrade with time and cycles. If you're unhappy with the number of cycles current battery technology can provide, please, go ahead and invent a better technology. We're waiting.

 

[Act3]

And no, a toggle doesn’t make sense, not when the consequence is your phone shutting down at random. This is precisely the sort of decision not to leave in the hands of the individual consumer.

Why not? The choice to drive an automobile until it rolls to a stop dead on a busy highway, out of gas, is left to the consumer. Which is more dangerous?

 

[Ladybug]

Coverup pure and simple. No matter how much lipstick you put on this pig, it's still not a steak.

So they admitted what they are doing, but if it was only the 6/6s that was sold with defective batteries, then why throttle the 7/8/X then... This is not a feature and no one told me up front before buying a new phone that this might happen or I would have stuck with my 6s or looked at another brand.

My 8 is at 11.2 ATM and with the tvOS profile I plan to keep it there. Apple needs to notify users and allow battery replacements.

 

[Mal Blackadder]

Wasn’t there a thread like a month or two ago which people vehemently denied such a thing?

Yep there was . https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...cording-to-benchmark-analysis.2075795/page-22 . They have egg on their face now that Apple have actually admitted the phones are slowed down.

 

[Octopuss]

"Apple don't do anything to prolong their iphones life. They may reduce performance slightly to stretch iphones lifecycle. Instead they just let iphones' batteries die and they make us buying new iphones. Bad Apple!"

"Apple is trying to stretch iphones' lifecycle by reducing performance slightly for degrading batteries. They just want as to buy new iphones. Bad Apple!"

 

[Act3]

Coverup pure and simple. No matter how much lipstick you put on this pig, it's still not a steak.

So they admitted what they are doing, but if it was only the 6/6s that was sold with defective batteries, then why throttle the 7/8/X then... This is not a feature and no one told me up front before buying a new phone that this might happen or I would have stuck with my 6s or looked at another brand.

My 8 is at 11.2 ATM and with the tvOS profile I plan to keep it there. Apple needs to notify users and allow battery replacements.

The latter half of this article sums it up nicely....

"However, the company isn’t doing itself very many favors by being a bit opaque. It’s clear that controversies like this — underpinned by conspiracy theories around planned obsolescence — sprout up because there is a lack of communication between device manufacturers like Apple and consumers.

It’s also clear that Apple, which makes its devices hard to open and repair, could do a better job helping consumers understand the benefits of battery replacement. That’s something the company seems less inclined to do when it might mean forgoing the sale of a new iPhone every 12 to 24 months."

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/20/16800058/apple-iphone-slow-fix-battery-life-capacity

 

[I7guy]

Yep there was . https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...cording-to-benchmark-analysis.2075795/page-22 . They have egg on their face now that Apple have actually admitted the phones are slowed down.

"Apple isn't denying that iPhones with older batteries can sometimes see slower performance"

Not the same as what you wrote.

 

[C DM]

Why not? The choice to drive an automobile until it rolls to a stop dead on a busy highway, out of gas, is left to the consumer. Which is more dangerous?

To be fair it's somewhat different than that. It's not really when it rolls to a stop when you are out of fuel (which you can also keep an eye on), but with the engine just randomly stopping (and not starting again) just whenever basically, could be as you are on the freeway, could be just a minute after you started driving pulling onto the street, could be somewhere else random in the middle of something.

 

[Fran6cojL]

I honestly can't believe some people are defending apple.

They claim WORLD CLASS PROCESSING POWER while the phone is within the shelf life (1 year) but then the same phone they GLAMOUR is reduced to nothing.

Just so you can buy a new phone. F you apple.

 

[Act3]

Why the slowdown when connected to the charger?

same reason why the phone will not turn on for several minutes if you let the battery completely die. it runs completely off the battery regardless if connected to ac source or not. connecting to ac source just charges the battery.

 

[Dranix]

Folk whine how they'd like the choice - from experience I can tell you the alternative stinks to high heaven and back. I'd much rather a slower 2 year old device that runs the entire day to one that bombs out at 4pm just because I want to check traffic.

I would prefer a warning so I could replace the battery...

 

[Septembersrain]

I don't think it's sinister. It's like if you were running super low on gas, you would drive delicately and not slam the gas, in hopes of extending your mileage.

Well my gas gauge is obviously right in front of my face. Apple doesn't exactly make it easy to tell if my battery is going bad.

The manufacturer of my car also didn't tell me, after the fact, that my car could lose power randomly without explaining why.