Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[Aydy]

its equivalent to hacking or introducing a virus to your device that triggers poor performance when the battery reaches a certain threshold. It feels dirty, and is definitely underhand. No dressing that up.

 

[Zaft]

IPhone batteries are, in mAh compared to android devices, tiny. We were all told this was because of the great efficiencies of iOS. The wondrous symbiosis of software and hardware engineering.

Turns out this was all a load of crap.

Once again. Samsung s7 edge: 3000mAh. IPhone 8: 1700mAh.

Give it a year, that iPhone 8 will throttle.

S7 edge has a 5.5 inch screen. A better comparison would be the 8 Plus at around 2600.

Nonetheless, these batteries should not be degrading this fast anyway.

 

[Wildkraut]

What about MacBooks? My old MacBook runs very slowly for no good reason, unless OSX has become so bloated over they years. May be I just need a new battery...

Now there's a thought..

Could be, or thermal issues due to dust in air canals/fan blades. Does the fans spin up quickly?
Run Cinebench/Geekbench and check your benchmark results agains the result when it got released.

 

[Arty6]

So it seems that Apple rather have the phone slow down a bit than have it shut off completely.

Im not sure how I feel about this, I think Apple has to give a notification to the user. The user may just think he/she needs a new phone as apposed to just a new battery for $79 or free.

yeah, let's just replace people's worn out electronics for free. Because they should never wear out. EVER and they will never become obsolete. I'd rather have my phone just die than last longer under normal usage. A dead phone that lets me know the battery is getting old is much better than a phone that is working when I need it.

 

[Aydy]

This should be called what it is: BATTERYGATE

The “batterygate” hashtag is already doing the rounds on social.

 

[Arty6]

Translates to... We want you to buy a new iPhone...

I don't think you read the article.

 

[opfreak]

yeah, let's just replace people's worn out electronics for free. Because they should never wear out. EVER and they will never become obsolete. I'd rather have my phone just die than last longer under normal usage. A dead phone that lets me know the battery is getting old is much better than a phone that is working when I need it.

lets defend apple no matter what. Your year old phone 50% slower then new? Cost 1000 bucks. Sorry its all used up. But heres a new one for 1200.

 

[BigMcGuire]

High power draw, my azs! Typing a google search is a high power draw?! Effin ridiculous! I employ all the battery saving rigamarole that dumbs down the factory default “user experience” settings.

Also, my battery was replaced by Apple Store one year ago, degraded??? My azs...

Apple, buy this brick back from me, rebate me on a trade in or I’m moving on. What’s my motivation for staying? iTunes? More of the same in another year? Bische, please...

I'm still very convinced it is a batch of bad batteries that the 6s, 6s+, and the 7/7+ received. My wife's iPhone 6s+ was shutting off quite frequently below 60% and in any cold air while my 6s+ behaved fairly normally. When my wife's iPhone restarted, the battery % would show 8% after previously showing 60%. You'd pop it on a charger and it would go from 8% to 60% in minutes. Yet Apple claimed the battery was "green."

We have AppleCare+ and the phones were 1.3 years old.

What's pissing off people is that there is proof of a defective battery imo. Instead of fixing the problem and offering replacements, Apple slows down the CPU by as much as 50% to prevent the battery reboot problem. Customers are going to see this as willful ignorance and an attempt to get users to go to the latest version.

Current customers with the latest phones are going to be wondering if Apple is going to reduce the CPU of their phones by 50% whenever Apple feels like it.

This move, while probably very much hailed by the investors and board at the time saving tons of money over a massive overall battery recall, will end up hurting Apple's sales more than if they had just replaced batteries. Though one could argue that Apple's customers are loyal enough that it may not affect them that much. I know I'm one of those - Apple has treated me well over the many years and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. That said, my wife had a bad iPhone 6s+ battery (1.3 years old with AppleCare+) that Apple refused to replace and I lost $80 because of Apple's bad battery.

My wife and I both own iPhone 8+ phones and I'm fairly certain we'd still be on the 6s+ if my wife's 6s+ battery wasn't complete crap. Apple has always been liberal with AppleCare+ members. This was the first time they weren't with my wife's iPhone. They aren't helping customers like me stay with them when they do stuff like this with batteries.

That said, our 8+ is great, we're happy with it. But if this happens again, which I hope Apple learns from this and doesn't allow to happen again or does the right thing if it does happen again, but if it happens again, I won't be happy about it.

Till then I hope Apple realizes the outrage caused and doesn't do this again.

 

[Arty6]

That is not true. No other iPhone than the 6/6s had this issue. Also the 7 seems not to be affected. Sounds more like a rather specific technical issue with the batteries in these. But instead of fixing the hardware issue Apple chose to hide it with software by basically not delivering the promised specs. It sure sounds a lot like what Volkswagen did. You want to have a clean but also efficient car? Thats what they promised, turns out they choose efficiency over cleanliness. Later they "fixed" it with a software update reducing the efficiency. However thats not what they sold. Hence, the huge fine.

If Apple would have sold these iPhones as 800mHz chip phones and I bought it like that ok; however I paid them a lot of money for an almost 2GHz phone. Would you also find it ok if you pay $100/month for your DSL with advertised 50mbits and 100% availability but then the company tells you that they can only give you half of that if you want to keep the 100% availability? Obviously, you wouldn't get a discount because you bought the contract already...

You're not getting 800mHz speed. You see benchmark charts and think somehow you're getting screwed when you never really had an issue with the phone before you saw it.

 

[opfreak]

You're not getting 800mHz speed. You see benchmark charts and think somehow you're getting screwed when you never really had an issue with the phone before you saw it.

how do you know?.

Are you ok with buying a 2000mhz phone that can only run at 800mhz a year later?

 

[Abazigal]

lets defend apple no matter what. Your year old phone 50% slower then new? Cost 1000 bucks. Sorry its all used up. But heres a new one for 1200.

There’s a fine line between defending Apple no matter what and simply being a voice of reason in this entire maelstrom of hatred and vitriol.

 

[Aydy]

yeah, let's just replace people's worn out electronics for free. Because they should never wear out. EVER and they will never become obsolete. I'd rather have my phone just die than last longer under normal usage. A dead phone that lets me know the battery is getting old is much better than a phone that is working when I need it.

I remember when Samsung and all other android manufacturers let the user replace the battery at will just by clipping of the back cover. User replaceable batteries had infinite potential that Apple didn’t like as it meant folks would hold onto their expensive devices for longer.
Its both saddening & maddening that most android manufacturers have now cottoned on to Apples scheming greedy ways and are locking the battery down to force user upgrade.

 

[Arty6]

how do you know?.

Are you ok with buying a 2000mhz phone that can only run at 800mhz a year later?

It's not the case so its a moot point.

 

[BigMcGuire]

It's not the case so its a moot point.

It is, in the reddit thread users were having their CPUs sometimes halved until they replaced the battery.

 

[I7guy]

I'm still very convinced it is a batch of bad batteries that the 6s, 6s+, and the 7/7+ received. My wife's iPhone 6s+ was shutting off quite frequently below 60% and in any cold air while my 6s+ behaved fairly normally. When my wife's iPhone restarted, the battery % would show 8% after previously showing 60%. You'd pop it on a charger and it would go from 8% to 60% in minutes. Yet Apple claimed the battery was "green."

We have AppleCare+ and the phones were 1.3 years old.

What's pissing off people is that there is proof of a defective battery imo. Instead of fixing the problem and offering replacements, Apple slows down the CPU by as much as 50% to prevent the battery reboot problem. Customers are going to see this as willful ignorance and an attempt to get users to go to the latest version.

Current customers with the latest phones are going to be wondering if Apple is going to reduce the CPU of their phones by 50% whenever Apple feels like it.

This move, while probably very much hailed by the investors and board at the time saving tons of money over a massive overall battery recall, will end up hurting Apple's sales more than if they had just replaced batteries. Though one could argue that Apple's customers are loyal enough that it may not affect them that much. I know I'm one of those - Apple has treated me well over the many years and I don't see myself leaving anytime soon. That said, my wife had a bad iPhone 6s+ battery (1.3 years old with AppleCare+) that Apple refused to replace and I lost $80 because of Apple's bad battery.

My wife and I both own iPhone 8+ phones and I'm fairly certain we'd still be on the 6s+ if my wife's 6s+ battery wasn't complete crap. Apple has always been liberal with AppleCare+ members. This was the first time they weren't with my wife's iPhone. They aren't helping customers like me stay with them when they do stuff like this with batteries.

That said, our 8+ is great, we're happy with it. But if this happens again, which I hope Apple learns from this and doesn't allow to happen again or does the right thing if it does happen again, but if it happens again, I won't be happy about it.

Till then I hope Apple realizes the outrage caused and doesn't do this again.

I think there is more to this power management than a potential bad batch of batteries. I think the "cold weather" shutdown issue is also addressed.

What doesn't make sense to me are the alleged thresholds that are being used to reduce the cpu clock speed.

I have no issue at all with extending battery life or addressing the cold weather shutdown, but it almost seems the algorithm has to be tuned better.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I remember when Samsung and all other android manufacturers let the user replace the battery at will just by clipping of the back cover. User replaceable batteries had infinite potential that Apple didn’t like as it meant folks would hold onto their expensive devices for longer.
Its both saddening & maddening that most android manufacturers have now cottoned on to Apples scheming greedy ways and are locking the battery down to force user upgrade.

I really miss the days of buying a $9 Anker battery for my Note 3 ... and having a few laying around if I needed them Those were the good ole days.

 

[curtvaughan]

Your phone has an issue. My 7 year old iPhone 4 on iOS 7 doesn’t take 15 seconds to open the camera app. I have never had a phone including the iPhone 6 that takes more than a few blinks of the eye to open the camera app.

Your experience isn't universal. That your devices work well doesn't invalidate the experiences of others whose devices don't work well. If someone's "phone has an issue", and it is an Apple product, it is most likely an Apple issue.

 

[mmm1345]

I love how apologist act like this isn’t a big deal. Just replace your battery or buy new phone. I guess people are unreasonable to expect an $800 product to work perfectly for more than a yr. And apparently everyone who posts here is just rolling in money. I mean I do see a lot of "shut up and take my money..." posts. So I guess being “forced” to buy an $800 phone, soon $1k, every few yrs just because a company gimps your device is no big deal.

 

[Fugitivo8]

You're not getting 800mHz speed. You see benchmark charts and think somehow you're getting screwed when you never really had an issue with the phone before you saw it.

I call this BS, read my post a few comments above. What you are saying is completely BS, as I am sure you never had in your hands an iPhone 6 or 6S throttled.

 

[opfreak]

It's not the case so its a moot point.

It is. That's exactly what happens after too many charges your phone will no longer run at its rated speed.

 

[I7guy]

Your experience isn't universal. That your devices work well doesn't invalidate the experiences of others whose devices don't work well. If someone's "phone has an issue", and it is an Apple product, it is most likely an Apple issue.

Agreed, and by the same token, it doesn't mean that one device is not problematic and that symptom can solely be blamed on power management.

 

[opfreak]

There’s a fine line between defending Apple no matter what and simply being a voice of reason in this entire maelstrom of hatred and vitriol.

Please tell us what a reasoned response is.

Are you OK with phones no longer being able to run at full speed after a year? That's what this 'fix' does.

Please tell us how its reasonable to expect that your phones CPU will be limited by 25-50% a year after it was purchased. Whats a reasonable response to that?

 

[BigMcGuire]

I think there is more to this power management than a potential bad batch of batteries. I think the "cold weather" shutdown issue is also addressed.

What doesn't make sense to me are the alleged thresholds that are being used to reduce the cpu clock speed.

I have no issue at all with extending battery life or addressing the cold weather shutdown, but it almost seems the algorithm has to be tuned better.

Agreed. And Apple has treated me well so I'm not willing to jump on the pitchfork bandwagon to murder Apple. They aren't dumb - they had reasons for doing what they did.

I used to root my Android phones back in the day and we'd install ULV (ultra low volt kernels) on the phones and downclock the CPUs significantly to get better battery life. The amount of complexity was astounding and the benchmarks weren't always accurate -- also the kernels had a lot of code in them that would slowly raise the CPU frequency or more rapidly depending on what you wanted.

You're right - there is a lot we don't know. And just frothing at the mouth against Apple isn't the right answer imo.

"I have no issue at all with extending battery life or addressing the cold weather shutdown" - same. My wife never complained of a slow iPhone. Just complained about the bad battery.

 

[RainbowHurrican]

Love it! No matter how you spin it, Apple is downgrading performance of the phone over time. Now it is confirmed by Apple. Love the excuse though.

The stench is strong with that one.

Yep : BATTERYGATE

 

[opfreak]

Agreed. And Apple has treated me well so I'm not willing to jump on the pitchfork bandwagon to murder Apple. They aren't dumb - they had reasons for doing what they did.

I used to root my Android phones back in the day and we'd install ULV (ultra low volt kernels) on the phones and downclock the CPUs significantly to get better battery life. The amount of complexity was astounding and the benchmarks weren't always accurate -- also the kernels had a lot of code in them that would slowly raise the CPU frequency or more rapidly depending on what you wanted.

You're right - there is a lot we don't know. And just frothing at the mouth against Apple isn't the right answer imo.

"I have no issue at all with extending battery life or addressing the cold weather shutdown" - same. My wife never complained of a slow iPhone. Just complained about the bad battery.

So are you OK with a year old phone no longer able to run at full speed?