Apple Addresses Alleged Throttling of iPhones With Degraded Batteries

[I7guy]

The point is they can do no wrong. So long as it can be explained away, right or wrong they are never held accountable and users continue to be accepting of apples way ahead even if it means they have complete control over a device the user “thought” they owned.
If my device that I paid 1K for is gonna fail due to a depleted battery then let it fail. Its my bad, let me decide what to do. Don’t go messing around with my device via coding that acts not dissimilar to a virus that instigates irrational and poor performance. Its confusing for users that until last week didn’t know this was a thing and now because they have been called out “they”decide to let it all make sense.

The internet states there are 90 million Apple customers. Should all 90 million have your point of view. Is it okay that people have different opinions of things? I’m not convinced this explains 100% of things anyway as there is a user population not on iOS 11 that still “complains”.

 

[Aydy]

I've always suspected they did this. It has been going on for years. They need to cease and desist this business behavior. I will join a lawsuit if someone files.

Exactly. They say this practice only came into play in 2016...Puhlease! They actually think we are all velcroed up the back. Wonder how long the spin doctors sat thinking of that ole chestnut. The deceit and manipulation is tangible.

 

[Will0827]

I was in the upgrade every year camp from the 3gs to the 6 plus, have yet to upgrade my launch 6 plus and iOS 11 has been a not so pleasant experience to put it lightly, the irony is that whatever is being done is in the name of better user experience and the opposite is happening.

Speaking from my own experience i do less on my phone now then we i first got it and can say i fall on the side of those who have been saying their device(s) get worse after a year and upgrading to the newest iOS.

 

[spacemnspiff]

another bad analogy. I can just buy the correct gas and get my power back. Recharging my phone doesn't.

But to be clear, your OK with your iPhone running 20-50% slower after a year?

Also, your gasoline analogy is a poor one. Any of us can choose to put whatever octane is available into our vehicles. Or we can choose not to, and take the performance hit. Apple has denied consumers that choice..

Those statements are a failure at understanding the analogy, gasoline = battery health/capacity and not equal to state of charge. State of charge would be the amount of gasoline in the car and not the qualitative representation of the type of gasoline. Try again.

 

[Baymowe335]

Lol. My only 13-month old 6S is throttled to only 600 MHz according to CPU DasherX and archives less than half the Geekbench score it should.
These are expensive phones that should last longer.

I would not be complaining if this happened after two years AND there was a notification.

Why do you make it seem like we have to choose between random shutdowns and slowed performance after just a year (remember, some 7s are also affected now - a little more than a year old) when in fact we bought the phones not expecting any of this.

So you've run benchmarks and determined it's slow? You're biased now, but I'm curious if your real world performance has actually decreased meaningfully. Remember, benchmarks by definition but huge load on processing and WILL be throttled based on Apple's own statement.

Again, batteries of today aren't perfect and Apple at least addresses random shut downs which Samsung never did. The 6S is technically a 2+ year old phone, so perhaps the battery sat too long. See if you can get Apple to replace it?

My whole point was that Apple at least did something. The EXACT problem I had with my Note resulted in constant forced shut downs after battery was 50%.

 

[jeyf]

even if you replace the battery your old phone still runs at a reduced speed
i guess it depends how your holding the phone?

 

[I7guy]

Slow wins fine.

So what are your thoughts on the reasoning behind this?

Apple Engineers are incompetent in sizing your battery for your phone? So they have to throttle the cpu in a year or two?
Apple coders are incompetent and cant make code more efficient with new OS updates?

All the while not informing you and hiding this from the consumer (not ethical)

Either apple and samsung are both incompetent or battery design and longevity is an ever evolving art and constantly needs tweaking.

I bring up Samsung, because if you believe apple is incompetent, than Samsung is also.

It seems the power mgmt is a bit aggressive and maybe will be tweaked in the future.

But I don't believe either company is incompetent, but as the note 7 shows, things come up.

 

[lederermc]

The graphic showing the difference between IOS 10.2 and 10.2.1 have different scales... shame on Macrumors.

 

[jgdeschamps]

No

Apple is not acting ethically or in the best interest of its consumers.

A CPU is NOT a wear and tear item. Either Apple are poor engineers and cant factor in battery degradation into their design so now they have to throttle the CPUs

Or They want you to buy new phones.

There is no good way out of this.

In any case, them not informing you is not ethical.
What if manufacturers changed the resolution of your TV after you bought it?
What if they banks changed your fees without you knowing?

No no and NO. look up consumer law, this is NOT okay.

To an extent I agree with you, that's why I wrote "The real bad thing about all of this: it's not part of Apple's policies to suggest you perform a battery change as last resort to fix your device slowdowns."

But we are not talking about a CPU, and the issue is not its wear and tear. It's the battery's.

Supporting your post and in line with what I posted, if someone's usage regarding iPhones left the device with slowdowns in less than a year, then they should do either of these options: A) revise your charging habits and/or installed software; B) change brands, especially now that you know how they handle parts of their maintenance policies, but will you? I won't because I haven't seen this problem myself, and I've never really had to use Apple's warranties either; C) let them know what you think via their feedback page and ask them to change their policies if they want to keep you as a customer (my preferred choice); or last resource D) sue them if they really caused a physical, economical or psychological damage to you.

What do you think? I think some users around here won't even do C, but they love the attention (not talking about you, by the way.)

 

[KingslayerG5]

Planned obsolescence is real and Apple gladly admitted it because they were caught doing it. People ridiculed the Galaxy Note7 for burning up. Samsung was noble about it. That wasn't deliberate. This is.

Not cool, Apple.

 

[I7guy]

I honestly have to wonder if all the aplologists, defenders, whatever They’r called get their iPhones for free with conditions that they are infinitely available to douse any potential negativity online.

For the life of me I can not understand this need to defend being dumped on by big Corp.
Fool me once, shame on me..Twice, Three, four times..well, we know where this goes.

If you think you were dumped on, and I'm not being argumentative, there's a world of other phones out there. This frankly is not even an issue for me, personally, but everybody is entitled to their own opinions. And not only that, there is a certain group of folks, let's call them "critics", who can't understand why some people may not have an issue with this. What ever happened to live and let live?

Your dollars should be used to send a message to apple for those who feel that strongly.
[doublepost=1513875696][/doublepost]

Planned obsolescence is real and Apple gladly admitted it because they were caught doing it. People ridiculed the Galaxy Note7 for burning up. Samsung was noble about it. That wasn't deliberate. This is.

Not cool, Apple.

It's still a meme.

 

[GeniusInspired]

Well Done APPLE !!
iPhone 6+

 

[akahmed]

My phone worked fine before I upgraded to iOS 11. After upgrading I started noticing performance issues and they continue. This is the second time this has happened. Last time i upgraded to 6S because of performance.

 

[Blaze4G]

That’s correct if the choice is a slightly slower phone or dead phone.. slow wins.

That's correct, if the choice is an unusable phone all the time or a dead phone sometimes...dead phone wins.

 

[Leomon84]

Either apple and samsung are both incompetent or battery design and longevity is an ever evolving art and constantly needs tweaking.

I bring up Samsung, because if you believe apple is incompetent, than Samsung is also.

It seems the power mgmt is a bit aggressive and maybe will be tweaked in the future.

But I don't believe either company is incompetent, but as the note 7 shows, things come up.

Sure they could be both incompetent, no manufacturer is immune to battery issues as usages vary widely between consumers.

End of the day, Apple instead of admitting fault they did something technically illegal. Modifying a purchased product without the consumers knowledge.

There is no positive light you can shine on Apple
They are either

Incompetent
or
Unethical

or even both...

 

[I7guy]

That's correct, if the choice is an unusable phone all the time or a dead phone sometimes...dead phone wins.

That's correct. If the choice is a dead phone or a slow phone. Slow wins. Unusable is subjective. Dead phone is not.

 

[dkh587]

I was in the upgrade every year camp from the 3gs to the 6 plus, have yet to upgrade my launch 6 plus and iOS 11 has been a not so pleasant experience to put it lightly, the irony is that whatever is being done is in the name of better user experience and the opposite is happening.

Speaking from my own experience i do less on my phone now then we i first got it and can say i fall on the side of those who have been saying their device(s) get worse after a year and upgrading to the newest iOS.

I have a 6 plus. It's not the same 6+ I originally bought, but I did not update past 10.3.3

I didn't upgrade because I feared what you are reporting has happened to your device. I'm not going to update to iOS 11. Ill just wait on iOS 11 when/if I get an 8+ or an X

This is the first time since the 4 I haven't rushed to upgrade. I'm just not feeling Apple these days.. but it's hard for me to leave the ecosystem

 

[marioman38]

I would rather have my phone slow down 20% than have it shut down unexpectedly, or not have the battery last all day. This is getting blown way out of proportion.

 

[Blaze4G]

And I stand by my original comments on this matter. There is/was a specific reason behind it. Same behind why laptops slow down while running off a battery vs wall plug. Extremely overblown topic.

Ah I don't know what type of laptop you have, but on Windows you can set power profiles. You can have the same power profile when the laptop is on battery or plugged it. Hence, it runs the exact same.

 

[I7guy]

Sure they could be both incompetent, no manufacturer is immune to battery issues as usages vary widely between consumers.

End of the day, Apple instead of admitting fault they did something technically illegal. Modifying a purchased product without the consumers knowledge.

There is no positive light you can shine on Apple
They are either

Incompetent
or
Unethical

or even both...

Well that is where we disagree. I believe they have every right to update power management, go through the eula and other stuff available online.

You of course can start a class action lawsuit, or be part of one, which I'm sure is being formulated at this very minute.

I think apple did the right thing, imo.

You can have any opinion you want.

This is mine.

 

[autofree]

I have a 7 and recently noticed some slowness with apps loading and lag in apps that was never there before. It was bugging the heck out of me and I even reinstalled iOS several times. Now I know why.

I love Apple but can't understand their reasoning behind this. A slower phone is not a better experience.

 

[nia820]

Exactly. They say this practice only came into play in 2016...Puhlease! They actually think we are all velcroed up the back. Wonder how long the spin doctors sat thinking of that ole chestnut. The deceit and manipulation is tangible.

Apple is peeing on us and telling us it’s raining. They think we’re that stupid.

 

[curtvaughan]

As a slightly tangential question: In the old days, when user removable/replaceable batteries were ubiquitous in both laptops and phones, one could simply remove the battery and the device would boot up and work as long as it was plugged into an AC source. This actually helped battery life by removing them from high heat levels when not being used. I often did this with both Apple MBP and PC laptops when their batteries were user removable. The earlier Core Duo MBPs tended to run fairly hot, so this was a common thing to do in an office environment when the machine was plugged in for several hours. This made it obvious that the machines could run just fine on AC with the batteries removed. My LG V20 will continue to run if it has booted up while the battery is installed, and then the battery is removed (while phone is plugged in). If the battery is removed prior to the boot sequence, it will not start up even though plugged in. There is some sort of step in the boot process which checks that the battery is present before proceeding. So the phone is not usable without the battery being present at boot time, plugged in or not. In the case of newer laptops and phones with non-user replaceable batteries, I wonder if the systems are smart enough to work independently of the battery when the devices are plugged in and the battery is fully charged. My guess would be no, and that the software just trickle charges the battery continuously. Might this have an effect on battery degradation over time? Not only is the non-removable battery subject to continuous heat while the device is plugged in, but the constant trickle charging/discharging would appear to accelerate degradation. I seem to recall that my early flip phones (not so smart) could run totally independent of the battery when plugged in and the battery removed.

Anyone know, with regard to current Apple laptops and iOS devices?

 

[Leomon84]

I would rather have my phone slow down 20% than have it shut down unexpectedly, or not have the battery last all day. This is getting blown way out of proportion.

So its okay to you that instead of admitting fault that Apple undersized their batteries they modify your product without u knowing?

Would you be okay if they modified your engine for reduced outputs because they know it overheats but they don't tell you? And dont issue a recall??

 

[cale508]

Geez, some people here blindly and blatantly defend Apple like they get paid by Apple to defend them no matter what.