For some reason people consistently forget that battery technology is lagging well behind the development of processors, screens and cameras.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Being Sued for 'Purposefully Slowing Down Older iPhone Models' [Updated]
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
For some reason people consistently forget that battery technology is lagging well behind the development of processors, screens and cameras.
One is less than a grand vs one that is a much larger long term purchase. Exactly why they are vastly different. Also at least with cars you can easily purchase OEM parts to make repairs. Making it the norm for users to buy the next shiny Apple product is absolutely in Apple’s long term interest. They want users to be okay with treating their phone as a yearly disposable. Planned obsolescence is exactly what Apple needs.
Last edited:
eventually they won't be able to keep selling high volumes of iPhones every year, maybe by then they will have another product that will maintain their revenue as much as the iPhone does.
or sell them at a much lower price, like the 2017 iPad. I remember when desktops were a couple grand for a decent one, can be had for a fraction of that now.
Maybe you don’t see the implications of the revelation, such as worse resale value for older phones, or the possibility that Apples “transparency,” is a facade.
This isn’t about the systems they’ve put into their software. This is about corporate-to-consumer transparency. Sheesh.
Last edited by a moderator:
Also because it’s easier to design a phone without a user replaceable battery. Take the X, for example, where they’ve been able to both have two batteries and design them to fit in the way they want around the rest of the space in the phone.
When you have a user replaceable battery, the design has to go around that idea.
one of the best write ups I've come across on this situation, especially page 2 of the article.
http://www.eweek.com/mobile/apple-iphone-performance-throttling-results-in-class-action-lawsuit
http://www.eweek.com/mobile/apple-iphone-performance-throttling-results-in-class-action-lawsuit
Why would a the phone just shut down unless it was faulty or flawed? Sure it would run the battery down to ZERO faster, but that’s not the same as just shutting down.
Android devices don’t have this “feature” and they don’t just “shut down” after they’ve been regularly used for 1-2 years.
The random shut downs DID occur with iPhone 6s models, but it was proven due to a fault in hardware. This is why Apple replaces batteries on certain devices outside of warranty still.
old phones, Apple is trying to protect you and all they get is lawsuits
What a joke.
Bin the old crap and move on to year 2017
What a joke.
Bin the old crap and move on to year 2017
4 months ago, the 7 series was best iphone models you could get, they are now old crap since they are affected by throttling?
[doublepost=1513991938][/doublepost]
or they discovered a fault in their design, the 6s battery reacall issue was addressed by apple after the 7 was released. Maybe it is much bigger than just the 6s
Not in my case. My 6 Plus's original battery was at 79% when it was replaced a year ago, and the new battery is sitting at 93%. I experienced dramatic decrease in performance switching to iOS 11. Maybe even iOS 10 (I was only on it for a few months, was on iOS 8 prior.) So unless it slows down phones below 95%, I suspect it's based on phone generations.
Edit- Just saw the ifixit article, I'm baffled why mine is performing so badly.
Last edited:
Apparently it's lagging less on Android phones... Weird.
It's far worse. With a consumer replaceable battery, the bare battery itself has to have much thicker heaver protection to prevent a user from puncturing or denting it, which can cause Li-ion cells to catch fire. A non-user replaceable battery can depend on the case of the phone itself to protect it, and can thus be cheaper, thinner and lighter.
If there really was a demand for mobile phones with consumer replaceable batteries, at least one of Apple's competitors would currently be making and selling lots of them at a profit. Are any?
Toggle off the throttling so your phone crashes? Sounds like a really useful option. As I said, it would have been better if Apple documented this so people knew that slow phone was caused by battery.
That is really time consuming and complicated and pretty much unwieldy to do (especially for security patches).
All they need to do is add a setting in the power management that gives people the option to preserve battery life on older device or use it in normal power mode. It can warn you that your battery should be in “preservation mode” based on its charge performance, rather than device age. If I have an old phone and replace the battery with a new one, I should be able to use it in “normal” mode.
If they don’t implement that, you will know for sure what their real motives are.
Nope. Batteries degrade not only in total energy storage loss but also in internal resistance increases. If the battery resistance goes high enough with typical aging, the battery can no longer supply enough voltage for extreme peak current loads (such as an overclocked processor, GPU, or cellular radio chip). The power management then shuts things down to prevent data corruption.
Some do. I've seen multiple old MacBooks and PC laptops shutdown when an aged battery gets too low. The mobile devices that don't likely underclock their processor chips well below what they would be capable of when new.
Just because Apple doesn’t sell on its site they are not old phones. AT&T, Verizon and their MVNOs are still selling brand new iPhone 6 devices.
Also iOS app developers trying to explain about processor energy consumption is a joke.
99% of the iPhone user demographic (if not 99.9 or 99.999%) can't make an informed decision about this.
I can, you can, the rest of the 1200+ people comment on this thread probably can do that, too.
But that's literally a bucket in the ocean of iPhone users.
With iPhone, people usually don't think big enough.
This is hundreds of millions of devices in almost as many hands.
I would like to piggy back this question. If the phone is plugged in, will the phone continue to throttle with a battery below the threshold apple set in their code?
My question is... How many of these people restore their phones to factory settings?
Of course your iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 are going to become slow after you’ve done so many updates and have so many things stored onto it.
I know people don’t want to start over, but sometimes ya have to. Restoring a computer or iPhone to factory settings really gives it a new lease on life. If there’s a battery problem obviously that won’t be fixed, but sometimes it’s just the content stored and settings.
Of course your iPhone 5S or iPhone 6 are going to become slow after you’ve done so many updates and have so many things stored onto it.
I know people don’t want to start over, but sometimes ya have to. Restoring a computer or iPhone to factory settings really gives it a new lease on life. If there’s a battery problem obviously that won’t be fixed, but sometimes it’s just the content stored and settings.
Your argument does not make sense. As the saying goes - fool me once...
If I had a product that broke down quickly after purchase, why would I continue to shop from the same vendor? In what bizarro world do people see their phone slow down after a year and think - wow, this phone gets old fast. Better get another one from the same company which sold me this crappy phone rather than start shopping around for alternatives.
It does.
[doublepost=1513995708][/doublepost]
Probably due to a lack of choice. It's basically a duopoly between Apple and Google.
Pick your poison
Anyone with half a brain knows batteries don't last for even and what would they rather have a faster iPhone that is 4 years old with a few hours of battery life, or one that managed can last a full day and a little slower?
How long do people expect them to support old tech? This is probably the same people still pissed that Apple dropped the floppy from the original iMac and change to a smaller power lead with the iPhone 5.
I got a new iPhone 8 because I wanted one and I don't regret it, my old 5s is still working and has now be handed down to someone else in the family, we'll get a new battery if needed when its needed.
How long do people expect them to support old tech? This is probably the same people still pissed that Apple dropped the floppy from the original iMac and change to a smaller power lead with the iPhone 5.
I got a new iPhone 8 because I wanted one and I don't regret it, my old 5s is still working and has now be handed down to someone else in the family, we'll get a new battery if needed when its needed.
Yes. The problem isn’t that the battery doesn’t have enough juice. The problem is that the electric current can’t flow through the battery quickly enough to supply the power necessary for peak performance.