Apple Increasing the Price of Out-of Warranty iPhone, Mac, and iPad Battery Replacements Starting in March

[jlc1978]

Battery questions to the community:
Is 8-9h battery life at 95% battery capacity normal - shouldn't that be 12h (13h according to Apple × 95%)?

It depends - capacity is only one determinant. How you use your phone will have a big impact - cellular or wifi? Lots of tabs open and refreshing? Mail checking a lot?

Question for battery self-replaceers: How do you prevent the 11 Pro from displaying an "Unknown component" error message under Settings - General - Info?

The problem is not the error but the component isn't registered, so if you ever g to Apple for repairs or trade in they likely will not do either.

 

[Ready-for-Apple]

It depends - capacity is only one determinant. How you use your phone will have a big impact - cellular or wifi? Lots of tabs open and refreshing? Mail checking a lot?

Yea, I know.😉
So I would like to know what's the experience by the community - how many hours is your iphone 11 pro alive around 95% battery health.

The problem is not the error but the component isn't registered, so if you ever g to Apple for repairs or trade in they likely will not do either.

Not only Apple could make problems. Most of the Commercial purchase portals and also private buyers will refuse to buy if there's an error message. So the questions is how to avoid this message if I replace the battery by myself or a third party company.

 

[pshufd]

$20 increase for a battery that last three years is still much less than a new iPhone. The increase in the MacBook Pro battery replacement is similar in that they typically last 5-7 years for me so $7-$10/year for the battery. One thing about raising the price of batteries, though, it increases the odds that I won't upgrade as often. You get a new topcase, trackpad and keyboard with the MacBook Pro battery replacements so it's not just $250 for the battery.

I am hoping that I get more life out of the 2021 MacBook Pro batteries as they overall use less power per compute but I don't know if that is realistic.

 

[darngooddesign]

Question for battery self-replaceers: How do you prevent the 11 Pro from displaying an "Unknown component" error message under Settings - General - Info?

It's less error and more alert; but if my new battery works as it should, why would I care about an alert buried in the settings app?

 

[VuvuzelaiPhone]

It's not. I'm serious.

Anyway, I'll end my rant here but to be clear I don't actually mean to suggest people go out of their way break a perfectly working machine over a small issue, but sometimes the Apple of 2022/23 just decides to be super unreasonable about what I would consider serious problems on what are supposed to be premium devices. If you've paid for AppleCare+, don't tolerate that BS, do what you gotta do to get what you need.

So no, you weren't serious.

 

[Mitochris]

A quick search says Americans alone throw 3 billion batteries in the trash each year. A third of those are single use alkaline batteries 😩

This says British people throw away 600 million batteries each year, 40% of Brits have never recycled their batteries, with many saying that it was because it was too much hassle, a third admitted to throwing batteries into the bin, and 75% of them didn’t know about the environmental damage this could be causing.

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So yeah, like some suggested when you buy a battery from Apple the rule should be that you must give the old one back. Third parties could be a problem though. Many might not be reliable recyclers.

Thanks. That’s really shocking. I don’t think I ever knowingly threw a battery in the normal waste.

 

[jlc1978]

Yea, I know.😉
So I would like to know what's the experience by the community - how many hours is your iphone 11 pro alive around 95% battery health.

My point was the answers you get will be useless without getting use info - some may get 8, some 12. I usually get 10 at 88%.

More interesting would be the drain rate profile - is it constant or does it vary? That would provide clue to what is impacting your battery life.

Not only Apple could make problems. Most of the Commercial purchase portals and also private buyers will refuse to buy if there's an error message. So the questions is how to avoid this message if I replace the battery by myself or a third party company.

Even if the message goes away diagnostics can reveal the non-Apple part installation. So unless you replace the module on the new battery with the original battery module you're likely stuck. Of course, swapping the module will retain the original battery's diagnostic info.

 

[FlyingDutch]

I have already decided to leave Apple. I planning to go back to Windows after 7 year of using Mac.

I also have an iPhone 12 Pro Max with 89% battery health. When the battery goes down bellow 80% I will buy an Android phone.

Do you know that battery replacement cost for Google Pixel is around $70, right ?

 

[dysamoria]

This whole battery thing is just plain offensive. I agree about surprise that the EU hasn’t yet regulated batteries being user replaceable via simple mechanism. The tech has matured but the industry has not and it would rather gouge customers for the same crap repeatedly than give a damn about them, the environment, or civilization. Laissez-faire capitalism will destroy everything and anything we allow it to.

 

[MASTERNC]

My iPhone 12 battery is definitely deteriorating (down to 86% life) but won’t be below 80% by the time AppleCare expires in March. Maybe I just bite the bullet and replace the battery before the price hike?

 

[Matsamoto]

My iPhone 12 battery is definitely deteriorating (down to 86% life) but won’t be below 80% by the time AppleCare expires in March. Maybe I just bite the bullet and replace the battery before the price hike?

How long do you have your 12?🙂

 

[FlyingDutch]

My iPhone 12 battery is definitely deteriorating (down to 86% life) but won’t be below 80% by the time AppleCare expires in March. Maybe I just bite the bullet and replace the battery before the price hike?

86% in such a short period is not very good

 

[GraXXoR]

My old iPhone 6+ which I use as my bicycle computer had its battery replaced twice in the two years I used it under Apple Care... Now though, the battery health indicator still says 83% like it has for the last five years, but when you actually use it, charge drops about 1% per minute.

I think Apple are taking the piss as usual.

Of course, last time I posted that last comment, the Apple shillbois came out from under their Tim Cooks and gave me hell...

But the fact is the phone doesn't even get warm except when charging or booting, so it's not like the battery is actually OK, but the phone is draining it.

I'm not the only person who has noticed a very dodgy, ever so slightly above 80% battery health for basically ever...

 

[PowerButton]

Wow, older than iPhone 14, who would expect to change their iPhone 14 battery?

Also, who gets AppleCare+ on iPhones, such a waist of money really, unless you’re in a war zone. I’ve had iPhones for over 10 years now and never had to fix or replace any one of them.

 

[Reason077]

I'm not the only person who has noticed a very dodgy, ever so slightly above 80% battery health for basically ever...

Yes, all my iOS devices are stuck on 81 or 82% battery health. Never seen one drop below 80%, even though it sure feels like they've lost a lot more capacity than that since new.

Could this be grounds for a class action if someone did some actual scientific measurements of battery capacity?

(On the other hand, Apple never says "80% battery capacity", they just say "battery health" - which could mean whatever Apple wants it to mean.

 

[Reason077]

My iPhone 12 battery is definitely deteriorating (down to 86% life) but won’t be below 80% by the time AppleCare expires in March.

The "health" rating is not linear. In my experience, it will likely never go below 80% during the life of the phone, even if the true capacity has declined by more than that.

Maybe I just bite the bullet and replace the battery before the price hike?

If you plan to use the 12 for another good while, then yeah, could be a plan.

 

[Reason077]

86% in such a short period is not very good

If it's a 12, it's likely 2+ years old, so 86% is decent. I've seen 12s and 12 Pros with lower battery health than that.

 

[Ready-for-Apple]

Even if the message goes away diagnostics can reveal the non-Apple part installation. So unless you replace the module on the new battery with the original battery module you're likely stuck. Of course, swapping the module will retain the original battery's diagnostic info.

Oh very interesting.
What does that mean exactly (see bold text)? What would be shown in battery health on iPhone and battery cycles?🤔

 

[GraXXoR]

This whole battery thing is just plain offensive. I agree about surprise that the EU hasn’t yet regulated batteries being user replaceable via simple mechanism. The tech has matured but the industry has not and it would rather gouge customers for the same crap repeatedly than give a damn about them, the environment, or civilization. Laissez-faire capitalism will destroy everything and anything we allow it to.

And the problem is, we are allowing it to. I have only ever written to a politician in my constituency once in my entire life.

 

[jlc1978]

Oh very interesting.
What does that mean exactly (see bold text)? What would be shown in battery health on iPhone and battery cycles?🤔

If the chip works as I think it does, it records the cycles and health and does not refresh if a new battery is installed. So if the old battery was at 70% after 1300 cycles that is what it would report; even with a fresh battery. Depending on how it is designed, even if a new battery showed a higher health % it may ignore it because the initial design was tied to a specific battery and batteries don't get better. The designer did expect the battery being replaced with the chip reused so it only updates when the health is less.