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And whether or not Apple loses the lawsuit, batteries will continue to degrade and either performance will decrease or it will shut down. Ask Nexus 6P owners about the shutdowns and if they’d rather have a slower phone.

Google's hardware has always been its weakest link. You won't find this on Samsung devices for instance on a widespread basis.
 



Apple now faces over two dozen lawsuits around the world that either accuse the company of intentionally slowing down older iPhones, or at least of failing to disclose power management changes it made starting in iOS 10.2.1.

iphone-6s-battery.jpg

The lawsuits include 23 class action complaints in the United States, with the latest two filed on Thursday by Marc Honigman and Lauri Sullivan-Stefanou in New York and Ohio respectively, according to electronic court records reviewed by MacRumors. Apple is also being sued in Israel and France.

An excerpt from Sullivan-Stefanou's complaint:Many of the lawsuits demand Apple compensate all iPhone users who have experienced slowdowns, offer free battery replacements, refund customers who purchased brand new iPhones to regain maximum performance, and add info to iOS explaining how replacing an iPhone's battery can prevent slowdowns.

The legal action comes after Apple's revelation it may at times dynamically manage the maximum performance of some older iPhone models with chemically aged batteries in order to prevent the devices from unexpectedly shutting down, an issue that can be made worse by cold temperatures or a low charge.

Apple never mentioned the power management changes, which it calls a feature, when it released iOS 10.2.1 nearly a year ago. A month after the software update became available, Apple still only vaguely mentioned that it made "improvements" that resulted in a significant reduction in unexpected shutdowns.

Apple only revealed exactly what the so-called "improvements" were after Primate Labs founder John Poole visualized that some iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 devices suddenly had lower benchmark scores starting with iOS 10.2.1 and iOS 11.2 respectively despite operating at maximum performance on previous versions.

Poole's analysis was in response to a Reddit user who claimed his iPhone 6s was significantly faster after replacing the device's battery. The discussion generated over 1,000 comments, and reinforced an opinion held by some that Apple purposefully slows down older iPhones so customers buy newer ones.

Honigman's complaint, edited very slightly for clarity, echoes this opinion:Apple has since issued an apology for its lack of communication, and it has reduced the price of battery replacements to $29 for iPhone 6 and newer through the end of 2018. Apple has also promised to release an iOS update early this year that will give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone's battery.

Keep in mind that Apple is not permanently or persistently slowing down older iPhones. Even if your iPhone is affected, the performance limitations only happen intermittently, and only when the device is completing demanding tasks.

We recently answered many frequently asked questions about Apple's power management process, which can't be disabled, but can be avoided by replacing your iPhone's battery if necessary. Read our guide on how to get an iPhone's battery replaced at an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Article Link: Apple Now Faces 23+ Lawsuits for 'Purposefully' or 'Secretly' Slowing Down Older iPhones

I have not noticed any such issue with my SE :)
 
The above is exactly why the plaintifs will lose. They will make these claims, without having an engineering lab that can make all the actual power measurements. Then Apple will show up with the actual measurements as witnessed by an independant 3rd-party professional power management engineer, and these cases will be thrown out for making false claims.
Exactly. There is absolutely no case to be made against the throttling, as much as the desperate Apple haters around here wish there was.

Plaintiffs and their lawyers absolutely need to focus on the fact that Apple didn't disclose the throttling nor the remedy to fix it. That is the real issue here. The CPU throttling may have been necessary, but those experiencing the throttling should have been notified that the performance of their iPhone has been decreased and that a new battery would restore full performance.
 
If people see a thin phone next to a thick one, they’re not buying the thick one. Sorry.

Depends. What if you tell them the thin one has a smaller battery so the performance will have to be downgraded after a year? Some people will still buy the thin one sure, and some will buy the thick.

Apple phones are so thin they're defective and they deserve these lawsuits to force them to make it right.
 
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What has that to do with anything? Maybe I enjoy charging my battery twice a day... what do you care? You are completely besides the point.

Didn’t realize people needed to have a point to post.
You stated having a replaceable battery is great, and the battery is so cheap, yet have failed to make use of these “great” features... seems odd
You stressed you have to charge it 2x a day, like it’s a bad thing, then reply that you like to charge it 2x a day.
And how do you know that phone is still running at the same speed?
 
"Absent the code inserted by Apple, the reduced battery capacity of these phones would not have negatively affected processing performance."

There's your first candidate for being immediately dismissed by the court system. If the voltage is too low for what the CPU needs, the phone shuts down. That obviously "negatively affects processing performance" by itself, and is a worse scenario than the phone running slower.
Except phones weren’t shutting down.
 
So those folks are all OK with their phones instantly shutting off when they open Facebook?
You're suggesting the consequence justifies the action. The trouble is that Apple provided no user feedback to either inform them this was happening, or make an informed decision (such as low battery power mode on Android). Without any such feedback or choice, the unit of performance a user was seeing was reduced. This is unacceptable and why Apple has litigation filed against it.
 
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I wonder if the same thing happens to iPads? The batt util shows that my iPad Air has 41% wear on it and recommends replacement and I've thought it had been getting slower over the last year or so.... o_O

time for a swap I guess.
 
I have not noticed any such issue with my SE :)

The SE is a nice phone. The 6 and newer have larger screens and CPUs that demand more power and Apple didn't increase the battery size accordingly. They screwed up on every phone larger than a 5 or SE.
 
Didn’t realize people needed to have a point to post.
You stated having a replaceable battery is great, and the battery is so cheap, yet have failed to make use of these “great” features... seems odd
You stressed you have to charge is 2x a day, like it’s a bad thing, then reply that you like to charge it 2x a day.
And how do you know that phone is still running at the same speed?

Again: I was reacting to a comment of Leman which had nothing to do with the point you are making. You are simply missing the context. But if you want to take ik totally off track I rest my case. No point in having a discussion with you.
 
Google's hardware has always been its weakest link. You won't find this on Samsung devices for instance on a widespread basis.

https://thedroidguy.com/2016/08/galaxy-note-5-shuts-battery-level-reaches-60-issues-1063776


How about those Note8 users that made the mistake of letting their phone die and can’t get the phone to turn on?

Depends. What if you tell them the thin one has a smaller battery so the performance will have to be downgraded after a year? Some people will still buy the thin one sure, and some will buy the thick.

Apple phones are so thin they're defective and they deserve these lawsuits to force them to make it right.

Their phones aren’t that much thinner than most Android phones, though.
 
If that's the case, then it seems like there aren't even grounds for a lawsuit. I'm sure Apple has TONS of features related to managing processor speed, memory, bandwidth, you name it, that they implement to get their products to work that they don't explicitly disclose to the user. It's not practical, and Apple has no obligation to explain or justify the reasons for implementing features, especially one that is an electrical design decision.

However, many of the lawsuit articles I've seen have to do with Apple "throttling" the processor speed AT ALL. Which, again, was an electrical design decision. Apple doesn't need the public's consent or input on implementing design features.

TLDR: Should Apple have been more transparent? Sure. Is this grounds for any kind of lawsuit? Not by a long shot.

The lawsuits double as a "don't try this crap again" warning as well, that some of you don't seem to understand.
 
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What a pile of crap... Apple already caved with the battery discount, now these babies just want to cash in. What a joke.
 
I wonder if the same thing happens to iPads? The batt util shows that my iPad Air has 41% wear on it and recommends replacement and I've thought it had been getting slower over the last year or so.... o_O

time for a swap I guess.

Not that we are aware of. According to the support document, it’s an iPhone thing.
 
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Those customers would rightfully sue the carmaker to refund the purchase price or repair the car to function as promised.

Exactly right. If cars were skidding and crashing due to the promised active traction control not throttling the power to the wheels enough in certain situations, consumer protection agencies would likely require a recall so that the traction control throttling can be adjusted to a more safe level to reduce the likelihood of crashes. Your vehicle might not even be able to pass a state safety inspection unless you complied with such a recall.
 
They owe you a phone that will work as they promised without design defects for a reasonable period of time. Decreasing CPU speed to compensate for an underspecced battery is not delivering what they promised. It's up to the courts now to decide if Apple has done that or not and we'll see how these lawsuits go.

And what is that period of time? Believe warranty is 1 year...Also, please refer me to an Apple literature/web link where it says they guarantee the battery will last a specific period of time.

Phones we are taking about are what, 3+ years old?? Well outside normal and extended warranty, if you purchased one.
 
In an alternate universe...

“My two year old mobile phone keeps shutting down!!!”

“Did you activate the setting to slow down the phone when your older battery does not have not enough voltage to run at full speed, or gets too hot?”

“Apple should do all that automatically!!! I’ll sue!”
 
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