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Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS
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Bigger one won’t help. Because a bigger (thus lower impedance) battery would allow the processor power to be turned up, and you would end up with the exact same aging issue, except a bigger thicker (faster) more costly phone.
Rinse and repeat.
Yeah it will. The 6 has only had 3 updates. The 4S, 5 and 5S have all received 4 updates. I would think that iPhones will increasingly receive more updates moving forward, not less.
So you want corporates to dictate how things should work? You probably didn’t have this issue or you wouldn’t be saying this. I had to purchase a new phone because Apple wouldn’t change my battery.
In addition to a battery replacement. I think it's clear there is something wrong with 6-7s
Well actually, as an electrical engineer with experience designing lithium-ion battery powered devices, I feel like clearing up a misconception that showed up in this thread. Although it should have been obvious in hindsight, given that a new battery doesn't require throttling whereas a used one does.
Maximum instantaneous power draw IS a function of capacity. In addition to obviously lasting longer given the same current drain, a 3000 mAh battery CAN supply more power than, say, a 1000 mAh one, without incurring in excessive (transient) capacity drop and heat generation. It can also take up more current while charging without damaging the battery, which is the reason why at one time the 5 W charger was fine (given the first iPhones had battery capacities as low as 1150 mAh) while the new models see much improved charging times with the 12 W iPad charger, especially given the ~2700 mAh rating on the new Plus and X models.
From the first Google result on "battery datasheet":
https://www.ineltro.ch/media/downloads/SAAItem/45/45958/36e3e7f3-2049-4adb-a2a7-79c654d92915.pdf
Have a look at the top left figure on page 7. There you will see different discharge curves depending on power draw. There's a mention to 0.2C, 0.5C, etc.; C is the battery capacity in mAh, and converting it to a current reading in mA, it means e.g. a 1000 mAh with a 200 mA load (0.2C where C = 1000 mAh works out to 200 mA) will typically discharge according to the red curve, whereas a a 3 A = 3000 mA load (3C) will follow the purple curve. As you can see there's a reduction in capacity to about 85% by moving from a 0.2C to a 3C load.
What's more damning is the second order effect of voltage drops (about 0.5 V difference between the 0.2C load and the 3C load as can be seen in the graph), and since power = voltage x current, the battery will actually supply less power than the ratio between currents would indicate. Assuming the device employs an SMPS regulator rather than a linear regulator (and believe me, they do, no question about it), that requires drawing extra current from the battery to reach the desired power, leading in turn to even higher voltage and capacity drops.
It is clear to me that Apple severely underspecced the battery on the affected iPhones relative to the hardware power draw, in a way that didn't happen on earlier models, or on the iPad and MacBook Pro (can't say about other products that I don't own). Once the capacity started decreasing due to the natural aging and cycling of the battery, it crossed the threshold where it can't supply the required instantaneous power without excessive voltage drop, triggering some sort of hardware protection which shuts the phone down. They fixed it by limiting the power draw to what the battery can actually manage given the decreased capacity, but this shouldn't be necessary (at least not so early in the aging process) were the batteries better matched to the hardware power draw.
As an iPhone X owner who's still to see the battery drop below 50% (I charge it overnight every day) I have high hopes for the durability of this phone. First because a charge cycle (in my usage pattern) now lasts for two days rather than one as was usual for the previous generation, so it should take twice as long to reach a given number of charge cycles. Second, it's possible it will take a higher capacity drop before it starts throttling compared to the previous generation models.
Say the current iPhones start to throttle at 80% because this is when the battery starts being unable to supply the required power. Given the iPhone X battery is better matched to the hardware power draw, supplying the required power at 80% capacity should still be perfectly possible; it should only start to throttle when it reaches say 70 or maybe even 60% capacity. That's assuming they baked in some intelligence in the throttling fix, so that it looks e.g. at voltage drops for a given power draw, rather than relying on a hard capacity threshold to decide when to start throttling.
I wouldn't be too surprised to see a 5 year old iPhone X still performing fairly well, although of course the actual aging (in years not cycles) of the battery is also a factor, as well as environmental factors such as temperature (especially seeing as I get the feeling the iPhone X is hotter than older phones for similar tasks, but I may be wrong) so it's hard to predict.
Why so many people moaning look batteries has a recharge cycle of they nornally cant take more than 500 so if the phone slows down its better than having 1 hour charge but yes apple should of spoke about it but to be fair if you got an old phone and want it to last but even me if i wasn't getting new iphone each year then i would change my batt yearly not a big deal and i understand apple doing it but maybe they went the wrong was about it they are just human
with your what, one phone? As someone who manages hundreds of iOS devices I call safvely say you are uninformed.
And I think if Apple really wants to make things right for you, they should refund the upgrade. Period.
Making battery replacement cheaper for one year subject to Apple's approval just doesn't cut it.
Probably less refreshing to Jony when he has to come up with a design that can accommodate it. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a little extra bulk in exchange for a battery that’s user-replaceable, but some here wouldn’t be happy with that change. However, the reality is the current batteries are kind of a letdown for the increasing demands of users and I look forward to the day when I don’t have to pay as much attention to the battery indicator as I do now with a similar amount of attention to the location of the nearest power outlet.
This is precisely true - to the same extent you, as a voter, are responsible for the president's actions.
So first they slowed down your phone and now the want you to pay $29 to regain the performance they took away... only in America.
I believe there's more than meets the eye here, I think the batteries in the 6 & 7 are flawed, I don't know of any other phones that shut down after only one year of use. The throttling might've been a way for them to get around a recall to replace the batteries in all of these phones.
I have a 6s+ that's out warranty that got very slow right after upgrading to one of their iOS releases, I took the phone to the Apple store, they ran their battery test that showed the battery still held a 82% charge. They refused to replace the battery at first, even though I was going to pay for it, I had to speak to the manager and they made me sign a statement basically saying that it was my choice to replace the battery despite the fact that their test showed there was no need for it. Needles to say my iPhone 6s+ performance after the battery replacement was back to normal. I WILL NEVER UPGRADE TO ANY FUTURE iOS RELEASES IN THE FUTURE!
I believe there's more than meets the eye here, I think the batteries in the 6 & 7 are flawed, I don't know of any other phones that shut down after only one year of use. The throttling might've been a way for them to get around a recall to replace the batteries in all of these phones.
I have a 6s+ that's out warranty that got very slow right after upgrading to one of their iOS releases, I took the phone to the Apple store, they ran their battery test that showed the battery still held a 82% charge. They refused to replace the battery at first, even though I was going to pay for it, I had to speak to the manager and they made me sign a statement basically saying that it was my choice to replace the battery despite the fact that their test showed there was no need for it. Needles to say my iPhone 6s+ performance after the battery replacement was back to normal. I WILL NEVER UPGRADE TO ANY FUTURE iOS RELEASES IN THE FUTURE!
Your posts about the power engineering are off.
You could absolutely put in a higher capacity battery that would be able to produce higher currents over the duration of its lifetime, and it can be designed in tandem with the CPU so that it doesn't starve it out so that Apple throttles it back.
Agreed, especiually if it's only an issue with 6-7s devices. Clearly design flaw in those models.
Treat this like your car you wouldnt have 4 year old care without service and thats the thing about few years the batt wont last so you have to service the phone like a car and pay for a new batt its cleaver how they made old phones stay longer but they should of said but ppl just think phone batts survive for ever lol
I am planning on writing to Tim Cook. I really didn’t need to spend my money on a new phone. I am in India so cannot sue Apple from here. In India it would take 200 years.
While I think transparency is important, and a huge opportunity given this issue; I hardly think Apple is “forcing” anyone to upgrade.
What you don’t realize is that if they don’t slow done a high performance mobile phone processor at the end of battery life, that means the manufacturer purposefully slowed down the processor at beginning of life (new product) down to the level of an old slow battery.
That solution isn’t nearly as optimal as Apple’s. Except for hiding the effects of electro-chemistry from clueless customers.
Yes. Well before the battery explanation was revealed, people intuited that new OS versions were purposefully handicapping existing phone models in order to encourage new hardware purchases. Apple denied this, and perhaps was truthful about the accusation until now. A CNET article mentions Apple’s denial in what has been an age old suspicion:
“iPhone users have long complained their devices seem to slow down when new models are released. Some have said they believe it to be a purposeful effort by Apple (and other tech companies) to hamper the performance in order to get users to buy new models. Apple has long denied this assertion.“—CNET
Huh? There are tons of places that will change your iPhone battery for you. You can even DIY if you're fairly handy - the kits online contain all you need and directions. Did on my wife's last 2 iPhones.