Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS

[zorinlynx]

This is awesome. I'm glad these lawsuits came about and people started complaining; iOS should have had proper battery health reporting built in a LONG time ago.

The company as a whole needs to be more transparent about what it is doing. Being secretive about unannounced products is fine, but once a product is out they should be open about everything that affects the product's performance.

 

[dazz87]

The big question will apple offer this discount when the X slow down in two years?

 

[Puddled]

Apple this afternoon addressed customer concerns about an ongoing controversy over power management features in older iPhones, pledging to introduce more detailed information about battery health and reducing the price of battery replacements for all of 2018.

In a letter explaining its policies, Apple apologizes for the misinformation that's been spread and says that it would never "intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades."

At issue is a power management feature that was initially introduced in iOS 10.2.1 in the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6s, which was implemented to prevent unexpected shutdowns due to high power draw peaks.

Apple explains the situation and the aging of batteries both in the letter and in a new support document.These power management features are implemented in the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus, and will be added to future iPhones as required. They kick in when the battery begins to degrade and can be fixed with a new battery.

Apple says it began to receive feedback this fall from customers who were seeing slower speeds, which it initially thought might be due to software updates and minor bugs in iOS 11, but it now believes the continued chemical aging of the batteries in older devices is at fault.

To allay customer concerns and address recent customer feedback, Apple says it will implement several changes.

- The price for out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacements is being dropped from $79 to $29, starting in late January and lasting through December 2018. Apple plans to provide more information on the price drop in the near future, but it will apply to anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced.

- In early 2018, an iOS update will introduce new features to give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone's battery, so they can clearly see whether the state of the battery is affecting performance.

Apple says its team is also always working on ways to make the user experience better, including how performance is managed to avoid unexpected shutdowns as batteries age.

Article Link: Apple to Offer $29 iPhone Battery Replacements, More Battery Health Info in iOS

Very, very clever.

Still doesnt tackle the issue though does it?

They can't turn this throttling "feature" off and they have just admitted it.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

did you regain the performance you had before the iOS update?

I know I did. I changed mine last week (6S). Performance difference was immediately noticeable. By my own crude benchmarking, the old battery dropped my performance by 35%.

The real question will be, how does Apple determine if your battery needs to be replaced. Coconut Battery reported my old battery capacity at 89%, but the phone was clearly being throttled. If Apple's threshold is indeed 80%, would they have turned me away, or will they just replace the battery at my request anyway?

 

[Kmart9419]

So the throttling continues. Now we know they crippled the screen brightness, speakerphone, slowed scrolling frame rates aka stutter and disabled camera flash. Reduce frame rates in other apps, most likely your once silky smooth minecraft that now stutters whenever you turned. Not suprised if the gpu is throttled as well. Who knows what else? All the past crimes are forgiven for $29. I say fu Apple. This fixes nothing until you give me a choice to throttle or not throttle or affect any other piece of hardware on my device.

*update*. Sorry, I meant Apple is allowing us the privilege of paying $29 to forgive them. Sweet deal indeed.

 

[Wanted797]

Only solves part of the problem. For years Apple have sold phones to people who thought their old phone was dying and that they needed to get a new one, when really all they needed was a battery. I think they should address that issue.

Did you read the article? This was only introduced in 10.2.1.

 

[clauzzz203]

In cases that require more extreme forms of this power management, the user may notice effects such as:

• Longer app launch times
• Lower frame rates while scrolling
• Backlight dimming (which can be overridden in Control Center)
• Lower speaker volume by up to -3dB
• Gradual frame rate reductions in some apps
• During the most extreme cases, the camera flash will be disabled as visible in the camera UI
• Apps refreshing in background may require reloading upon launch

So there's more than CPU throttling? What about the other Apple products? Should I expect my watch brightnes to go down? Lower wifi range from my airport?

Is there any guarantee this is all they are doing in secret?

If a device battery has chemically aged far enough, power management changes may be more lasting. This is because all rechargeable batteries are consumables and have a limited lifespan, eventually needing to be serviced or recycled.

Confirmed planned lifespan of one year.
And they still want us to pay for our own dinner and hotel room while being f****d.
Also to note: there is no plan or commitment to design the next iPhone to last more than one year on its battery, it will be exactly the same underprovisioning.

• Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29 — for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later whose battery needs to be replaced, starting in late January and available worldwide through December 2018. Details will be provided soon on apple.com.

 

[mi7chy]

This is just a temporary band aid price break and not a fix. Until Apple fix the problem with a higher quality and higher capacity battery that lasts more than one year you'll be paying a recurring annual fee to replace your battery. $29 price only applies to 2018 but goes back up to $79 every year thereafter.

 

[hotdwag]

Good response. replaced my own battery with a non OEM $25 kit from amazon so definitely a fair price. The only caveat is that they had to be called out to make this move... but they’re accepting responsibility for something they technically don’t need to. Adding additional notifications on battery capacity / condition like they do on macOS occurring would’ve prevented this, but making the right moves.

 

[Falhófnir]

Pretty reasonable response all things considered.

 

[thadoggfather]

The reduction from $79 to $29 is a very appreciated gesture.

it should be the permanent price, but all of 2018 isn't bad. get your batteries in order next year as a New Years resolution

and iOS update with transparency

I think they realize they didn't do enough, and this is something, and its a great start imo!

 

[alembic]

Glad Apple has started to address this issue. Based on what's been described so far, this offer is only for 2018? or all replacements going forward?

Also, what/who determines whether a battery "needs" to be replaced? The same diagnostic test used at Apple stores? or the end user (based on slowing performance)?

 

[User 6502]

That's the bare minimum they could do after being so dishonest and sneaky. Hopefully this will teach them a lesson…

 

[notspock]

This may address that issue:

Not if people have recycled/sold on/thrown away their old phone because they thought it was failing.. Don't get me wrong, I think apple are dealing with one side of this issue exactly as they should, there's just his other side, less tangible, yet still real, where the historic consequences of not informing their customers, has potentially cost their customers more than it should.

 

[DipDog3]

Try again Apple.
I want a free iPhone X, anything less will not cut it!

 

[GizmoDVD]

Did you read the article? This was only introduced in 10.2.1.

No. They clearly do not. Most people complain just to complain.

 

[wwchris]

What annoys me about this and other things like it is that it sets the precedent that an uninformed public can develop an "outcry" over anything get a result out of Apple. Real shame. The public didn't deserve this level of compromise from Apple. Intelligent CPU management of a device powered by lithium-ion battery is expected and appropriate, and really no one's business besides the engineers.

What? Slowing down my phone is no one’s business but Apple engineers? That has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. They updated my phone to it down and you are saying it none of my business? Take your car into the shop and when they cap top speed at 55MPH so you can maintain proper gas mileage, let me know how that works out.

 

[sevvere]

Yawn

More virtue signaling from Apple

Here, we reduce the cost of a replacement we will deny you if your battery doesn’t meet our strict requirements for “needing” a replacement

Bla bla bla

Here’s an app we created to show you how crappy your battery has become , brought to you by the very people hiding the fact that they were hiding performance manipulations .... but don’t worry , we’re apple and you can trust us to show you an honest representation of how crappy your battery is.


Now, buy a rainbow watch band and I’ll talk to you later from Saudi Arabia.

 

[MH01]

Amazing news and uncalled for. I imagine all the trolls will have to find something else to whine about. Apple has stepped up and addressed something that was not a big deal.

And apple disagrees with you. Keep apologising though.

Let me fix that, not a big deal for you big enough for apple to make some drastic actions to correct this....

 

[Roadstar]

Apple's current policy is that a battery needs to be below 80% usable capacity for it to be replaced under AppleCare and I believe they won't do a paid replacement until the battery is below that, as well. The throttling mode also does not engage until the battery capacity is below 80%.

There are multiple reports in different threads on this forum about cases where a phone has had battery and performance issues and most apparently also affected by throttling, but they've still passed Apple's diagnostics and a battery swap has been denied despite the customer offering to pay for it.

 

[GlenStrange]

Apple has stepped up and addressed something that was not a big deal.

How great of you to decide what isn't a big deal for others.

 

[I7guy]

Even if apple charges $29 your battery has to meet certain criteria to get it replaced. I want to know what that criteria is and will your iphone display this information.

 

[Pez555]

£29 is still too much in my opinion. Just offer it for free to phones that are affected (battery test in apple store).

Can’t believe this actually turned out to be true. My faith in apple has dropped somewhat. What other tactics are they doing behind the scenes?

 

[falainber]

$29 is not cheap (why should the consumers pay for Apple screw up?). Apple are the cheap ones here. Once again they admit a design flaw and refuse to properly address it. The free battery replacement for a few years would have been the adequate solution but we will get there. Give Apple another week.

 

[I7guy]

How great of you to decide what isn't a big deal for everyone.

So saying this another way, to you it was a big deal for everyone?