iPhone 13 Does anyone else feel Apple purposely gimps battery life on models that are no longer “new” ?

[FeliApple]

People also seem to forget that phones of old had HORRIBLE battery life, fairly quickly too.

I rooted my Samsung Note 3 and had several apps that would monitor battery health. After 6 months my OEM battery was at 50% health. Not 80%, 50% something. Now sure, I went on Amazon and bought a $17 Anker battery to put in its place but still, even that battery didn't last very long either. My HTC My Touch and Droid 1 weren't all that great.

Devices have come a long way and batteries today are a dream compared to what we had. lol. (My opinion).

Agreed, and it goes even beyond health. My 5s on iOS 8 was quite abhorrent. Push it a little on LTE, and battery life scraped 3 hours. I'm not even talking about heavy camera usage. Maybe outdoor brightness (60-70%), some web browsing and texting, light use. It was bad ever since it was new, and it had neither a degraded battery nor was it even updated. It was just poor by itself. We've come a long way since that, like you said. My Xʀ on iOS 12 lasts probably 4 times that with the same usage, let alone a 13 Pro Max on iOS 15.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Mine feels sluggish, although, it’s probably ever increasing RAM requirements of software in general.

This.
The resource(hardware) requirements of newer software and functionality are more taxing on “old” iPhones just like all technology and especially on a source expected to deteriorate like a battery.

It’s all connected and although Apple has something to do with it it’s not solely Apple’s fault.

 

[FeliApple]

This.
The resource(hardware) requirements of newer software and functionality are more taxing on “old” iPhones just like all technology and especially on a source expected to deteriorate like a battery.

It’s all connected and although Apple has something to do with it it’s not solely Apple’s fault.

Like I mentioned earlier, Apple is exclusively at fault in two ways:

-Forcing users to update after restoring; forcing A9 users on iOS 9 to update by literally deactivating the devices

-And taking that into account: Apple is at fault for disallowing downgrades. There's no valid reason to prevent users from downgrading considering that iOS updates cause performance and battery life issues every time.

 

[baxterboy]

I don’t agree because the Apple battery health meter is inaccurate.

Then it begs the question:
Why would a company with the resources of Apple have a health meter in their iphones which was so unhealthy?

 

[Andeddu]

Then it begs the question:
Why would a company with the resources of Apple have a health meter in their iphones which was so unhealthy?

I don’t know, it’s probably an image thing as they want people to believe their batteries are lasting longer than they actually are. I wish the battery health meter was more accurate. My 6S had around 8 hours of SoT at 100% battery life whereas at 82% it had around 2 hours of SoT. There is obviously another variable which is the iOS version as newer versions on older phones drain the battery quicker. I just ignore the battery health and replace the battery every 2-3 years at the Apple Store.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Like I mentioned earlier, Apple is exclusively at fault in two ways:

-Forcing users to update after restoring; forcing A9 users on iOS 9 to update by literally deactivating the devices

-And taking that into account: Apple is at fault for disallowing downgrades. There's no valid reason to prevent users from downgrading considering that iOS updates cause performance and battery life issues every time.

Those are two areas that can be adjusted but don't apply to this topic of discussion unless you feel that the intention of why those experiences exist is specifically to worsen battery life.

Even if those two situations were fixed, battery health deteriorating would still be part of that experience. It's not an issue exclusive to Apple.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Those are two areas that can be adjusted but don't apply to this topic of discussion unless you feel that the intention of why those experiences exist is specifically to worsen battery life.

Even if those two situations were fixed, battery health deteriorating would still be part of that experience. It's not an issue exclusive to Apple.

And from Apple's perspective .... people on old OSs are vulnerable to exploits which can tarnish reputation. XYZ world leader on iOS Ancient # got hacked because of exploit that was fixed 3 years ago. That's not news any company wants.

It is good practice to UPDATE for security reasons alone.

 

[eyeseeyou]

And from Apple's perspective .... people on old OSs are vulnerable to exploits which can tarnish reputation. XYZ world leader on iOS Ancient # got hacked because of exploit that was fixed 3 years ago. That's not news any company wants.

It is good practice to UPDATE for security reasons alone.

There’s that also.
If people didn’t upgrade and their products were vulnerable to being hacked Apple would get blamed for that too.
Maybe Apple could enable that customized os to install only if the user agrees to release Apple from being liable for situations like that. Kind of like how they won’t touch or fix Apple products that have issues but also have 3rd party parts installed.
Like my iPhone screen…

 

[FeliApple]

I don’t know, it’s probably an image thing as they want people to believe their batteries are lasting longer than they actually are. I wish the battery health meter was more accurate. My 6S had around 8 hours of SoT at 100% battery life whereas at 82% it had around 2 hours of SoT. There is obviously another variable which is the iOS version as newer versions on older phones drain the battery quicker. I just ignore the battery health and replace the battery every 2-3 years at the Apple Store.

Interestingly, it’s been widely proven that whatever diagnostic tool Apple uses to measure battery health on iPads gives higher BH numbers than Coconut. This has been explained quite logically as “Apple’s battery health diagnostic on iPads gives an average of the past two weeks, while it’s an immediate measurement on Coconut, which is why the latter fluctuates and the former not so much”. While that explanation makes perfect sense, people have reported that iPhones’ results are far more accurate.

All of this is to bolster your point: Apple does not replace batteries on iPads, they replace the whole unit if their diagnostic fails, for $99. It is in their best interests to have that BH as high as possible.

I am not accusing Apple of anything; like I said, I tend not to assume foul play unless proven, but this posits an interesting question: why are the iPhone’s results far closer to Coconut, even if they are weekly averages, too? I cannot respond to that, I do not know. But the question is nevertheless interesting.

 

[FeliApple]

Those are two areas that can be adjusted but don't apply to this topic of discussion unless you feel that the intention of why those experiences exist is specifically to worsen battery life.

Even if those two situations were fixed, battery health deteriorating would still be part of that experience. It's not an issue exclusive to Apple.

No, of course not, I have no proof that is the case, nor am I implying anything deliberate, it’s just that the end result is always the same. Like I said, while I don’t know whether it’s deliberate, the end result of iOS updates is always inevitably harmful to those two characteristics: performance and battery life.

And like I said earlier, devices on original versions aren’t impacted by battery health loss. There is a minimal decrease, but updated devices are rendered unusable: a far cry from the impact of battery health on non-updated devices, which can be described accurately as negligible.

 

[FeliApple]

And from Apple's perspective .... people on old OSs are vulnerable to exploits which can tarnish reputation. XYZ world leader on iOS Ancient # got hacked because of exploit that was fixed 3 years ago. That's not news any company wants.

It is good practice to UPDATE for security reasons alone.

Absolutely, no at-risk person would want to use my 6s on iOS 10. The tangible risk for the general population is close to zero, but for world leaders? Yeah, absolutely. That said, world leaders can get a new phone every 5 minutes with the best possible security if they so choose.

Going beyond that specific segment of the population, the battery life issue caused by iOS updates for people who upgrade every year (there are many in this forum), is also meaningless: they’ll never experience it themselves. You’d have to use the same device and keep it updated for a couple of years at least in order to feel any significant impact. Even those who routinely skip one iPhone upgrade are probably fine. It’s those of us who upgrade infrequently who suffer this the most, or even those of us who keep backup devices, or even who keep devices because we like them.

Some people like the 1st Gen SE because it is comfortable to use, and one on iOS 15 is significantly worse in terms of battery life than one on iOS 10. Those are the users who are affected by this.

 

[kpluck]

How is it that iOS 16 drops and suddenly the battery life just magically diminishes?

You didn't mention it in your original post but did you try to investigate iOS 16 power usage and adjust settings as needed for better battery life?

It doesn't seem magical to me that a new version of iOS might have apps, or new/updated features, that use more power than previous versions.

-kp

 

[reppans]

My XR seems fine after 3 years, but I’m a battery/efficiency hobbyist. I only update 2-3x per major iOS roll-out, and usually wait til version xx.3 for the bugs to be worked out, but might have to wait til v.4/.5 with iOS16.

Could be spotting new power-consuming features and turning them off, could be using a custom charge optimization - IDK, but my phones last longer than Apple will support the iOS - this my third iPhone since ‘08. I’m not budget constrained, I just find upgrading painful.

 

[FeliApple]

My XR seems fine after 3 years, but I’m a battery/efficiency hobbyist. I only update 2-3x per major iOS roll-out, and usually wait til version xx.3 for the bugs to be worked out, but might have to wait til v.4/.5 with iOS16.

Could be spotting new power-consuming features and turning them off, could be using a custom charge optimization - IDK, but my phones last longer than Apple will support the iOS - this my third iPhone since ‘08. I’m not budget constrained, I just find upgrading painful.

I don’t think I ever told you this, but I’d be really interested to see how you’d do with an A9 device on iOS 15. I tried everything I could to get good battery life on a 6s on iOS 13 I have and it is always quite abhorrent. I assume you’d get more than the average user (this we’ve discussed), but I’d like to see how you’d do with your extremely efficient practices on a device (or a couple of devices) from which I haven’t seen a single good, like-new result on iOS 15.

 

[Tsepz]

I’ve had my 13 Pro Max for about 5 months now and the battery is absolutely insane. Left work at 16:30 today and it was still at 77% battery despite me being on WhatsApp, Outlook, Instagram, Twitter, Zoom etc… on it throughout the day and using it for music for 1h30mins in the work gym.

I’ve had days where I leave my place at 13:00 and come back at 5am, still have ~40-50% battery despite using the camera, calling, WhatsApp, recording Instagram stories etc…throughout the time I’m out.

 

[KOTN91]

Absolutely. When my iPhone 13 (non pro 6.1) was new, the battery would always last the whole day whatever you throw at it and you could often go for upto 2 days without charging it. Now, on a day of medium to heavy use (eg: maps, playing downloaded music, camera, looking stuff up and various messaging apps) the phone goes from 100 to under 20 in around 5-6 hours. 91% battery health.

It’s probably not as obvious as Apple doing it deliberately, but clearly the versions of iOS which were not the ones originally released with the phone have a major impact on battery life, and the battery health is probably inaccurate too

 

[Splitrail]

Absolutely. When my iPhone 13 (non pro 6.1) was new, the battery would always last the whole day whatever you throw at it and you could often go for upto 2 days without charging it. Now, on a day of medium to heavy use (eg: maps, playing downloaded music, camera, looking stuff up and various messaging apps) the phone goes from 100 to under 20 in around 5-6 hours. 91% battery health.

It’s probably not as obvious as Apple doing it deliberately, but clearly the versions of iOS which were not the ones originally released with the phone have a major impact on battery life, and the battery health is probably inaccurate too

Maybe there are factors other that iOS updates that are causing or contributing to what you are experiencing.

 

[paul.p]

Of course..how else are they gonna pay for Apple Park

 

[Tsepz]

Typical day at workday and I am back home with 62% batteru, I took a Zoom call while on my way in, used Instagram on and off along with Twitter, WhatsApp throughout the day, played music while in gym (that was for around 40min, not sure why it says 8min lol), listened to podcasts on the drive back from work.

I can probably get another 3-4hours SOT out of this.

 

[Bash310]

I definitely think they do something in the background with new updates for older phones. My 12 mini has never been great but with iOS 16 it has been noticeably much worse.

 

[Hoo Doo Dude]

A bunch of stuff happens in the background over the course of days after IOS updates. These processes do temporarily cause some battery drain. But once they are completed battery life often improves to better than it was pre-update. This has been well documented.

 

[FeliApple]

A bunch of stuff happens in the background over the course of days after IOS updates. These processes do temporarily cause some battery drain. But once they are completed battery life often improves to better than it was pre-update. This has been well documented.

This is false. It might recover a little, but it doesn’t recover to what it was pre-update. A common myth.

 

[Hoo Doo Dude]

Sorry, no myth. Believe what you want. Dig a bit and you can easily confirm what I stated. I for one do not buy into this massive upgrade conspiracy by Apple. But sure, Apple is conspiring to make users dissatisfied with their products to drive sales. 🤪

 

[FeliApple]

Sorry, no myth. Believe what you want. Dig a bit and you can easily confirm what I stated. I for one do not buy into this massive upgrade conspiracy by Apple. But sure, Apple is conspiring to make users dissatisfied with their products to drive sales. 🤪

So an iPhone 6s on iOS 15 matches the battery life that the 6s has on iOS 9? I wish!

 

[Hoo Doo Dude]

Sorry, no myth. Believe what you want. Dig a bit and you can easily confirm what I stated. I for one do not buy into this massive upgrade conspiracy by Apple. But sure, Apple is conspiring to make users dissatisfied with their products to drive sales. 🤪

So an iPhone 6s on iOS 15 matches the battery life that the 6s has on iOS 9? I wish!

if you’re using an iPhone 6s battery life is the least of your problems.