Geekbench Results Visualize Possible Link Between iPhone Slowdowns and Degraded Batteries

[Narg]

OK, that's Apple. Now... who else is doing this???

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[the-bigwig]

OK, that's Apple. Now... who else is doing this???

​

Oh my!


...I don’t care. I care about my f....g 6 with 3gs’ speed.

 

[skinned66]

Read up on lithium ion batteries and how much they're affected based on cold. It's not just the capacity that the cold is affecting, it's also affecting the amount of current the battery can put out. If you draw more current than what the battery can handle, it's voltage drops precipitously. This is exacerbated with fault batteries + cold

It has to be the current that’s the issue after all. It was pretty cold.

 

[Analog Kid]

Valid points, but our argument here is that if the battery is bad enough to warrant throttling the CPU 20-50% or more, maybe it's bad enough to be replaced. Maybe 80% is too conservative?

I'd have previously assumed (guessed) that if the battery is 90% capacity that it can run the CPU at full speed for 90% of the time that it used to (9 hours of actual use vs 10). I think that's what most people expect. And likewise, at 80% capacity we'd expect the battery to last 8 hours of actual use instead of 10 hours, at full speed.

But now we're finding out that instead they keep battery power duration closer to normal, and give us 50-80% of expected performance - the phone lags, is sluggish, takes longer to do things, makes us want a newer phone. We should be given the choice, i.e. get a pop-up warning us of the worn battery and need for replacement, while asking us to select whether we'd like to (1) conserve battery duration with less speed or (2) to retain full speed over a shorter period of time, during this charge cycle.

I don't see any evidence that Apple wouldn't consider the batteries in throttled devices replaceable. I'm pretty sure that the phones that are being throttled 50% are below 80% health, but Geekbench doesn't have health data so we can't verify that.

I think the problem is that most people don't understand how batteries work. As batteries age, they don't simply lose capacity, they also see their internal resistance increase. As you pull more current across a higher resistance, the voltage of the battery drops. If the resistance gets high enough and you're pulling enough current, the voltage will fall far enough to force a reset.

The reason for throttling isn't to extend run time, it's to avoid disruptive resets-- which can be annoying to the user but can also cause data corruption.

I think the "replace your battery" pop-up would be a good idea (though I also think the paranoid around here would argue that was an Apple money making scheme). The toggle you're suggesting though wouldn't do what you think it would-- if you turn off throttling you still wouldn't be able to run at full performance, it would just crash when CPU load jumped because it would be pulling too much current and dropping the cell voltage.

 

[lwells1441]

The problem is that for some people, their batteries are showing this behavior before the batteries drop below Apple's stupid "magical" 80% capacity limitation ....

80% of design capacity is considered EoL for more electronics companies; and with good reason.

 

[JM]

I think this thread has run its course and could be closed. Endless crazy speculations and arguments based on almost zero information is not healthy.

Sure. Not allowing people to speak their mind is the American way these days, isn't it?

Just ignore the thread... that's the healthiest option, and it will run its course naturally.

 

[Jmausmuc]

I don't see any evidence that Apple wouldn't consider the batteries in throttled devices replaceable. I'm pretty sure that the phones that are being throttled 50% are below 80% health, but Geekbench doesn't have health data so we can't verify that.

I think the problem is that most people don't understand how batteries work. As batteries age, they don't simply lose capacity, they also see their internal resistance increase. As you pull more current across a higher resistance, the voltage of the battery drops. If the resistance gets high enough and you're pulling enough current, the voltage will fall far enough to force a reset.

The reason for throttling isn't to extend run time, it's to avoid disruptive resets-- which can be annoying to the user but can also cause data corruption.

I think the "replace your battery" pop-up would be a good idea (though I also think the paranoid around here would argue that was an Apple money making scheme). The toggle you're suggesting though wouldn't do what you think it would-- if you turn off throttling you still wouldn't be able to run at full performance, it would just crash when CPU load jumped because it would be pulling too much current and dropping the cell voltage.

According to the reddit thread, this problem is not limited to batteries below 80% capacity. There were even people who claimed their phone was throttled while the diagnostics showed that the battery was fine and no replacement was made.

 

[Stan__]

What about if the phone is plugged to charge? Does it make difference to the speed if the battery has degraded? If the battery is bad and the phone feels sluggish, plugging it to a charger should bring the speed back. This I have seen in older laptops with crappy batteries as well.

 

[Act3]

What about if the phone is plugged to charge? Does it make difference to the speed if the battery has degraded? If the battery is bad and the phone feels sluggish, plugging it to a charger should bring the speed back. This I have seen in older laptops with crappy batteries as well.

Has no effect plugging it in

 

[predation]

this 100% explains why 11.2 works perfectly on my wife's iPhone 6, but is slow as molasses on my iPhone 6. My phone has heavy use, while hers is VERY light. Bought the same day (her's is white, mine is black)

#blackphonesmatter
Lol

 

[vzoftc]

users will switch to android for performance and battery life,so apple better do something quick,because the tables have turned.i really dont want to but im experiencing these issues on my ip6 as well ‍♂️

 

[Macalicious2011]

users will switch to android for performance and battery life,so apple better do something quick,because the tables have turned

I already have. My 5S got slow with time and I replaced it with a Samsung which has a high DPI OLED that curves around the side and is still fast - saving me from spending money on an iPhone X or Galaxy S8. My iPad 3 was borderline unusable after 2 OS upgrades. Now when I have an iPad Pro, automatic updates are off!

I couldn't be happier.

 

[nyffongo]

Class action lawsuit!!!! I cannot stand this practice.

 

[WannaGoMac]

You visited Macrumors. If you are so ignorant to not even check Apple's website, you wouldn't be visiting this site nor complaining.

I guess thats one way to think of it, other would be a company with a defect should reach out to their customer to notify them. Though I wasnt commenting about macrumors readers, i was saying in general a company should reach out such as how automobile manufacturers do.

 

[nerdAFK]

Stop ranting. Don’t be afraid of what you might discover. Pretend you are a scientist and do a simple test.

Put your in low power mode; now it is running at half speed. Operate your phone as usual. Scroll through 50 open tabs in Safari. See how amazingly smooth your phone is, even at 1/2 speed?

As I said, if you were having problems with words not appearing for 30 seconds, your problems were much different than simply a down clocked processor.

If you’re unwilling to investigate the effects of clock speed on a good battery, your credibility in this thread will suffer.

Please report back your findings and let us know how your phone works clocked at half speed.

Stop putting yourself to shame, bro.
You are like doing an experiment in a lab, regulating every parameter as exact as possible, while I have been using my iPhone in real life.
Using an iPhone is not like being in a controlled environment like the one you set above.

I don’t need to laboriously open 50 safari tabs to see what might happen, it means nothing. But I may run iMessage, Safari, Music, Maps Tweetbot ... simultaneously. 5-6 apps at the same time is not a high standard.

If you are knowledgeable enough to have watched the 2007 iPhone 1st gen keynote, you should know Steve Jobs demoed multitasking among Phone, Photos, Music, Mail, Safari all at the same time.

And my down-clocked from 1.4Ghz to 600MHz 6Plus can barely handle 3-4 apps altogether.
600MHz is faster than 1st iPhone of course, but the display has higher res to drive, apps are more resources hungry, blah blah blah.
Whatever the reason, that is not for the customers to deal with. It should just work.

So take off your scientist hat, get out of your imaginative lab and feel my actual words above.

What else explanations can you conjure except the fact that Apple throttled my iPhone?

 

[ctrlzone]

my 9 year old iPhone is still fast enough for me, i don't get it

 

[nerdAFK]

What about if the phone is plugged to charge? Does it make difference to the speed if the battery has degraded? If the battery is bad and the phone feels sluggish, plugging it to a charger should bring the speed back. This I have seen in older laptops with crappy batteries as well.

No plugging in doesn’t help.

 

[blackcrayon]

The issue is that the customer does not know that replacing their battery will improve performance.

That is on top of the fact that apple states that they will replace your battery if it drops under 80% , so while you say they are controlling user experience, they are also controlling $$$$ for replaced battery units.

Wouldn't the other side be that they could make a lot of money from selling replacement batteries? After all I can't imagine the majority of batteries showing wear were under warranty or Applecare.

 

[Applejuiced]

Stop ranting. Don’t be afraid of what you might discover. Pretend you are a scientist and do a simple test.

Put your in low power mode; now it is running at half speed. Operate your phone as usual. Scroll through 50 open tabs in Safari. See how amazingly smooth your phone is, even at 1/2 speed?

As I said, if you were having problems with words not appearing for 30 seconds, your problems were much different than simply a down clocked processor.

If you’re unwilling to investigate the effects of clock speed on a good battery, your credibility in this thread will suffer.

Please report back your findings and let us know how your phone works clocked at half speed.

The phone is amazingly smooth at even 1/2 speed?
Yeah tell us another one

 

[blackcrayon]

The phone is amazingly smooth at even 1/2 speed?
Yeah tell us another one

The phone is amazingly smooth at even 1/2 speed?
Yeah tell us another one

That's my experience, at least with the iPhone X. After all, an A11 iPhone in low power mode is about the speed of an A9 in "regular" power mode, and the A9 is no slouch.

 

[nerdAFK]

The phone is amazingly smooth at even 1/2 speed?
Yeah tell us another one

Each of his phone has one and only app.
Maybe 1/4 the speed will also satiate his meager desire for smoothness.
That’s why he would never understand us.
[doublepost=1513700000][/doublepost]

That's my experience, at least with the iPhone X. After all, an A11 iPhone in low power mode is about the speed of an A9 in "regular" power mode, and the A9 is no slouch.

Don’t get off topic here.
We all know iPhone X is a different beast. Its capability is irrelevant here.

 

[Applejuiced]

That's my experience, at least with the iPhone X. After all, an A11 iPhone in low power mode is about the speed of an A9 in "regular" power mode, and the A9 is no slouch.

Down-clocked from 1.4Ghz to 600MHz is actually below half speed.
Either way just because your brand new iPhone X flies for now it doesn't mean Apple will not pull the same thing on it within a year or so.
If you approve and encourage this shady practice of slowing down older devices then keep throwing thousands of dollars at Apple.
Im sure they will appreciate your donation and stockpile some more billions of dollars in cash

 

[PickUrPoison]

Stop putting yourself to shame, bro.
You are like doing an experiment in a lab, regulating every parameter as exact as possible, while I have been using my iPhone in real life.
Using an iPhone is not like being in a controlled environment like the one you set above.

I don’t need to laboriously open 50 safari tabs to see what might happen, it means nothing. But I may run iMessage, Safari, Music, Maps Tweetbot ... simultaneously. 5-6 apps at the same time is not a high standard.

If you are knowledgeable enough to have watched the 2007 iPhone 1st gen keynote, you should know Steve Jobs demoed multitasking among Phone, Photos, Music, Mail, Safari all at the same time.

And my down-clocked from 1.4Ghz to 600MHz 6Plus can barely handle 3-4 apps altogether.
600MHz is faster than 1st iPhone of course, but the display has higher res to drive, apps are more resources hungry, blah blah blah.
Whatever the reason, that is not for the customers to deal with. It should just work.

So take off your scientist hat, get out of your imaginative lab and feel my actual words above.

What else explanations can you conjure except the fact that Apple throttled my iPhone?

I never said your phone wasn’t downclocked. I said it wasn’t the source of the problem you keep talking about with words taking 30 seconds to pop up (input lag).

Also, you don’t understand how multirltasking works on iOS. Most of the processing power is given to the foreground app, other apps are suspended. I have 40-50 apps open always. I never close apps. It doesn’t affect my battery life or performance negatively. I also always have many Safari tabs open. Right now I have 58. I never close tabs to sites I visit regularly.

With my phone 6S on low power, and the CPU running at 900MHz, I have zero input lag while I’m typing this—and almost no stuttering or dropped frames when scrolling my Safari tabs.

You can ignore this fact, close your eyes, plug your ears and continue to rant, or you could take 10 or 15 minutes, open up 50 apps, open up 60 Safari tabs, put your phone in low power and be amazed at the performance. Or you could spend the next 12 hours ranting. Which is a better use of your time?

 

[C DM]

The phone is amazingly smooth at even 1/2 speed?
Yeah tell us another one

To be fair, are you saying there are really noticeable performance issues when people use Low Power Mode?

 

[magbarn]

80% of design capacity is considered EoL for more electronics companies; and with good reason.

The problem is that some of the batteries are behaving badly before the 80% wear point based on capacity alone. Apple won't replace those phones without an escalated argument when they're throttling....