iOS 12.1 Extends Battery-Related Performance Management Feature to iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X

[honglong1976]

I do question why this isn't an issue in other Apple products. Also, was this an issue with iPhones prior to the 6? Wonder what changed.. was it quality of batteries?

Before I get flamed, I'm not disagreeing with the fact that all hardware are consumable products that "breakdown" over time due to chemistry. More just highlighting inconsistencies across time or products.

I am curious to know as well. Also, why other Li-ion battery devices are unaffected.

 

[puma1552]

still doesn't make up for the fact that the iPhone 8's battery is small AF....

I'm always a proponent of more battery life, but my 8 seems to have a great battery. Yeah it's at 94% health since my launch day purchase, but I've never wanted for anything with it even under heavy GPS use all day long in Europe on full brightness. I think the lowest it got one day was 20% by end of day but most days I still had 40% battery at the end of the day.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Seems like a problem that could have been solved if Apple bothered to ship their phones with an appropriately sized battery...

Seems you don't understand the reason they limit performance. It has nothing at all to do with battery size. Even a car battery sized option wouldn't negate the need for this performance limiting.

 

[neliason]

Because the overall size of the battery plays a role in whether or not it can supply the proper voltage under certain conditions. The iPad battery does not have the same constraints as the smaller iPhone batteries

I don’t see what that has to do with low power mode. Low power mode is about reducing system usage to preserve a charge.

Battery health applies to all batteries. iPad batteries lose charge capacity even if Apple isn’t throttling usage.

The worst part of this is that even though they don't provide battery information on devices like iPhone 5S or any iPad, iOS 12 removed any ability for battery apps to check battery information.

I didn’t know you could get that info through third parties. But Apple removing it seems just stupid.

 

[iapplelove]

Another person here with an X and the only option I see is low power mode. Nothing to indicate being able to disable this feature. Maybe it doesn't actually apply to the X?

It does. If you have maximum battery life you won’t have an option to turn it on.

Once the battery weakens iOS will indicate a weak battery enabling the option to turn on/off.

 

[FlyingDutchMan_27]

If this is limited to aging batteries, maybe someone can explain why my recently replaced Apple battery has crashed on me twice already?

My Battery is still at 100% maximum capacity and I have no option to disable the peak performance capability

 

[neliason]

This continues to be one of the dumbest controversies about an Apple product ever. It's like complaining about the anti-lock brakes on your car as if it's a conspiracy by auto manufacturers to prevent you from using the brakes to their full extent.

If you are going to go with a car analogy it is more like a car not letting you downshift to get more power when driving so that it can maintain a certain level of fuel efficiency and get the most out of a tank of gas.

 

[Hoyboy]

Size of the battery has nothing to do with this.

Except technically it does. If Apple gave a bigger battery then under same use cases less cycles would be put through the battery meaning the battery would not wear out as quickly.

 

[69Mustang]

Blame battery tech not Apple.

No, people should rightfully blame Apple. Although your missive was informative, it missed a few salient points. Some phones were shutting down without the requisite cycles to qualify as "degraded over time". Those are defective batteries, not time degraded batteries. Reports circulated of Apple store employees refusing battery replacements because the batteries didn't register as degraded via testing even though the phones were shutting down.

The best and ultimate solution to combat degraded/defective batteries is a battery replacement. Ironically, replacement was the solution Apple finally deployed after the slowdown was exposed. They also allowed replacement regardless of testing results. That was either due to pressure from bad press, acknowledgement that shutdowns occurred regardless of degradation, or a combination of both.

 

[gnipgnop]

This is Apple’s attempt to mitigate problems caused by a FAULT. It’s not normal behaviour.

Incorrect. 80% capacity, cold conditions, or low charge can effect voltage supply in any mobile phone sized battery in any mobile phone brand. Those are not faults. Those are realities with current lithium ion battery technology. It's no different than certain types of road/speed conditions causing the anti-lock brakes on your car to kick-in.

 

[longofest]

What the literal F. I was under the impression that Apple "fixed" this with iPhone 8 and above. If I had bought an iPhone 8 and now I have to deal with this ****, I'd be PISSED.

Is it better than the iPhone shutting down on you? Sure. But folks, remember that only apple seems to have this problem - no other smartphone manufacturer seems to have an issue where battery degradation requires slowing the phone in order to prevent reboots.

 

[gnipgnop]

I don’t see what that has to do with low power mode. Low power mode is about reducing system usage to preserve a charge.

When does low power mode activate on an iPhone? 20% charge. 20% charge is the standard threshold for when you can expect the voltage supply in a phone sized lithium ion battery to become less consistent.

 

[Nozuka]

Interesting... my launchday iPhone X still has 98% capacity.

 

[gnipgnop]

But folks, remember that only apple seems to have this problem - no other smartphone manufacturer seems to have an issue where battery degradation requires slowing the phone in order to prevent reboots.

Incorrect. Any phone-sized battery from any mobile phone manufacturer can have voltage supply issues at 80% capacity, in cold conditions, or with low charge. If they don't have the throttling feature and the CPU needs a voltage higher than your battery can supply, the phone shuts off. That's a safety feature for any phone. Not shutting the phone off could cause permanent damage. All Apple did was add a layer of software control that would prevent BOTH the overly high voltage demand and the automatic shut down.

 

[Scottsoapbox]

Blame battery tech not Apple. Apple didn't invent lithium-ion batteries. They simply chemically degrade over time due to charge and discharge cycles. No devices (not just smartphones) are immune from battery degradation. Same reason your cordless dustbuster/stick vac battery wont hold a charge after a certain amount of time; it has nothing to do with the device the battery is in but number or charge/discharge cycles.

"The lithium-ion battery works on ion movement between the positive and negative electrodes. In theory such a mechanism should work forever, but cycling, elevated temperature and aging decrease the performance over time. Manufacturers take a conservative approach and specify the life of Li-ion in most consumer products as being between 300 and 500 discharge/charge cycles."

Temperature 40% charge 100% charge
0°C 98% (after 1 year) 94% (after 1 year)
25°C 96% (after 1 year) 80% (after 1 year)
40°C 85% (after 1 year) 65% (after 1 year)
60°C 75% (after 1 year) 60% (after 3 months)

So charge cycles and ambient temperature make a HUGE difference in life of a battery. And since no one keeps their devices at 0°C (freezing point) and factoring most charge the battery to 100% each time, a 20% degradation after 1 year per the chart is proven by science. It's not simply "Apple said"

The part you aren't grasping is that IN SPITE of the commonly known occurrence of battery degradation APPLE DID NOT ACCOUNT FOR THE VOLTAGE DROP THIS CAUSES IN THEIR DESIGN.

Thus crashing iPhones when the battery degrading lowers the voltage available under heavy load. This would be avoided by A) designing the CPU to handle the inevitable voltage drop over a few years of usage or B) selecting a battery with more 'headroom' such that a few years of degradation didn't drop its voltage below what the CPU required.

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

iPhones, like many other consumer electronics, are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which have a limited lifespan. As the battery in your iPhone ages, its ability to hold a charge slowly diminishes.

Yes, THIS!

Apple is at no fault here. Dont know why people keep blaming them for this issue without knowing all the facts. What do you expect? Apple to overcome the laws of physics, chemistry & whatever else???

Its not like one of the worlds biggest company (in terms of market value), with 40-50 odd billion dollars of annual profits can simply ask (arguably) the best & (most probably) one of the highest paid mobile engineering & design team to come up with some revolutionary earth shattering solution in a mobile device where the so called battery can be replaceable without making the device hideous & impractical.

Its not like this planet has any shortage of raw materials or junkyards. Just use it until the ~20 dollar battery lasts and then simply throw it (along with the rest of ~980 dollar worth product) in the ocean and get a new one instead. Thanks apple

 

[Baymowe335]

Except technically it does. If Apple gave a bigger battery then under same use cases less cycles would be put through the battery meaning the battery would not wear out as quickly.

I don't even know if that's true. I replaced 3 batteries in my Note and never once in any iPhone. Batteries wear out over time, that's the idea here. If Apple used a 10% bigger battery, it would still degrade to the same point after another month of cycles.

 

[Knight3]

This feature should be user controlled not Apple deceiving some customers into buying a new phone when they can just have a battery replaced to fix the problem. All this battery degradation is fully understandable and shouldn't be used as an excuse to slowdown and shutting down phones. Apple can intergrate a charge cycle info into iOS if they wanted to, to show people they use their phone a lot and they charge it too much. Everybody understands it, that's a law of nature the more you use I the faster you wear it down. Not a lame excuses how lithium technology blah, blah, blah... It doesn't matter even old battery technology or future battery technology this will have the same effect, eventually you gonna wear it down and it depends how much you use them. It may last longer in the future but eventually you gonna wear it down and it needs a replacement.

Would you prefer your iPhone turn into a grenade like the Note 7 did instead?

 

[Baymowe335]

The part you aren't grasping is that IN SPITE of the commonly known occurrence of battery degradation APPLE DID NOT ACCOUNT FOR THE VOLTAGE DROP THIS CAUSES IN THEIR DESIGN.

Thus crashing iPhones when the battery degrading lowers the voltage available under heavy load. This would be avoided by A) designing the CPU to handle the inevitable voltage drop over a few years of usage or B) selecting a battery with more 'headroom' such that a few years of degradation didn't drop its voltage below what the CPU required.

Why are you acting like you're an Apple hardware engineer? You literally have no idea what Apple did in their design.

 

[neliason]

When does low power mode activate on an iPhone? 20% charge. 20% charge is the standard threshold for when you can expect the voltage supply in a phone sized lithium ion battery to become less consistent.

So you are saying that below a 20% charge an iPhone batter may not supply the necessary power? So what exactly happens when it doesn’t get all the power it needs? In most computers failure to get power would result in data corruption and a system failure. I don’t see that happening on my phone if I don’t turn on low power mode.

Regardless, low power mode is great for preserving a full charge longer on any device.

 

[blackcrayon]

Because the overall size of the battery plays a role in whether or not it can supply the proper voltage under certain conditions. The iPad battery does not have the same constraints as the smaller iPhone batteries.

I think the OP was referring to Low Power Mode, the manual software switch which dials down the CPU clock speed and "pulls other levers" to save battery power on the iPhone.

I guess Apple doesn't see the need on the iPad, but I'm sure it would help at least a little and require very little work to enable it. SoCs in current iPads are so incredibly fast it probably wouldn't be noticable in many cases.

 

[archvile]

Blame battery tech not Apple. Apple didn't invent lithium-ion batteries. They simply chemically degrade over time due to charge and discharge cycles. No devices (not just smartphones) are immune from battery degradation. Same reason your cordless dustbuster/stick vac battery wont hold a charge after a certain amount of time; it has nothing to do with the device the battery is in but number or charge/discharge cycles.



Huh? What does battery capacity have to do with number recharge cycles and chemical degradation of a lithium-ion battery? ALL batteries degrade over time.


"The lithium-ion battery works on ion movement between the positive and negative electrodes. In theory such a mechanism should work forever, but cycling, elevated temperature and aging decrease the performance over time. Manufacturers take a conservative approach and specify the life of Li-ion in most consumer products as being between 300 and 500 discharge/charge cycles."

Temperature 40% charge 100% charge
0°C 98% (after 1 year) 94% (after 1 year)
25°C 96% (after 1 year) 80% (after 1 year)
40°C 85% (after 1 year) 65% (after 1 year)
60°C 75% (after 1 year) 60% (after 3 months)

So charge cycles and ambient temperature make a HUGE difference in life of a battery. And since no one keeps their devices at 0°C (freezing point) and factoring most charge the battery to 100% each time, a 20% degradation after 1 year per the chart is proven by science. It's not simply "Apple said"

I had an iPhone 8 from launch day that I used for a year, every day, and charging to full every night. When I sold it a few weeks ago to upgrade to the Max, the battery Health was still 100%. I never played games on it and used minimal apps. I think the way it is used has a lot more effect than natural degradation, as evidenced by people who said their 8 batteries were showing 85-95% in the same time span.

 

[redneckitengineer]

iPhone X users, grab your pitchforks. Time to unite against your expectation of a perfect battery for life.... rofl.

 

[gnipgnop]

So you are saying that below a 20% charge an iPhone batter may not supply the necessary power? So what exactly happens when it doesn’t get all the power it needs? In most computers failure to get power would result in data corruption and a system failure. I don’t see that happening on my phone if I don’t turn on low power mode.

Mobile phones have an auto shutoff if the voltage requested is too high for the battery. That prevents damage to the phone. It's also the original reason that Apple added the throttling feature: users were complaining about the phone shutting off in situations where it was important for them to be able to continue to use the phone...like an emergency, for example.

 

[agsystems]

This is Apple’s attempt to mitigate problems caused by a FAULT. It’s not normal behaviour.

This was not a problem in earlier iOS devices, nor is it one in later devices.

It’s also not dumb to complain that your phone becomes janky and unresponsive in everyday use

Going into demanding apps, like CityMapper takes a LOT longer while power management is enabled.

^^^this make sense - I think this is related to the rapid clock scaling that happen after we went to 6s and higher (meanwhile battery size remain relatively the same)

ex: the 6 (A8) runs at 1.4mhz - the 7 (A8) jacked up the Max CPU rate to 1.85mhz, the 8 (A9) again when up to 2.3mhz

After we went to the A10 - we now have high/low power cores so this problem is likely being mitigated and you will rarely notice it as the phone is probably running on low cores most of the time putting less stress on the battery.