No one backtracked. They offered $29 batteries and iOS 12 because they didn’t want to risk losing customer confidence in their products once it was found they were fooling people into buying new phones in iOS 11
And in my personal experience using 2 batteries those $29 batteries aren’t lasting as long as the usual $99 batteries in my experience. The battery health is depreciating faster.
In Apple’s defence:
iPhone X
I bought my X on 19th April 2018. By mid Dec 2018 the battery health was around 97% on iOS and around 95-96% on iMazing. It had around 200-220 cycles or so.
B2X Ansal Plaza (New Delhi, India) (kudos to them) swapped my battery for FREE under AppleCare+. The new battery came around 103%. After around 170 cycles it shows around 99% average on both iMazing and iOS.
So technically it seems just as good as the one Apple originally shipped mine with.
My iPhone X was originally on iOS 12 when the battery got replaced. There wasn’t much increase in battery life with the new battery, if any. However, I feel subsequent iOS updates have degraded battery life further.
iPhone 7
My mom’s iPhone 7’s warranty (Extended AppleCare) expired around October 2018. After that she got a fresh battery from B2X Ansal Plaza (New Delhi, India) for USD 29 or so. The new one is at 99% as per iMazing and iOS both, after around 160 cycles. And it came with 99.5-100% or so.
The original battery was down to 87% or so when we got it replaced. As per iOS.
Her battery life improved greatly once she upgraded her battery. Not hugely. But noticeably. She was on iOS 12 both before and after the battery swap. Now her battery life is like 60-70% of what it was back in December 2018. Maybe even less than that.
iPhone SE
My dad got his SE’s battery swapped under Extended Apple Care while we were in London. His old battery was at 92%. This was in May 2018. The new one was from Whitefield London. Apple didn’t charge a penny for it.
That time iOS 11 was the latest. The battery swap didn’t make any difference to his battery life. Before and after he was on iOS 11 till iOS 12 released.
1 yr later, he is on iOS 12.3. He gets around 2-3 HRs SOT but I’m pretty sure his battery life is defective.
Although iOS shows 92% for his new battery, iMazing/Coconut show that his battery health varies from 65% to 80%+ and usually is in the 70’s.
Also, restarting his iPhone sometimes shows his battery percentage to be 1%. And then in a few seconds it jumps back. But if it was 90% before the restart, after the restart it could show 1% and then Juno straight to 85% and work normally from there.
Sometimes his iPhone also shuts down on its own. These are signs of a defective battery.
He already has 400+ cycles on his phone. But the reason for that is that his iPhone barely lasts 2 HRs SOT on a single charge. So he is forced to charge it so many times.
My dad used to get 5-7 HRs SOT on iOS 11.3 or so.
Another iPhone SE
Had the same defective symptoms as my dad’s new (and now defective) SE battery with around 800+ cycles with iOS showing health as 85% or so. Got it swapped at B2X Ansal Plaza, New Delhi, India for USD 29 or so. The battery life more than doubled overnight.
It was on iOS 12 before and after.
[doublepost=1558251970][/doublepost]In
@Radon87000 ‘s defence, I do believe planned obscolence is real.
I have used many MI/Redmi android phones too (as secondary phones), as have others I know, and their battery/speed doesn’t decrease with updates. They receive updates every month or two as well. And even years later, the battery and speed is pretty much as good as new.
I do agree with him that as iOS 12 is progressing, overall, battery life seems to be going down except for devices from 2018 or later.