Ah, thanks Apple

Apple has confirmed the suspicions of many iPhone owners by revealing it does deliberately slow down some models of the iPhone as they age.

seems sensible

Seems sensible – you do have the option of getting the battery replaced.

Sensible would be the phone offering the choice of
1. Just dealing with a flaky battery
2. Booking the phone in for a battery swap
3. Throttling phone performance to help a failing battery

Just throttling performance without telling customers what’s going on isn’t the right thing to do.

Indeed, shutdown at 10-20% is a common issue, Now that people are aware they have a relatively cheap fix to extend the life of their device rather than just thinking their only option is upgrade due to a failing phone

It does seem sensible, but strange that you wouldn’t actually publicise such a sensible feature until someone else reveals it. I wonder why that is, any ideas anybody?

you do have the option of getting the battery replaced.

But not if they don;t tell you it needs doing.

I wonder why that is, any ideas anybody?

To be fair, the vast number of phone users are not tech-literate and also would probably never be aware of any such announcement even if it was made. It is consistent with their desire to make things as simple as possible.

Unless you only ever use your phone when it’s on charge or connected to an external battery, who would ever choose a slight speed increase over battery life (on an already knackered battery)?

Agree it would’ve been nice if they’d mentioned it though 🙂

I knew my battery needed replaced on one of mine as it wasn’t working as good, it was replaced for free and the phone was back to normal.

I wonder why that is, any ideas anybody?

Perception, status, cachet etc.
Apple see themselves as an aspirational, premium lifestyle brand. Why would they advertise that some of their older products do not perform as well as they should, especailly when there are millions still in circulation?

My laptop just pops a message up saying the battery is nearing the end of its life. Apple could have just done that, but I guess less people would buy a new phone at upwards of 800 pounds…

Other phones are available.

True Ziippy and some had more concerning battery issues.

My laptop just pops a message up saying the battery is nearing the end of its life.

Yep and you can easily buy and fit a new battery to your laptop.

But Apple’s philosophy is about making complex devices into non-technical sealed consumer units which means technical things like an easily replaceable battery are dropped for the sake of simplicity (and profit obviously).

..but I guess less people would buy a new phone..

“fewer” ffs

“fewer” ffs

damn autocorrect..

Even the most simple minded person can change a battery on a typical Android phone.

WTF does Apple seal their phones for? Apart from profit?

This could explain why my 6 is very very slow yet 2.5yrs in the battery still appears ok !

Seems sensible – you do have the option of getting the battery replaced.

+1

This could explain why my 6 is very very slow yet 2.5yrs in the battery still appears ok !

Download GeekBench4 for 99p and compare with these results.

Just tested my 6s with GeekBench4 – scored > 2500, so no slow down yet.

I understand it is just the 6s that they will replace the battery for free?

You can check if you are eligible here

Mine is so I am going to take it in in the new year.

My laptop just pops a message up saying the battery is nearing the end of its life.

My MBP has been saying that for the last 6 years, still works ok (2-3 hours battery life).

Even the most simple minded person can change a battery on a typical Android phone.

I thought some of the Android phones had switched to sealed cases too these days?

e.g. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+S8+Battery+Replacement/90309 doesn’t look like a simple job

Remembering you are paying 79 for a 2.50 battery to get the speed back.

Now contract are running for more than 2 years I guess this is a way to stop people coming and claiming a battery before they have finished paying for the device.

I wonder if STW’s hosting provider needs its battery changing too? 😉

hamsters need batteries now?

hamsters need batteries now?

Well rabbits do…

I just replaced the battery on my 6. Not that hard really & made a huge difference.
I was going to get a new phone this year, but won’t bother for another year or two now.

Even the most simple minded person can change a battery on a typical Android phone.

WTF does Apple seal their phones for? Apart from profit?
Not at all true I’m afraid. None of my last 4 Android phones have had an easily replaceable battery, same goes for any of my wife’s phones.

Most of them are totally sealed. My current one hasn’t even got a sodding headphone jack or SD card slot.

That’s really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve had my iPhone 6 shut down unexpectedly in cold(ish) weather recently; this gives me an avenue to explore.

You can take your idevice into an apple store (or send it off if you want) and they will test it for you.

I run the public beta software and iOS 11 was killing the battery life. I wanted to know if it was below the hardware replacement threshold. It wasn’t (80% in two years, mine was at 83%). It seems to have resolved itself now.

I haven’t noticed any throttling of speed, but it does need a top-up during the day.

I’d noticed my 6 has been exceedingly slow since going to iOS 11. It had me thinking that I’d change over to an Android phone next, as I believed Apple had the attitude to “slow them down to make them upgrade”.

As it turns out I’d decided to order a new battery for <£20 at the start of this week after a sudden shutdown in the cold last weekend. Fingers crossed I get a speed boost out of this too.

someone said the other day “probably should give them a massive tax break to sort this out”…….I chortled

Androids use same battery technology but I don’t think Google show older phones down with updates?

Conversely as of today my mac book pro battery has started to last more than 30 minutes.

Pretty sure most people replace their phones, regardless of make, well before any issues to do with an aging battery become really apparent.
Let’s face it, Samsung, LG and other manufacturers don’t spend huge sums advertising their latest whizzy new phones everywhere just for the lolz, do they?
They’re hardly going to encourage people to hang on to their phone for three or four years for altruistic reasons, now are they…

is this the same for ipads?

If Samsung/Google did this with updates I might believe Apple.

As is, it’s utter BS.

This is Apple after all.

Battery now flat, battery level display not working properly.

http://bgr.com/2017/12/21/apple-slowing-old-iphones-how-to-tell/

Poopscoop – Member
If Samsung/Google did this with updates I might believe Apple.

As is, it’s utter BS.

This is Apple after all.
Ha!
Half the time Google can’t be arsed to update versions of Android, and have zero interest in helping battery life of phones they don’t manufacture, they only produce the OS after all.
And Samsung have a history of iffy batteries, they make them, whereas Apple don’t, they rely on the likes of Samsung and Sony, who themselves were responsible for exploding laptop batteries.

is this the same for ipads?

Good point, but unlikely, the batteries are that much larger in capacity.

What’s wrong with planned obsolescence. Every engineered product has a useful service life. It’s built into every other product we buy. Nothing lasts forever especially IT kit. Keeping old iPhone 4’s and earlier up and running with multiple versions of the Operating system and multiple versions of apps for different phone models to keep the old creaking things limping on long after they should be binned isn’t really feasible for Apple or any other tech company.