Apple admits it slows down older phones. What are your thoughts about it?

Premium1

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

Apples choices:

1. People with older phones where the battery has degraded to the point where processes due to the upgraded OS kill their phone during high demand times complain because their phone is dying and aren’t smart enough to either buy a new phone or replace their battery which is common sense.

2. Apple finds a way to slow these same phones down only during these high demand times so that the phone performs better and people complain because Apple was “hiding something from them”.

Conclusion: people will complain about anything and throw around the term “class action lawsuit” any time they can.

Ah yes spending $800+ when a simple battery replacement could fix it... The issue is in many cases apple flat out denying people a new battery (even if they want to pay for it) because it "passed" their battery test. For people who read these forums, yes it is common sense about battery, for most non tech people it is not. It still is a case of apple hindering performance to try and get users onto a new phone. That is the issue people are taking. Not sure why this is so difficult for some to understand.
 

anon(50597)

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Apple admits it slows down older phones

Ah yes spending $800+ when a simple battery replacement could fix it... The issue is in many cases apple flat out denying people a new battery (even if they want to pay for it) because it "passed" their battery test. For people who read these forums, yes it is common sense about battery, for most non tech people it is not. It still is a case of apple hindering performance to try and get users onto a new phone. That is the issue people are taking. Not sure why this is so difficult for some to understand.

They helped people keep the phone they had. That shouldn’t be difficult for people to understand. Smartphones aren’t new, they’ve been out for a while now so most people should understand the battery wont last more than a couple/few years.

I will again agree that Apples communication on what they were attempting to fix could have been better. Every company wants customers to buy as much of their product as possible. I’m still going to stick with it was nothing evil though.
 

doogald

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

Ah yes spending $800+ when a simple battery replacement could fix it... The issue is in many cases apple flat out denying people a new battery (even if they want to pay for it) because it "passed" their battery test.
If the phone passes the battery test, then it is not being throttled to prevent sudden shutdown, and replacing the battery will not fix anything.
 

reeneebob

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

Much ado about nothing...and here comes the ZOMG WE MUST SUE!1!1!!!111!
 

Wotchered

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

If the phone passes the battery test, then it is not being throttled to prevent sudden shutdown, and replacing the battery will not fix anything.

Ah, but can you be sure that the Apple battery test provides the high stress that will cause the iPhone to crash ... or is it just a placebo to save them money ?
 

doogald

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

Ah, but can you be sure that the Apple battery test provides the high stress that will cause the iPhone to crash ... or is it just a placebo to save them money ?

It has nothing to do with how much the battery is stressed at the moment - it has to do with how degraded the battery cells have become over time. If the cells are still showing good health, the phone will not have a reason to throttle the processors to prevent low voltage shutdown.

If you have a Mac, get the free app Coconut Battery, connect your iPhone to your computer, and open the iOS tab on Coconut battery. It will tell you the maximum capacity of your battery compared with original design, so you can see for yourself. See https://www.imore.com/how-check-your-iphone-ipad-and-macbooks-battery-health
 

comiken205

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

I searched for apps like this for Windows. Nothing I found is compatible. Anyone have anything?
 

metllicamilitia

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

Class action!!!! How can I make $5??? LOL.

(Laughing)....I know, right?

Yeah give me money because Apple didn’t tell me they wanted to keep phones running as smooth as possible for longer and reduce the erratic behavior of older batteries.....

Jokes aside, they could have been more upfront about it. However, lawsuits are uncalled for here.
 

Just_Me_D

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

Yeah give me money because Apple didn’t tell me they wanted to keep phones running as smooth as possible for longer and reduce the erratic behavior of older batteries.....

Jokes aside, they could have been more upfront about it. However, lawsuits are uncalled for here.

Of course....
 

anon(50597)

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

Yeah give me money because Apple didn’t tell me they wanted to keep phones running as smooth as possible for longer and reduce the erratic behavior of older batteries.....

Jokes aside, they could have been more upfront about it. However, lawsuits are uncalled for here.

Agreed.
 

iN8ter

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I’m pretty much done with iPhones after this year, so I really don’t care. I only got this one to use while I wait on the next Pixels XL to release.

Once that comes, I’m jumping ship since I don’t foresee myself upgrading my Mac with another iMac, and it’s a bit long in the tooth and completely non-upgradeable.

I think it’s pretty obvious that batteries get worse over time. I don’t need Apples help preserving battery life when the tasks I perform on my phone depend on performance.

Why do they think I got an iPhone? For the performance, which is what they’re always crying about when they’re trying to sell us a new phone.

I hope they get destroyed with those lawsuits.
 

iN8ter

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It’s not “when they upgrade their iOS version”, nor “on older phones”, it’s when the battery starts degrading.
The hardware performance is throttled to maximize what’s left of the battery life aka you’re due to replace it anyway so you might as well take advantage of the situation.

You don’t get to dictate what people are due to replace. If their iPhone 6 is fast enough for what they do, the phone is fine for them.

What the throttling does is make people think their phone is no good by rendering it unusable for scenarios that were totally viable before the software artificially and secretly destroyed the device performance.

Suddenly, your A8 is about as good as an A5. Gratz!

This was misleading and you have to be retarded not to think Apple knew this fed into their upgrade cycles. I am not even sure why people are explaining this away, or trying.

The iPhone 6 Plus we had was perfect until the phone got throttled, at which point it became literally unusable and the person it belong to upgraded it to an 8 Plus.

In the real world, people aren’t making excuses. They’re just thinking their phones are done and they need a new $800 device. Apple does not tell them their phone is throttled, or that their battery is past that arbitrary threshold.

Also, I have an old HTC M8 here. The battery life is terrible now, but it runs at full speed and it has never shut down in the ice rink while iPhones do this all the time.

Apples issues are not a general LiIon problem. There is something wrong with the iPhones that do this, from a design perspective.

Especially when you factor in the HTC has more sensors, etc. than an iPhone 6 Plus and a smaller battery capacity even brand new. Either you’re eating up the BS Apple is feeding you, or you’re going to have to believe that HTC is using considerably better batteries in their cheaper phones.

The 6 Plus was bought mid cycle, so it wasn’t a 3 year old phone, either. It was just paid off a couple of months ago (27 months old, at most).

I have seen dozens of iPhones cut off when they get cold, in the ice rink here. That, or aggressive battery drain, which is why most people who train here have battery cases on their iPhones, or leave them in the lobby (“warm room”). I use my M8 on the ice. It has NEVER shut down on me, and the battery life is the same in the facility, by the ice surface, as it is in Florida during the summer

Again: I have never seen an Android device do this in the ice rink here - ever. If someone complains about “their phone” doing this, you can guess it’s an iPhone with 100% accuracy.

These issues, and this terrible workaround, are pretty much exclusive to iPhones.

Most Android phones as old or older than an iPjone 6 have removable batteries (Note 3/4, etc.) so they aren’t at the mercy of some - possibly rigged - OEM battery test to get a battery replacement and restore their device performance.

The secrecy and lack of transparency is problematic. The degree to which devices are throttled is problematic. Most people will blame the phone and replace it, because the device does not inform them and the batteries aren’t easily replaceable.
 

Ledsteplin

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Re: Apple admits it slows down older phones

You don’t get to dictate what people are due to replace. If their iPhone 6 is fast enough for what they do, the phone is fine for them.

What the throttling does is make people think their phone is no good by rendering it unusable for scenarios that were totally viable before the software artificially and secretly destroyed the device performance.

Suddenly, your A8 is about as good as an A5. Gratz!

This was misleading and you have to be retarded not to think Apple knew this fed into their upgrade cycles. I am not even sure why people are explaining this away, or trying.

The iPhone 6 Plus we had was perfect until the phone got throttled, at which point it became literally unusable and the person it belong to upgraded it to an 8 Plus.

In the real world, people aren’t making excuses. They’re just thinking their phones are done and they need a new $800 device. Apple does not tell them their phone is throttled, or that their battery is past that arbitrary threshold.

Also, I have an old HTC M8 here. The battery life is terrible now, but it runs at full speed and it has never shut down in the ice rink while iPhones do this all the time.

Apples issues are not a general LiIon problem. There is something wrong with the iPhones that do this, from a design perspective.

Especially when you factor in the HTC has more sensors, etc. than an iPhone 6 Plus and a smaller battery capacity even brand new.

I have seen dozens of iPhones cut off when they get cold. I have never seen an Android device do this in the ice rink here - ever.

These issues, and this terrible workaround, are practically exclusive to iPhones.

When you toggle on "low power mode", it does basically the same thing. It slows the CPU down some. It's not an issue. It helps iPhones with terribly degraded batteries. One likely wouldn't notice the difference.
 

iN8ter

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When you toggle on "low power mode", it does basically the same thing. It slows the CPU down some. It's not an issue. It helps iPhones with terribly degraded batteries. One likely wouldn't notice the difference.

You can turn that on and off, it’s your choice.

And it’s not a 40-60% permanent performance downgrade.

Bad comparison. Try again, please.

If you don’t think you’d notice the difference, the. You’re completely clueless. If I switched your PC CPU from an i7 to an i3, you’d notice that too - especially if you bought it with the i7 tonrun specific types of apps and the performance of those apps was heavily impacted.

Battery life is longevity. Not performance.

M8 still performs like a mint device. It just doesn’t run as long. I can plan around battery life issues.

The iPhone 6 Plus became literally useless with the throttling. Crashes, freezes, black screens, etc.

Useless.

I’m not even sure what your point is supposed to be, other than attempting to willfully mislead others with blatant intellectual dishonesty.

No one complained about the battery life on that iPhone. It was, at the very least, as good as the smaller iPhone 6. I didn’t start hearing complaints until the throttling kicked in.

I never thought that the battery capacity may be an issue, so I definitely don’t think most of the average Joes and James I know would ever think about this without the phone telling them to their face. I thought the software simply was too heavy and the CPU was simply showing it’s age - so I upgraded it.

If I knew the issue was a $79 battery, I’d have paid 90% less to fix it, instead.

Lastly: Please link/quote me Apple’s reference from which the term “terribly degraded” is derived, in this context. Right now, it’s literally nothing but sheepish, colorful language.
 

Ledsteplin

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You can turn that on and off, it’s your choice.

And it’s not a 40-60% permanent performance downgrade.

Bad comparison. Try again, please.

If you don’t think you’d notice the difference, the. You’re completely clueless. If I switched your PC CPU from an i7 to an i3, you’d notice that too - especially if you bought it with the i7 tonrun specific types of apps and the performance of those apps was heavily impacted.

Battery life is longevity. Not performance.

M8 still performs like a mint device. It just doesn’t run as long. I can plan around battery life issues.

The iPhone 6 Plus became literally useless with the throttling. Crashes, freezes, black screens, etc.

Useless.

I’m not even sure what your point is supposed to be, other than attempting to willfully mislead others with blatant intellectual dishonesty.

No one complained about the battery life on that iPhone. It was, at the very least, as good as the smaller iPhone 6. I didn’t start hearing complaints until the throttling kicked in.

I never thought that the battery capacity may be an issue, so I definitely don’t think most of the average Joes and James I know would ever think about this without the phone telling them to their face.

Please quote me the reference from which the term “terribly degraded” is based, BTW. Right now, it’s literally nothing but useless colorful language.


My point is the lowered CPU is the same affect. And it's not likely to happen unless the battery is in horrible shape. Most of us won't ever experience it, because we upgrade our phones every year or two. If the battery is that bad, then it's time to replace it or upgrade. Or continue with a badly degraded battery with Apple's help to make it run better.
 

iN8ter

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My point is the lowered CPU is the same affect. And it's not likely to happen unless the battery is in horrible shape. Most of us won't ever experience it, because we upgrade our phones every year or two. If the battery is that bad, then it's time to replace it or upgrade. Or continue with a badly degraded battery with Apple's help to make it run better.

The effect of low power mode is a deliberate decision the user makes to manage power when they cannot charge. Phones can do it automatically but this falls off once the phone is charged, or if it’s connected to power.

That is a completely different scenario.

Like I said. You make no sense. That is not a point. That’s a distraction, because it’s a TERRIBLE comparison. Users didn’t choose this. Apple did, ignoring the fact that many users depended on the device’s performance to get use out of that device.

I don’t care what other people do. When I buy a phone because they say it’s fast and runs things well, I expect it to run that well whether the battery life is 10 hours or 1. When the battery life gets horrible, I clearly know what the issue is.

Destroying performance and trying to cover it up is confusing and can lead users to think they need a new phone - not a new battery. People can, as I did, simply think the hardware is too old - to the point where fixing the battery isn’t worth it, anyways... when the reality is a much MUCH cheaper fix can restore mint performance levels.

The fact that you upgrade so often leaves you completely ignorant of how unusable these devices can be. They are practically paperweight. I have a 3rd gen iPod Touch that ran circles around the 6 Plus in reliability because the later versions of iOS are and were not designed to run on such low performance CPUs.

This is why PC software (all software, really) has system requirements.

Keep in mind, people DIDN’T KNOW the phones were slow due to under-clocking until this came out. Before then, it was a secret. It was a myth. People on this very forum were mocked simply for insinuating something like this was happening!

I’m well aware that Apple wanted us to get a new phone (that they succeeded at!), but you’re making little sense and your rationale (most people upgrade, therefore it’s okay for them to screw us) is completely illogical.

Most people I know keep their phones for 2-3 years, and a lot of them upgrade mid cycle so model numbers can only approximate device age.

iMore isn’t a snapshot of the real world. It’s only a snapshot of a section of Apple’s most devout fans.

Most people live to see those $35-45 device charges fall off of their bills, and would like it to remain off as long as possible.
 
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bamf-hacker

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If the choice is your device rebooting because the battery is degraded and the device is hitting it hard or degrading performance so the device still works, I will take degraded performance. If you are on an old device with lots and lots of charge cycles then its probably time for a new device or battery anyway.
 

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