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iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

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Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#41

Post by macintux »

maltalex wrote: post #19

This screams "planned obsolescence". If battery scaling is a feature, then why isn't it mentioned by Apple? Why do we need a Reddit thread and a third party benchmarking tool to figure it out? Also, why does the google search for "iphone slow" peak every time a new iPhone is released ( https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iphone%2... )? Is it purely psychological? I can't find there are no similar spik…

When was the last time a new Android phone was the subject of interest to half a billion people? Apple's regular but infrequent release cycle for new phones (and corresponding new version of iOS) lends itself to a cyclical search pattern as well.

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#42

Post by MBCook »

Someone1234 wrote: post #6

I feel like more transparency would have been welcomed, but aside from that this is a "no win" situation, since you have to pick a winner: - Do you degrade performance but leave screen-on time relatively unchanged? - Do you degrade screen-on time but leave performance relatively unchanged? Most Android devices seem to do the opposite (lose screen-on time, but keep performance relatively unchanged). Different people w…

If anything his seems like a reaction to the yearly ‘planned obselescense’ stuff where people claim Apple killed their battery life to make them upgrade.

People don’t want to lose battery life? Ok, we can adjust so it doesn’t change much over the life of the phone.

Of course that just lead to ‘Apple slows your phone down’.

You’re right, it’s a tough spot.

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#43

Post by tolien »

ramphastidae wrote: post #39
derefr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's replaceable, just not as a DIY. Apple encourages people to take their phones into Apple stores/authorized dealers to get the battery replaced. (Also, the repair is free if the battery's capacity has declined to <80% while under warranty. If you pay for two-year AppleCare+ [$99], you've basically pre-paid for a free battery replacement [normally also $99] at the two-year mark, as long as you've used—abused?—your…

> If you buy 3-year AppleCare, you're effectively pre-paying for at least one battery top-up.) Unless I'm missing something, AppleCare on new iPhones is limited to two years ... which, in my experience, is just shortly before iPhone batteries degrade noticeably.

The AppleCare itself lasts two years, but that’s in addition to the year you get by default. The two don’t run concurrently.

Edit: no, they do run concurrently. See child post.

GP’s edited the reference to 3 years anyway.

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#45

Post by slg »

mikerg87 wrote: post #3

How do non-apple devices cope as they age ? Any word on what Nexus, Galaxy or Pixel devices of a similar vintage do? does the performance stay the same but the battery life becomes shorter?

Electric cars have fundamentally the same problem and Tesla decided to attack it by hiding some of the battery's capacity when the car is new. While the car might report to the user it is 100% full, it might only be actually 90% full. The battery can therefore lose a decent percent of its capacity before the user will ever notice the difference. This decision was made because cars obviously have a longer ownership cycle than phones and a drastic drop in range as a car ages is a huge flaw. But I do wonder if any phone companies might start to rethink this decision now that we are seeing some people use the same smartphone for 3-5 years.

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#46

Post by izacus »

copperx wrote: post #18
izacus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Android devices have rather severe issues with flash degradation (due to use of cheaper chips, controllers and connection... cheap MMC controllers are still very standard) which makes them practically unusable after a few years.

Is this true for flagship Android devices too?

Depends really, a lot of them nowdays use better flash controllers and technology (e.g. UFS) but only time can tell how they cope with aging. Pixels seem to be doing quite well.

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#47

Post by rrdharan »

derefr wrote: post #31
leeoniya wrote: post #4

> This will likely feed into the “planned obsolescence” narrative. well, non-replaceable battery and all...

It's replaceable, just not as a DIY. Apple encourages people to take their phones into Apple stores/authorized dealers to get the battery replaced. (Also, the repair is free if the battery's capacity has declined to <80% while under warranty. If you pay for two-year AppleCare+ [$99], you've basically pre-paid for a free battery replacement [normally also $99] at the two-year mark, as long as you've used—abused?—your…

You can DIY. It's really not that bad. I replaced the battery twice on my iPhone 6. The first time took me maybe 40 minutes, the second time went faster since I knew how to do it.

https://www.ifixit.com/Store/iPhone/iPhone-6-Replacement-Bat...

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#48

Post by pbreit »

Someone1234 wrote: post #6

I feel like more transparency would have been welcomed, but aside from that this is a "no win" situation, since you have to pick a winner: - Do you degrade performance but leave screen-on time relatively unchanged? - Do you degrade screen-on time but leave performance relatively unchanged? Most Android devices seem to do the opposite (lose screen-on time, but keep performance relatively unchanged). Different people w…

How about a bigger battery? My primary criterion with each iPhone purchase is which has longest battery life.

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#49

Post by ramphastidae »

tolien wrote: post #43
ramphastidae wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you buy 3-year AppleCare, you're effectively pre-paying for at least one battery top-up.) Unless I'm missing something, AppleCare on new iPhones is limited to two years ... which, in my experience, is just shortly before iPhone batteries degrade noticeably.

The AppleCare itself lasts two years, but that’s in addition to the year you get by default. The two don’t run concurrently. Edit: no, they do run concurrently. See child post. GP’s edited the reference to 3 years anyway.

Curious if you have a source on that? I see otherwise here: https://www.apple.com/support/products/iphone.html

I bought a new iPhone about 48 hours ago and was told the same thing as shown above.

Re: iPhone Performance Degrades as Battery Ages

#50

Post by yoodenvranx »

pbreit wrote: post #48
Someone1234 wrote: post #6

I feel like more transparency would have been welcomed, but aside from that this is a "no win" situation, since you have to pick a winner: - Do you degrade performance but leave screen-on time relatively unchanged? - Do you degrade screen-on time but leave performance relatively unchanged? Most Android devices seem to do the opposite (lose screen-on time, but keep performance relatively unchanged). Different people w…

How about a bigger battery? My primary criterion with each iPhone purchase is which has longest battery life.

Apple has decided that people want to buy razorthin phones and there is just not way to fit a large battery in there.

I wish there were phones built like the old IBM thinkpads. Bulky, square, ugly but also indestructible and fully user servicable with replaceable batteries.

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