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Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

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Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#51
post #19
post #3

It's not only to make them run longer - they're reducing the peak demand on the batteries to avoid spontaneous shutdown when the aged battery can't handle the load. This seems like a good idea, and it appears to be well executed (ie it's not apparently based just on age or milage like a crappy car maintenance reminder), but Apple should probably have something in iOS that tells people their phone is running slow beca…

It IS a good idea. My step mom had a high end Samsung phone (not sure exactly which one) and it’s battery degraded enough within a year that it began to shut down randomly a lot.

I guess that means all Samsung phones ("not sure which ones") are inferior to Apple phones, hm? ;)

Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#52
post #20

How come that the MASSIVE slowdown of my iPhone 6s occurred after upgrading to iOS11? TBH the spin that Apple is sending out to make us believe that this was all a clever implementation (which it still might be) does not match with the reality that iOS 11 was creating the slowdown of a device that was working 'fine' before. And yes - this 6s is eligible for the battery replacement program and the Geekbench scores als…

did you upgrade from a version prior to 10.2? apparently that was when this was implemented

Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#53

Well, that makes me want to upgrade.

What makes you think that Android isn't subject to the same physical limits of older batteries? You have more ability to customize the Android phones response to the battery condition but that doesn't change the underlying reason for the slow down: The battery can't handle the requested load anymore.

Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#54

WOW. Conspiracy was real the whole time! Devil's Advocate to spark discussion (I'm not an iPhone owner so no dog in fight): Apple did the right thing by not putting a switch in to toggle this slowdown[1]. For many iPhone users, the phone is a magic box that gives them videos and apps and (unlike our HN audience) don't have a clue about how it works, nor do they care. If such a switch existed, these same people would…

> WOW. Conspiracy was real the whole time! No, because this is a new feature as of the iPhone 6. The conspiracy way predates that.

Why haven't I observed my old iPhone 4 or 5 spontaneously rebooting?

Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#55
My wife had a phone replaced off Apple about 6 months back because it was shutting down for no reason about 40% battery life.

She’s recently upgraded from 10.x to latest version. She’s noticed an actual decrease in performance to the point where she’s nearly punching the phone. It just locks up for no reason.

I’d like to blame this on the battery or age of the phone but I can’t. It is an iPhone 6 but it is only half a year old.

I believe that this phone should be able to handle the latest release just fine.

She’s now looking at upgrading the phone.

Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#56
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read both, and couldn't find any verbiage indicating they limited the cpu speed based upon the condition of the battery. Only that they "fixed a bug" to reduce "unexpected shutdowns."

Yes I think it's safe to assume that Apple is not going to be notifying users about CPU speed adjustments and when those occur, given that it changes based on anything from cold to hot temperatures.

It wouldn't have to be an event notification. It could be a once-a-month reminder that performance may be degraded.

Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#57
post #3

It's not only to make them run longer - they're reducing the peak demand on the batteries to avoid spontaneous shutdown when the aged battery can't handle the load. This seems like a good idea, and it appears to be well executed (ie it's not apparently based just on age or milage like a crappy car maintenance reminder), but Apple should probably have something in iOS that tells people their phone is running slow beca…

> they're reducing the peak demand on the batteries to avoid spontaneous shutdown when the aged battery can't handle the load.

It doesn't seem to help my gf had an iPhone 5 that started dying on peak demand but only after it got upgraded to new ios (i guess 8.0).

We replaced it (it had bad battery from the start and apple had a program for replacing those). After few years on new battery it started doing the same thing again. I replaced the battery and it stopped. But I know what I can expect in two years or so. Maybe I should stock on iPhone 5 batteries? Do they age less if they are unused?

Re: Apple Says It Slows Older iPhones to Save Their Battery Life

#60

Had the battery in my iPhone SE replaced about an hour ago to test this out Geekbench 4 benchmark before https://twitter.com/invisiblea/status/943439761066397696 And after https://twitter.com/invisiblea/status/943891561661812736

What app or site are you using to test that?
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