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A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

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Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#441

Post by MBCook »

dandersh wrote: post #334
MBCook wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple hadn’t made this change those phones would have randomly turned off instead. Those people probably would’ve gone and bought either a new were iPhone or switch to android like you did. On the whole I don’t think this would have caused anyone to spend money they wouldn’t have otherwise. Perhaps they would have stayed with their phone longer. It’s hard to tell, and this is certainly worse than if they had just…

"If Apple hadn’t made this change those phones would have randomly turned off instead" If Apple hadn't redlined the CPU to hit benchmarks the battery wouldn't have been in such a poor state to need to be shut down/throttled so early in its lifecycle. They are 100% to blame this situation and have taken the least consumer focused choice up until this point.

What percentage of maximum CPU should all phones be restricted to to prevent causing these kind of issues?

That doesn’t seem like a reasonable solution.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#442

Post by lmedinas »

notfried wrote: post #94

I'm really infuriated about this. Since mid-2016, my iPhone 6 Plus started to act "weird". It'd shut down sporadically, would reach 40% and then suddenly deplete, and started to get slow. But the problems were not consistent. I went to the Apple Store, and the phone passed all their diagnosis checks, even the battery. A few months later, after my AppleCare+ expired, the problems intensified. And I spent most of 2017…

Same here i had a iPhone 6s and i had exactly the same problems you described.

1) Drop from 30% to 5% in some minutes. iOS 10.x fixed this issue.

2) Now with iOS 11 the battery does even last a day and the phone was extremely slow.

Sure i had issues in the past after 2 years with my Nexus 5 and Galaxy Nexus but both were kind of mid range price ~400 Euros.

But with a high end phone that cost 800 Euros I would expect better quality and also better costumer support.

This xmas i just got myself a ~350 Euros Android and i'm much more happy. After 2 years if the phone has battery issues or whatever i will not be so furious has i am now.

I've been recently moving away from Apple mainly due to Quality / Price ratio. I have a 2012 iMac which is basically useless except from Browsing on the Web. Other companies like Google, Amazon etc... ship good quality devices for much cheaper price. So for me i'm not thinking in buying anything else from Apple.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#443

Post by carterehsmith »

madez wrote: post #378
marklyon wrote: post #73

My wife’s 6+ was incredibly slow after the iOS upgrade. My 6+ drained the battery incredibly quickly. I was told that upgrading the iOS would fix that problem [0]; it didn’t. Instead it slowed my phone to the point of being unusable. If I’d have known replacing the battery would have fixed both of them, I’d have done that. Instead, I stupidly bought two new, very expensive phones. Since we were already locked into th…

You realize you are locked-in into a proprietary ecosystem. Clearly, that is bad for you and customer-unfriendly. But I wonder why you don't take action, and get alternatives that don't lock you in. Is this an example of the sunken cost fallacy?

>> you are locked-in into a proprietary ecosystem

Ok, so what do we do? Sell iphone ((or android phone)) and then.. get what?

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#444

Post by MBCook »

legulere wrote: post #125
jsnk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this a "completely manufactured scandal"? Tens of millions of old iPhone users were left in the dark why all of a sudden the phone was slowing down to the point where it was becoming unusable. Millions of people probably spent hundreds of dollars otherwise they wouldn't need to spend if they know this was something they can fix with a new battery. I personally have been using iPhone 6 for 3 years until this CP…

>the phone was slowing down to the point where it was becoming unusable. Were the phones really slowed down by that much?

I’ve seen a six that you can noticeably type faster on and can take a few seconds to launch simple apps.

In some cases, yeah. It’s bad.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#445

Post by MBCook »

enraged_camel wrote: post #189
jsnk wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this a "completely manufactured scandal"? Tens of millions of old iPhone users were left in the dark why all of a sudden the phone was slowing down to the point where it was becoming unusable. Millions of people probably spent hundreds of dollars otherwise they wouldn't need to spend if they know this was something they can fix with a new battery. I personally have been using iPhone 6 for 3 years until this CP…

>>Tens of millions of old iPhone users were left in the dark why all of a sudden the phone was slowing down to the point where it was becoming unusable. Enough with the hyperbole already. Yes, a few (rather outspoken) users had this issue. For everyone else, slowdowns were noticeable, but they barely made the phones "unusable". That's why this is a manufactured scandal. Yes, Apple could have (and should have) been mo…

I uploaded you because I think the down votes are over done, but how much your phone slow down does seem to depend on how the phone was used. Some I’m guessing it was barely noticeable but some it was a real problem for. I’ve seen them.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#446

Post by alien_ »

jmull wrote: post #115

> Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29... > Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance. There we go. It took too much trouble and too long for it to happen, but Apple is stepping u…

Considering how much a new iPhone costs and the obscene margins they get from selling these devices, Apple could just do the courtesy of replacing the battery for free a couple of times per device and would still have a decent margin.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#447

Post by MBCook »

dilap wrote: post #280
andrei_says_ wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, my mind is not playing tricks on me. My 6 slowed down to a barely usable pace after an iOS upgrade. This happened suddently, and not gradually, right at the time Apple was releasing new devices. It is normal to be suspicious. My battery did not wear out overnight.

the theory is that your battery was already worn out, putting your device at at greater risk for sudden shutdowns. when you updated your software, it started throttling. per that theory, a new battery should put you right again. (or wait for a future software update, which will tell you for sure if it was throttling.) i think there is a little more going on, though, because my old ipad mini is slow a.f. w/ the new so…

It is knowing that sometimes reinstalling the OS from scratch can make a big difference on iOS devices. Even John Gruber posted about it today.

I’m not sure what it is but there can be some sort of “gremlin“ on a few old installs. It’s possible that’s your issue if the problem is especially severe.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#448

Post by MBCook »

baddox wrote: post #144
MBCook wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It may depend on various factors, but I know someone with an iPhone 6+ that is ridiculously slow. At times it can’t keep up with typing terribly well. Or you’ll go to open a simple app and it will take a couple of seconds. And iPhone 6 that one of their relatives purchased on the same exact day does not exhibit this behavior. At least not to a noticeable degree. The phone is three years old and has had a hard li…

I’m assuming this slowness started immediately when upgrading to the iOS version that introduced the throttling?

That version came out almost a year ago, but I’ve only heard the complaint about performance recently.

However the battery would’ve been deteriorating that time, and it’s starting to get quite cold here which would only make things worse. I think I remember hearing that it would randomly shut off before that so I’m totally willing to believe the battery already had small problems.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#449

Post by MBCook »

dilap wrote: post #402
forrestthewoods wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the non-manufactured part of the scandal is having your phone throttle itself w/o telling you it's doing that is pretty annoying. If you have a laptop then I have bad news; your CPU throttles itself. Especially if you play games. It gets too hot and slows itself down to prevent damage. There’s not even a direct way to detect this. Which I do admit is annoying. Apple deserves this PR egg on their face. But t…

fair point, tho there are a few salient differences: the laptop always does this; it's not something where it magically (and mysteriously) gets slower as it ages. it's also obvious when this is happening, even if not directly indicated: the fan will be cranking and the laptop will be really hot to the touch. and, there's also somehow more of a feeling that a phone is a controlled system that will "just work," whereas…

> it's not something where it magically (and mysteriously) gets slower as it ages

In some ways that does happen. As computers get more lint in them that often start heading thermal barrier’s and automatically throttling themselves without telling the user.

As for whether the fan makes it obvious I guess that depends on how loud the fan is. Or this could happen to a desktop that you just have placed out of the way enough that you can’t hear it well.

Re: A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

#450

Post by Spivak »

unclebucknasty wrote: post #436
jmull wrote: post #115

> Apple is reducing the price of an out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacement by $50 — from $79 to $29... > Early in 2018, we will issue an iOS software update with new features that give users more visibility into the health of their iPhone’s battery, so they can see for themselves if its condition is affecting performance. There we go. It took too much trouble and too long for it to happen, but Apple is stepping u…

> but Apple is stepping up and doing the right thing... People are letting them off the hook too easily. I don't believe having even a perceived legitimate reason to slow down the phones explains why they didn't own up to it earlier. In fact, seems all the more reason they should have explained it, especially given the rumors that have swirled for so long. In short, they certainly benefitted from the upgrades encoura…

What is their end game though?

* Do nothing and people's phones degrade over time with an ever shortening battery life.

* Slow down phones so that people still get a full day charge with less battery.

Option B seems like it enables people to keep their phones longer when performance is annoying but battery is a showstopper. A notification might have been appropriate when it happens but then people would still complain that Apple is pushing users to replace their batteries.

Better is worse?

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