Live data from Hacker News

A Message to Our Customers about iPhone Batteries and Performance

apple.com

481–490 of 878 posts

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

#481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but Apple continued to sell the 5s until 2016.

The 5S was released in Sept 2013 and still runs the latest version of iOS. If they were still selling it in 2016 it will likely be supported with software updates until 2019. For comparison the Galaxy S4 was released in April 2013 and received its last update to Android 5.0.1 in April 2015.

At least it's very easy to run 7.1.2 and soon 8.1 even on S3 (I do), while with iPhone you're completely at Apple's mercy.

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

#482
post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Make changes over time. When other devices are due to be replaced, make sure they work with multiple vendors or ideally, using open standards. Then when your iPhone is up next for replacement, you won't be locked in. Consider lack of lock-in a real feature worth trading for other nice-to-haves, such as price, convenience or features.

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

#483
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It still sounds like a false dilemma to me. I've never had reboots on my Android phones because of battery problems. Maybe Apple just needs to buy better quality batteries? And perhaps higher capacity that are also capable of more charges before they lose too much of their original capacity?

I had plenty of reboot, freezes and boot-cycles on my not even 1 and half year old nexus 5. Maybe you just use your phone to do an odd call or two if you never experienced anything strange?

[deleted]

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

#484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The right thing is that people who replaced their deliberately slowed down iPhones with new iPhones because of their ignorance about what Apple had done, should have an appropriate remedy not contained in this "we're sorry if you didn't understand that we care a lot about you" press release. It doesn't matter anyway, even though millions of similar batteries in Android phones apparently didn't require a similar secre…

> even though millions of similar batteries in Android phones apparently didn't require a similar secret performance degradation You know for sure how the power-management code works in every Android device ever produced?

> we are still a long way from reaching the depths that Apple can go to before Apple fans will seriously consider an alternative.

You're literally proving the point here. There's much, much more transparency on the Android side of things. Custom ROMs and the stock Google Android images have been combed over for almost the last decade by loads of different individuals and groups around the world. Now, we surely don't control the Samsung-esque bloatware that they slap on top of stock Android, but there's absolutely no way there's throttling code that lives in Android that we don't know about yet.

Anecdotal evidence of my own: I have a Nexus 5 that's nearly 5 years old now that my kids use daily. It's using a stock Lineage ROM. The battery certainly isn't the best anymore, but the phone doesn't feel different than the day I bought it, and it doesn't crash.

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

#485
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…

This isn't the first time this has happened to Apple. They use to not sell replacement batteries for the original iPods, and when people called in to complain, they were often told to buy an entire new iPod. This was settled in a lawsuit: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/apples-ip... Another important note is this battery replacement cost only cover the iPhone6 and up. That's only the 2015 release.…

I'm still using my 2009 Nexus One. It is painfully slow, and won't run any modern apps, and I've tried to find a suitable replacement several times but it seems a shame to throw away a perfectly good phone and I just haven't found anything that is of comparable size and build quality without having to sacrifice screen resolution, FM radio, removable battery or microSD slot.

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

#486
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is that Apple uses some of the smallest cells in the industry.

iPhone 8, 8+: 1821, 2675 mAh

Galaxy s8, s8+: 3000, 3500 mAh

That's a huge difference.

Apple gets away with this because the iPhone is more energy efficient than comparable Android phones, but that's only on average -- peak energy consumption is still comparable.

And when cells age, nominally larger cells retain the ability to drive peak workloads without browning out (even if they drain really fast), while Apple's tiny cells eventually just can't do it anymore.

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

#487
post #177

I think this is a good response, and I think a lot of the outrage over this issue is overblown. At the end of the day there's a fundamental tradeoff that Apple needs to make on behalf of their customers: performance or stability. They chose stability, and I think they have a convincing argument as to why: "It should go without saying that we think sudden, unexpected shutdowns are unacceptable. We don’t want any of ou…

It still sounds like a false dilemma to me. I've never had reboots on my Android phones because of battery problems. Maybe Apple just needs to buy better quality batteries? And perhaps higher capacity that are also capable of more charges before they lose too much of their original capacity?

Do you live somewhere cold? My old devices are perfectly fine indoors but if I step outside in the winter they shut off in a few minutes

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

#488

I think this is a good response, and I think a lot of the outrage over this issue is overblown. At the end of the day there's a fundamental tradeoff that Apple needs to make on behalf of their customers: performance or stability. They chose stability, and I think they have a convincing argument as to why: "It should go without saying that we think sudden, unexpected shutdowns are unacceptable. We don’t want any of ou…

You can get some of the battery stats via the (Mac) app coconutBattery: http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery/

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

#489
post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks Apple PR.

Oh come on. At least you can express what you think is wrong about my take on it rather than just calling me a shill. I'm not a shill, BTW. I was affected by this and think Apple stinks for letting it get to this point. I found out my iPhone 6+ was running at 600Mhz most of the time when it would normally would run at 1400Mhz (going by CPU DasherX). Also, the real world user-experience seemed to be even worse than th…

In this example, and like High Sierra root bug, these are primarily software-based issues that have no transparency to the public to evaluate their true origins or resolve on their own; instead it is masked behind a mostly closed-source multi-national corporation caught evading taxes, abusing workers, and now slowing old phones that further exploits their socio-economic divide:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/04/04/apple...

Let's see what Google says and does instead for their source code:

https://source.android.com

"We also wanted to make sure there was no central point of failure, where one industry player could restrict or control the innovations of any other. The result is a full, production-quality operating system for consumer products with source code open for customization and porting."

Let's see in terms of Android hardware, what you can get on Amazon that will outperform a $500 iPhone 6s and has better specs.

http://a.co/b16AAfJ http://a.co/d4XxSlO

Those are just two options, both better specs and over $300 cheaper. What is Apple really selling you aside from a status symbol and the feeling that you belong to some unique elitist club?

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

#490
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the consumer doesn't have enough information in this case. They are more than likely going to buy a new phone rather than a new battery.

Under the old software, where the phone would randomly turn off on you, what do you think they would’ve done? Probably the same thing. Buy a new phone.

The consumer-friendly response is a large notification that explains that the battery should be replaced while also downclocking.
Post reply on HN