Apple should've been more upfront about throttling iPhones with weaker batteries (poll results)

by Daniel Petrov / Dec 22, 2017, 5:27 AM

Do you think Apple should've been more upfront about throttling iPhones with weaker batteries?

Yes, users should have known

91.19%

No, it's not a dealbreaker

8.81%

After Apple acknowledged that iPhones with aged or weaker for whatever other reason batteries will take a hit in peak performance, we asked you if Apple could have given the explanation beforehand, along with the introduction of the processor throttling feature in iOS 10.2.1. The vast majority of our 2089 respondents replied in the affirmative, stating that the company should have warned users with iPhones two years and older that their devices might become slower due to processor throttling, unless they visit a service center to swap the battery. Word to the wise for next time, Apple, the ambulance chasers are already circling the wagons.

Today's lithium batteries are rated for a certain amount of charge cycles before they start degrading in terms of capacity or ability to provide peak current. On the other hand, chipsets and other hardware are becoming ever more powerful and demanding, resulting in going over the fence when trying to extract stronger current from a weaker battery. This could result in phones employing shutdown procedures to safeguard the electronics in certain extreme scenario, so last year Apple smoothed out the peak battery demands by dispersing them over several quick cycles with the iOS 10.2.1 update.

Apparently that meant throttling the processor's power, and resulted in 80% fewer iPhone 6 shutdowns, Apple reported at the time. It, however, kept this power management system in the next iOS updates, too, so once the battery in your iPhone 7 ages enough, it will likely become a bit slower and less responsive unless you crack it open and change the power bank with a brand new one.

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55 Comments

1. An.Awesome.Guy

Posts: 636; Member since: Jan 12, 2015

I hope that no company ever do stuff like that and the backlash become a lesson for these companies to avoid planning to obsolescence in which is one of the worst parts of todays technology Maybe I am hoping for too much ,but why not.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 5:35 AM 6

4. daniyal_05

Posts: 95; Member since: Nov 15, 2017

Once again another failure for apple like iphoneX sales

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 6:07 AM 4

6. darkkjedii

Posts: 31764; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

If iPhone X sales are a failure, then every OEM on earth wants to copy Apple’s failure.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 6:18 AM 10

7. daniyal_05

Do u have common sense, why would any company want to fail?

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 6:34 AM 4

9. Peacetoall unregistered

relax he was just being sarcastic dude.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 6:39 AM 12

12. daniyal_05

Relax i was just being sarcastic dude.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 7:03 AM 1

13. Peacetoall unregistered

so everything alright then cool

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 7:04 AM 0

19. darkkjedii

No you weren’t.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 7:53 AM 0

18. darkkjedii

He missed that lol.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 7:53 AM 3

22. palmguy

Posts: 988; Member since: Mar 22, 2011

There's only one iOS manufacture. It's impossible. Android OEM, hundreds. If I made the only red car I'll be doing very well also.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 8:05 AM 1

10. vincelongman

Posts: 5808; Member since: Feb 10, 2013

I'm gonna repeat myself because I still I can't believe people are even defending Apple And I don't want Android OEMs to think they can get away with something similar Battery degredation is normal and should be taken into account in the design process Its unexcusable that ~1 year old phones are having shut down issues due to battery degredation Apple should repaired or replaced people's iPhone 6S and 7 instead of covering up the problem The Nexus 6P has the same issue Google replaced faulty 6Ps with refurb 6Ps, then later upgraded people to Pixel XLs

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 6:42 AM 9

37. Guaire

Posts: 897; Member since: Oct 15, 2014

Do we know actually iPhones out there were shutting down because of battery degredation? It sounds to me like a cover story for -not so well- planned obsolence. I think there must be more sneaky ways yet uncovered.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 11:10 AM 4

23. Mreveryphone

Posts: 1862; Member since: Apr 22, 2014

All the conspiracy theories were right all along about Apple doing this. No wonder all the 6 and 6s user's are complaining about their phones not working correctly after the ios 11 update. Heaven forbid you are still using the 5 series nowadays... I guess my X will start to slow down in September making me think it's time to upgrade... Luckily I still have the best phone on the market still Note 8 and the S9+ is shaping up to be nice release with it's rumored specs... Samsung has been a absolute Savage with it's commercials lately so they should capitalize on this information and go hard on their next comparison campaign with Apple...

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 8:11 AM 5

36. lyndon420

Posts: 6915; Member since: Jul 11, 2012

I liked it better when we could just replace the batteries ourselves.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 10:02 AM 3

2. GreenMan

Posts: 2698; Member since: Nov 09, 2015

Some people (including yours truly) sometimes like to point out the quick OS updates of iPhones. But we often miss facts like crippled performance, partial features of the new OS and now we have another point in our list... Throttled performance. Now, whether it's a mere 'feature' or a 'deliberate act' from Apple's end to force people to buy newer models is still a mystery! G'Day!

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 5:40 AM 15

3. submar

Posts: 713; Member since: Sep 19, 2014

Not just Apple, every tech company should be honest to their customers about these issues rather than call it a feature.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 6:02 AM 8

17. HansP

Posts: 542; Member since: Oct 16, 2011

Samsung had around 30 phones with batteries bloating or catching fire. They recalled millions and stopped selling them. Not once did they call their trusty buyers liars or idiots. Apple however has a 40 year track record of pissing on their buyers and blaming it all on them. I'm mostly amazed anyone is still buying their kool-aid powered devices.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 7:53 AM 8

20. mrochester

Posts: 1043; Member since: Aug 17, 2014

Samsung’s situation was by far the worst. They ‘recalled’ their dangerous phones, did not fix the issue, and then re-issued the same dangerous phones. Samsung displayed complete and utter disregard for their customers, and some of them are stupid enough to applaud Samsung for the terrible way they handled the situation.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 8:00 AM 0

25. sissy246

Posts: 7129; Member since: Mar 04, 2015

"did not fix the issue" That is just stupid. You think they just turned around and sent out the same phones unfixed. They fixed what they thought was the problem. Then as soon as they saw it was not they stopped the sales and recalled those.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 8:13 AM 3

32. mrochester

Exactly, they didn't bother to figure out what the problem was. Like I said, a complete disregard for their customers.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 9:13 AM 1

41. JohnR

Posts: 165; Member since: Sep 08, 2017

Bulls**t. Samsung took care of their customers.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 2:11 PM 3

30. tedkord

Posts: 17512; Member since: Jun 17, 2009

LOL at Apple fans still trying to spin that story. Samsung was up front about the issue. They acted quickly to replace the phones. They thought it was constrained to a particular battery, but they were wrong. So, they acted quickly again. They gave me a full refund plus $80, let me keep the 256gb microsd and other accessories and gave me a $400 discount on the Note 8 with the trade in of an iPhone 5 I bought off Craigslist for $60. In every way their actions were better than Apple's in this situation. Or during bendgate. Or during antennagate...

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 9:06 AM 4

33. mrochester

I disagree, I think Apple's actions are better than Samsung's. Re-releasing a dangerous product without bothering to figure out what was wrong with it is far far worse than anything Apple has ever done.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 9:14 AM 0

43. tedkord

Except that's not what happened. They thought they'd narrowed the issue down, because it had occurred only with a certain battery. They didn't release it without finding out what was wrong. They immediately owned up to it. Whereas in almost every iPhone issue, Apple has blamed the user and denied the issue right up until they got dragged kicking and screaming to do the right thing. Even then, they denied the issue. To this day they've never acknowledged the antenna issue with the iPhone 4, even after issuing rubber bumpers that solved the issue. The bumpers worked, but it never happened. Apple's actions are worse.

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 2:30 PM 1

54. plumix

Posts: 75; Member since: Aug 28, 2014

Sorry but apple actions are scam, their are more iphone 6-7-8 that cough fire and they just cover it, like that thrilling issue. They take their customers for sheep's, and may be they really are. Some people will still ask where the smell come from, even when they have the nose in it.

posted on Dec 23, 2017, 3:51 PM 0

35. ph00ny

Posts: 2074; Member since: May 26, 2011

Reissued? Initial finding was blamed on battery from supplier A. They resumed the sales with battery from supplier B but that started causing issues resulting in complete recall and stop sales of the device. They did a big audit and found supplier A and B batteries of having two different failures mainly due to the fact that Samsung's design requirement was too tight and had very little room for manufacturing defects/issues

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 9:48 AM 3

38. Man_Utd

Posts: 190; Member since: Feb 03, 2015

Ph00ny well said. That's exactly what happened. mrochester, please do some reading before you speak. Thanks =)

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 12:05 PM 4

42. HansP

mrochester, try searching YouTube for burning iPhones. Samsung uses the same battery technology as anyone else. Tell me again, how many other brands has recalled their phones over that? If you want to talk about lethal devices, I know of two stories where iPhone owners has been electrocuted to death while using their phones. What was Apple's scripted response to that again? Oh right almost forgot. I already said that above. :)

posted on Dec 22, 2017, 2:22 PM 4

44. tedkord

Don't absolve samsung. They should have recalled the phone. Others burned, but not nearly as many as the Note 7. They did the right thing, but that doesn't change the fact they put our a faulty product that was dangerous.