Poll: Apple throttling older phones - your opinion?

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Unless you have been living under a rock during the past few weeks, you probably know by now that Apple have admitted throttling overall performance for phones that have an "old" battery.

The Guardian said:
After years of rumours, Apple has confirmed that it does indeed slow down older iPhones, a feature introduced last year to protect against problems caused by ageing batteries.

The feature was implemented on the iPhone 6, 6S and SE last year during a software update, and on the iPhone 7 as of December with the release of iOS 11.2. The feature is planned to be rolled out to newer devices in the future. [...]

The reason invoked by Apple is to prevent phones from shutting down completely when batteries don't have enough power.

Apple Inc. said:
The company explained that when a battery is in a poor condition it may not be able to supply the required maximum current demanded by the phone’s processor at full speed. If that happens, the iPhone can shut down unexpectedly to protect the internal components.

Where do you stand on the matter? Do you believe this makes sense from a technical standpoint? Or do you think it is an elaborate scheme to get people to buy new phones every couple of years? Vote and tell us what you think.
 

Taleweaver

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"You are mistaken. Your phone did not "become" slow after the update. Your phone has always been this slow. You just don't remember it being that slow because it was so much faster than the previous models when it came out. But in comparison to our newest model it is understandably slow. It is time to consider upgrading. We have always been at war with Eastasia."

*gets found out*

"We only did this to protect you."
Yeah...as much as the switch away from fossil fuels is needed, I fear that this is the sort of shenanigans we'll encounter in the future:

Tech: apple iCar support, how may I help you? :D
User: hi...I'm calling because for some reason my iCar won't go as fast as it used to.
Tech: and which revision of the iCar are we talking about? :D
User: the "alot" model, first generation. And yes, I've updated its firmware and restarted it, so that's not the issue.
Tech: ah, I see. That's a common misconception. Sir: your car is just as fast as it used to. But with all the newer models coming out, it only seems slower in comparison. :)
User: erm...no? I used to be able to run 80 miles per hour easily, but now I only manage to get 75-77 at the most.
Tech: but it still drives correctly, doesn't it? It's all fine. :)
User: you as well? What is it with you techs? look...I'm calling to get this speed limitation fixed. It's an issue. It wasn't prevalent earlier. It is now. It shouldn't be doing that. Can you make sure that this doesn't happen again?
Tech: sure thing. I've got it noted. Just send it in to our unknown location, and you'll get it back after an unknown period of time. :)
User: o...what? okay. Thanks. This is already more service than I anticipated after four hours. :)

<insert some time inbetween>

Tech: apple iCar support, how may I help you? :D
User: erm, yeah...this is a weird problem. I got back my car after a long and costly repair, but the problem is still there. In fact, it's worse.

<insert looking up tech details>

Tech: I don't see what's wrong, sir. We applied the fix you requested. Doesn't it show you driving at 80 miles per hour? :)
User: well...yes and no. Now when I'm driving at top speed, the iCar claims I'm doing 80, but my gps (as well as tests with other cars) show that I'm actually doing between 72 and 74.
Tech: okay. :)
User: ...
Tech: ...
User: ...what do you mean "okay"? I wanted my iCar to go faster, not commit fraud with the speed display!
Tech: I'm afraid that won't be possible, sir. The problem is with the battery deteriorating. As it's used more, it can charge less power and becomes less stable. In order to maintain system stability and the safety of our users, we slowly drop the actual top speed of our models until it reaches about 5 miles per hour.
User: What??!!!
Tech: I understand that's not very fast, but your safety is very important to us.
User: can't you just replace the battery?
Tech: we can, but between you and me, it's cheaper to just get a new iCar.
User: what? but...how does that even make sense?
Tech: we're phasing out our first generation alot models, sir. The newer models have their battery safety stickers angled differently, making the battery required for your car extremely hard to come by.
User: but I barely used that car! How did it even deteriorate in the first place?
Tech: perhaps you didn't use your car to drive, sir, but all the firmware upgrades added enough tracking features to take full use of the battery, even if it was just standing parked motionless for the night.
 
Last edited by Taleweaver,

xdarkx

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I'm totally fine with self-throttling as long as it's transparent, optional and well-explained. We already have that, it's called a "balanced power plan".

About your second point, I know that option is available. Not sure if you read or heard about a few years ago, iirc, how some companies throttle the performance of their high end smartphones in some benchmark apps in order to make their smartphone look like they have better performance than other smartphones. I haven't been keeping up with smartphone news lately, so I am not sure if companies still do this.
 

Foxi4

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About your second point, I know that option is available. Not sure if you read or heard about a few years ago, iirc, how some companies throttle the performance of their high end smartphones in some benchmark apps in order to make their smartphone look like they have better performance than other smartphones. I haven't been keeping up with smartphone news lately, so I am not sure if companies still do this.
Samsung used to have a hidden overclocking routine that kicked in when it detected a benchmark running, and it got them into a world of trouble. It's deceptive marketing because in a real-life situation the chip can't reach the performance it's "advertised" at. Synthetic benchmarks can't be trusted, they're not representative anyways.
 

Patxinco

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HTC has for example this:
Screenshot_20171227-100820_1.jpg

"Extreme battery saver" for when your battery is about to die, you use it and is like having an old nokia, you can do calls, sms, calculator, and it's pretty much it.
 

comput3rus3r

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Iphone 6 with "old" battery? I'm stiil using a samsung galaxy s4 and the battery still great. not to mention that i can just buy a new battery for it for cheap if it ever goes bad. I'd like to see a poll of how many people are still using iphone 4. probably 0 since IOS purposely renders older devices useless. I have an Ipad2 (that my wife had bought before we married since i would never buy apple) that worked pretty good until i updated IOS.
 

RedBlueGreen

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The real question is, how many other companies are doing this? I wouldn't be surprised if this is a common practice.
I don't think it is. I doubt Sony does it since I've had Sony phones for a while and the batteries lasted a long time (not currently though because they took too long to release an octa-core phone, let alone a phone with 4+ GB of RAM). I doubt Samsung does it either. It's not like the Android phone manufacturers own Android either. It's owned by Google so it's a lot less likely they're trying to pull stuff like this. You can easily root Android phones anyway so you wouldn't be truly limited or forced to buy another expensive battery, because you could just root and overclock.
Iphone 6 with "old" battery? I'm stiil using a samsung galaxy s4 and the battery still great. not to mention that i can just buy a new battery for it for cheap if it ever goes bad. I'd like to see a poll of how many people are still using iphone 4. probably 0 since IOS purposely renders older devices useless. I have an Ipad2 (that my wife had bought before we married since i would never buy apple) that worked pretty good until i updated IOS.
My Xperia Plays had batteries that worked well for years as well. They'd probably still work if the phones still did. Xperia Z3 worked well for the couple years I had it as well.
 
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I miss the days when games would come with instruction manuals. The smell of a freshly opened manual... reading it in the car on the way home from the store... such sad times we live in now.
Yeah. It was nice when going to the store to buy a game was just an excuse to get out. Buy the game, then maybe afterwards have lunch or dinner. I kinda miss those days.
 

froggestspirit

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Not exactly alike, but try getting a 5+ year old hp printer to work. :P
That's not altering the printer to make it harder/slower to run. It might be harder to have it work on newer operating systems, but if you're running it on the same OS as 5 years ago, there wont be much difference.
 

kevin corms

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Iphone 6 with "old" battery? I'm stiil using a samsung galaxy s4 and the battery still great. not to mention that i can just buy a new battery for it for cheap if it ever goes bad. I'd like to see a poll of how many people are still using iphone 4. probably 0 since IOS purposely renders older devices useless. I have an Ipad2 (that my wife had bought before we married since i would never buy apple) that worked pretty good until i updated IOS.
I dont believe you since the s4 was junk the day it came out. also the year the s4 came out is the year the 5s came out, people are still using those but im not seeing many galaxy s4s that actually are still usable. Its not all Samsung fault, qualcomm is just multiple years behind apple.
 
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grossaffe

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I'm totally fine with self-throttling as long as it's transparent, optional and well-explained. We already have that, it's called a "balanced power plan".
I remember some years ago my brother used to underclock his old android for powersaving.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I dont believe you since the s4 was junk the day it came out. also the year the s4 came out is the year the 5s came out, people are still using those but im not seeing many galaxy s4s that actually are still usable. Its not all Samsung fault, qualcomm is just multiple years behind apple.
My S4 has been fine since I performed a factory reset.
 

Kioku

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Wait doesn't Android do the same when it comes to this in a sense? Upgrade the OS although there isn't enough ram and the phone CPU probably can't handle it? Isn't that the same as throttling?
Nope. That's just bad optimization.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I dont believe you since the s4 was junk the day it came out. also the year the s4 came out is the year the 5s came out, people are still using those but im not seeing many galaxy s4s that actually are still usable. Its not all Samsung fault, qualcomm is just multiple years behind apple.
The S4 was a solid phone. I actually miss mine.
 

ludex99

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the main goal of Apple update, the more you update your Iphone , the performance will be poor, in that case you going to end up buying their new model (8 and X) thats whats behind their update.
 
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Taleweaver

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That's not altering the printer to make it harder/slower to run. It might be harder to have it work on newer operating systems, but if you're running it on the same OS as 5 years ago, there wont be much difference.
Unfortunately, drivers being obnoxiously hard to find* is only half the problem. But let's suppose you've got your printer hooked up to that same OS as five years ago. Trying to print something will result in a mention that the print cartridge is empty. You might find it weird because there never was a mentioning of the cartridges being even near-empty before, but you replace them anyway (at least the stupid ID-ing of the cartridges makes some relative sense...and these cartridges are far easier to obtain than the 5+ year old printer).

...and throw away perfectly good cartridges. You see, the problem never was the cartridge ink but the chip that's on each of HP's cartridges. That doesn't just track how much ink it still has** but also its age. And that's the trap HP makes for people: they think they get a cheap printer (which they do), but HP's real profit is in the cartridges***. They're both small and costly, but that isn't as visible to people who think they'll get by with just a few prints a month. And they would...but then notice that after a half year the cartridge is empty.

TL;DR: HP treats (or treated) their cartridges in the way that apple treats their batteries: made for obsolescence.




*the drivers aren't hosted on HP's servers anymore, but the entire infrastructure around it still is, meaning that most google searches redirect you to that page, and you'll have to go to shady sites in the hopes they don't redirect you as well
**assuming it does that in the first place...there have been mentions of technicians refilling the cartridge with the exact same ink, after which the cartridge still claims it's empty
***I've seen comparisons where the printer was literally cheaper than its cartridge
 
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Taleweaver

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The S4 was a solid phone. I actually miss mine.
We have those at my job (okay, the mini version). I still have mine (2.5 years and counting). My colleagues upgraded to S5 when it became available... And within a few months there came an update after which their batteries drained a lot faster than mine (admitted: mine was about a year less old at that point).
 
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RedBlueGreen

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I dont believe you since the s4 was junk the day it came out. also the year the s4 came out is the year the 5s came out, people are still using those but im not seeing many galaxy s4s that actually are still usable. Its not all Samsung fault, qualcomm is just multiple years behind apple.
Yeah I doubt the older iPhones will be usable either. I've seen a lot better performance out of high end Android phones than iOS devices as well. iOS will probably be a bit more optimized since it only covers iPhones apps made for iOS only have to worry about a few types of hardware. But the iPhones performance isn't in another league like people seem to think. People said the same thing about Macs but a lot of resource intensive things need the same or better specs than Windows.
 

comput3rus3r

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S4.jpg
I dont believe you since the s4 was junk the day it came out. also the year the s4 came out is the year the 5s came out, people are still using those but im not seeing many galaxy s4s that actually are still usable. Its not all Samsung fault, qualcomm is just multiple years behind apple.
I don't care what you believe. Have a good day sir. I SAID GOOD DAY SIR.
 
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