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.

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.

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.

 

[330]

only thing apple has going for them is teenage white girls in america

Maybe try keeping both racism and sexism out of a thread about Apple throttling phones.

While I'm here, I should also point out that only 35% of teenagers want an iPhone in the US, yet iPhone sales are on a raise since 2007.

 

[DRAGONBALLVINTAGE]

 

[FAST6191]

If you let the user choose over anything, 10% of them might make the correct decision and use that feature when needed and turn it off to protect their devices for the rest, while 90% of them will just read some media and destroy their devices. And most of the time, non-pro users seem to think they are and knew better than those why have been trained years in EE/CS to have made those decisions.

If people were good at making right decisions, man, my work would be a LOT easier.

Doesn't seem to be so bad a choice for the end user to be able to make in this case. It is not like they are choosing between running the battery to a lower cutoff voltage/into deep discharge realms or not. Equally does not dismiss the concern over lack of notifications that it is running in said mode.

We might still have the "never to attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity" debate but the implementation here seems indefensible. As far as stupidity goes I have a hard time for this as I can't believe for a moment that a company's sole/flagship phone does not have its power management so aggressively managed and audited, never mind being at least cognisant of their company's already interesting position with regards to forced/planned obsolescence.

As for people making the right decisions would it also lead to even half as much repair and upgrade work?

 

[J-Machine]

make it an option (perhaps a slider bar for customization) as a battery saving feature and i'd be fine with it.

 

[Deleted-394630]

I agree that if this was optional, there would be no debate, even a little more transparency could have helped to avoid this altogether. While it may be more favorable and convenient to say they did this to force users to a new model, the likely reason was to prevent damage and malfunctions.

This is coming from an anti-Apple user so take it as you will.

 

[Deleted User]

I feel like they should add an option - but for the majority, just automatically notify and/or enable it. I ok with it as long as they tell people/give the option, but I’m not ok if it’s just a push to the newer phones.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I agree that if this was optional, there would be no debate, even a little more transparency could have helped to avoid this altogether. While it may be more favorable and convenient to say they did this to force users to a new model, the likely reason was to prevent damage and malfunctions.

Oh come on, we both know they're doing it to increase the odds that customers upgrade to the latest model. If the average iPhone owner (read: non-power user) notices that their phone is slowing down, their first reaction would not be to try and reduce the number of running apps, let alone whether or not the device manufacturer is intentionally throttling CPU speeds to "increase the device lifespan." They'd just assume that "technology doesn't last very long anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" and buy the newest thing by their favorite brand

 

[Xzi]

Every day it's some corporation being a dick in a brand new way. We crossed the line from capitalism into unbridled greed and corruption territory some time ago.

 

[kevin corms]

No, it doesn't depend on anything. Forcing a device to under-perform it's as advertised speeds, irregardless of how little or how much, without so much as a notification that it's happening is bullshit no matter how you look at it. The fact that they didn't even come out and admit anything until a whole year after the feature was implemented because people on Reddit were conducting investigations of their own is even worse.

what advertised speeds?

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

Oh come on, we both know they're doing it to increase the odds that customers upgrade to the latest model. If the average iPhone owner (read: non-power user) notices that their phone is slowing down, their first reaction would not be to try and reduce the number of running apps, let alone whether or not the device manufacturer is intentionally throttling CPU speeds to "increase the device lifespan." They'd just assume that "technology doesn't last very long anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" and buy the newest thing by their favorite brand

and what does the average android user do? Android phones lose their value within months for a reason. No matter how you look at it iPhones hold up over time better than the competition even with throttling.

 

[Deleted User]

I'll be switching to android so fuck apple.

 

[Xzi]

and what does the average android user do? Android phones lose their value within months for a reason.

All phones lose most of their value quickly, but even quicker if they're being intentionally slowed. You can get an Android phone at $50 that will probably run faster than any older iPhone model now. And there's really the difference: if I was paying $800+ for an iPhone, I'd expect it to at least keep performing at a consistent speed. Hell, for $800 I'd also expect a blowjob and an ounce of weed. $800 will even build you a pretty damn good gaming PC these days.

 

[Langin]

I voted 'no it is wrong', solely based on the fact because they did not inform the costumer and just did it without giving us a choice.

 

[lAkdaOpeKA]

Can't we just go back to user replaceable batteries? I'd rather have a replaceable battery instead of waterproofing.

 

[VinsCool]

This is a scummy move.

Silently slowing down devices with soldered batteries is only a bullshit excuse to make them complain about their old 2 years old iPhone so they buy the hot new yearly model.
If at least they warned users about it, or even had an optional feature to manually allow users to throttle their phones, I wouldn't mind.
But blatantly slowing down a device for the sake of it? No way this is okay. Planned obsolescence should be illegal.

 

[Deleted User]

My personal thought is that everyone and their grandmother knows that batteries degrade over time. Apple could very easily have put a notice in during an update, to say battery degradation was occuring, that slowdowns would occur, and had it possible to toggle it off.

But no, they decided to hide it was happening, so I fully believe they're hiding behind the battery excuse.

Disgusting behaviour.

 

[lAkdaOpeKA]

This is a scummy move.

Silently slowing down devices with soldered batteries is only a bullshit excuse to make them complain about their old 2 years old iPhone so they buy the hot new yearly model.
If at least they warned users about it, or even had an optional feature to manually allow users to throttle their phones, I wouldn't mind.
But blatantly slowing down a device for the sake of it? No way this is okay. Planned obsolescence should be illegal.

Batteries aren't soldered on iPhones. They're just hard to replace

 

[VinsCool]

Batteries aren't soldered on iPhones. They're just hard to replace

You get my point still

 

[pedro702]

what advertised speeds?

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


and what does the average android user do? Android phones lose their value within months for a reason. No matter how you look at it iPhones hold up over time better than the competition even with throttling.

when you buy a 2ghz octocore iphone you expect it to run at 2ghz octocore not at like half speed after afew years becuase of updates.

 

[Flame]

i love how Apple fan boys are twisting this and making it sound like its the smartest move ever.

this news took a bite from the Apple's garden. your taste is delicious apple fan boys.

 

[TotalInsanity4]

and what does the average android user do? Android phones lose their value within months for a reason. No matter how you look at it iPhones hold up over time better than the competition even with throttling.

The average Android user doesn't have to take out a mortgage to get a new phone. And on top of that, Android users are more likely to be power users that know how to root devices to run custom performance profiles, as well as the Android OS just in general being better at killing things that take up background resources, in my experience