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A few things that I haven't seen discussed much. 1. Battery degradation should happen to all phones, regardless of OS/manufacturer. How do other phones handle

A few things that I haven't seen discussed much. 1. Battery degradation should happen to all phones, regardless of OS/manufacturer. How do other phones handle this (flagship Android phones etc.)? 2. If other phones don't experience these shutdowns on such a wide scale or don't throttle the performance so harshly (to literally half or one third of original performance) to avoid shutdowns, what about the iPhone is different to force them into this decision? Geekbench which posted the larger group of data confirming this, they could probably run the same analysis on S8 phones from Samsung. Now, if the same does not happen on other phones, the entire debate being framed as it currently is, is a pretty amazing PR spin. It's much easier to justify the decision between phones shutting down or throttling the device, than it would be to justify a engineering decision that makes the above two choices the only choices, despite other vendors being able to seemingly pull off this magic trick of keeping devices working for more than a year. With all of Apple's resources and engineering know-how, it seems a stretch that they would be the only ones incapable of solving this issue. I don't actually know if other vendors solve it differently, but I do know that they have the same battery life, the same phone thinness and powerful specs. Does anyone have a clue about this? Seems like the more interesting story.

bb88 9y ago
If you bought a car and it stopped working after a year because the battery failed, you would expect to be able to change the battery yourself.
- jmull 9y ago
  The ol' car analogy has failed you here. Cars do sometimes stop working after a year because their batteries fail and the great majority of people in that situation take their cars to a repair shop rather than do the work themselves. Actually, the battery in a phone is more comparable to the entire fuel delivery and ignition system in a car, not just the battery. Even fewer people could handle that work on their own.
  - jaclaz 9y ago
    I don't think it is relevant "who" changes "what" (you or a specialized technician). The point revolves more around whether replacing a vital component after only one year of normal use would be covered by warranty (in EU for consumers warranty is two years for everything). Another interesting point is how you discover that some part needs to be replaced. For the car, it is easy, one morning it won't start. What if (say) Ford or Chevrolet (or Volkswagen that has some documented experience in the field ;)) had a hidden electronic device that - in order to save the battery and your next morning start of the car - progressively dimmed a litte bit your head and tail lights and/or lowered the heating or the cooling set temperature slightly, starting, still say, after six month?
  - bb88 9y ago
    > Actually, the battery in a phone is more comparable to the entire fuel delivery and ignition system in a car, not just the battery. Even fewer people could handle that work on their own. So you know, there was a point in time where I just replaced my phone's battery. I bought the battery, opened the back cover, and replaced it. And it worked great. :) The reason people take their cars to a service shop is one of convenience for things like batteries, not because it's a necessity created by the design of the vehicle.
perfectstorm 9y ago
as someone who upgraded their original Pixel from Nougat to Oreo I didn't experience any slowness. So anecdotally, it doesn't happen with Google Pixel devices.
yen223 9y ago
My 3 year old LG G3 had the exact same issue that Apple was trying to prevent. It would randomly shut down at ~50% battery, and restart at ~10%. It was ultimately fixed with a battery swap. This happened during a period in my life when I absolutely needed my phone to be functional. I can honestly say that I'd rather have the CPU throttled, than to have to experience random shutdowns.

bb88 9y ago

If you bought a car and it stopped working after a year because the battery failed, you would expect to be able to change the battery yourself.

jmull 9y ago
The ol' car analogy has failed you here. Cars do sometimes stop working after a year because their batteries fail and the great majority of people in that situation take their cars to a repair shop rather than do the work themselves. Actually, the battery in a phone is more comparable to the entire fuel delivery and ignition system in a car, not just the battery. Even fewer people could handle that work on their own.
- jaclaz 9y ago
  I don't think it is relevant "who" changes "what" (you or a specialized technician). The point revolves more around whether replacing a vital component after only one year of normal use would be covered by warranty (in EU for consumers warranty is two years for everything). Another interesting point is how you discover that some part needs to be replaced. For the car, it is easy, one morning it won't start. What if (say) Ford or Chevrolet (or Volkswagen that has some documented experience in the field ;)) had a hidden electronic device that - in order to save the battery and your next morning start of the car - progressively dimmed a litte bit your head and tail lights and/or lowered the heating or the cooling set temperature slightly, starting, still say, after six month?
- bb88 9y ago
  > Actually, the battery in a phone is more comparable to the entire fuel delivery and ignition system in a car, not just the battery. Even fewer people could handle that work on their own. So you know, there was a point in time where I just replaced my phone's battery. I bought the battery, opened the back cover, and replaced it. And it worked great. :) The reason people take their cars to a service shop is one of convenience for things like batteries, not because it's a necessity created by the design of the vehicle.

perfectstorm 9y ago

as someone who upgraded their original Pixel from Nougat to Oreo I didn't experience any slowness. So anecdotally, it doesn't happen with Google Pixel devices.

yen223 9y ago

My 3 year old LG G3 had the exact same issue that Apple was trying to prevent. It would randomly shut down at ~50% battery, and restart at ~10%. It was ultimately fixed with a battery swap. This happened during a period in my life when I absolutely needed my phone to be functional. I can honestly say that I'd rather have the CPU throttled, than to have to experience random shutdowns.