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This comment deserves more attention. And, in fact, means the headline is wrong. Apple is not slowing down devices to extend battery life. Apple is slowing dow
by basseq 9y ago
This comment deserves more attention. And, in fact, means the headline is wrong.
Apple is not slowing down devices to extend battery life. Apple is slowing down devices to prevent the thing from crapping out entirely ("unexpectedly shutting down"). Arguably, this does more to prevent obsolescence than plan it.
Agreed with @djrogers suggestion to alert the user to the situation. It should not be a user choice.
"Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions [cold, low battery, battery age]."
- mempko 9y agoStrange, I have an old HP veer That is 6 years old and it doesn't spontaneously shut down. I have a 3 year old android phone that doesn't spontaneously shut down. What is so special about iPhones and why do they crap out in 2 years?
- swiley 9y agoAll of the Android phones I've had do when the battery starts to get old, Especially when you use the camera while it's low. Maybe you take better care of your batteries?
- nogridbag 9y agoMy 2013 Macbook Pro would spontaneously shut down with anywhere between 30-40% battery. I tried a few tips I found online to fix it, but nothing seemed to work.
- esmi 9y agoThis post gives us an estimate for what percentage of the iPhones are getting throttled by this issue. I think it's reasonable to use this as a proxy to estimate how many units were at risk of shutting down and it is the minority of units. Happily it appears both of your devices are in the majority of units which don't exhibit this issue. https://www.geekbench.com/blog/2017/12/iphone-performance-and-battery-age/ https://www.geekbench.com/blog/2017/12/iphone-performance-an...
- valuearb 9y agoIf I read that correctly, is it 25% of two year old devices (6s) that are getting throttled?
- em500 9y agowhat's so special is that modern iPhone CPUs are as fast as laptop CPUs (when untrottled).
- valuearb 9y agoThis. iPhone has been the industry leader in CPU performance and integrated processor functionality for a while now, I have no doubt that plays a role.
- wdn 9y agoHave your android get any update after a year? Doubt it. If you do, are they even functional after the upgrade? Mine became couldn’t do anything because it is so slow after upgrade. Only good thing was I had an unlocked boot loader and able to flash the original Android back Please don’t act like Android is anything better. It is not.
- CaptSpify 9y agoMy 5 year old android gets the latest updates, and I don't have that issue either. I agree Android's are POS, but that doesn't detract from the fact that iPhones are also POS.
- emmp 9y agoMy Nexus 6P starting having spontaneous shutdowns at 15-30% over the past few months. I replaced the battery and it's back to normal. My old Galaxy S4 before that had similar problems after 3ish years. So a feature to throttle the CPU while I waited for a battery replacement on Android would have been great I think! It needs to be toggleable and it needs to clearly surface to the user what the long term fix is though (i.e., replace the battery). Apple's solution did neither of these, but if it did I think it would have been fine.
- lisper 9y agoIf that's true, why was Apple being so cagey about it for so long? Why didn't they advertise it as a feature?
- ubernostrum 9y agoDid you see how the internet reacted? Even the allegedly technically-competent parts of the internet?
- labster 9y agoFeature list: * 4.7-inch retina display * 12MP camera * Phone will get slower over time No, not seeing that advertisement working.
- calibas 9y agoIf anybody could sell it as a good thing, it's Apple. "Phone performance adjusts automatically to preserve battery life"
- Tloewald 9y agoWell it's not like Android phones advertise "comes with malware direct from Google Play store" and "malware can run your phone so hard it will deform, catch fire, or explode"
- jsilence 9y ago> Arguably, this does more to prevent obsolescence than plan it. Why not simply make the battery replacable?
- Bud 9y agoThe battery is replaceable. Apple offers free replacement with AppleCare and $79 replacement otherwise.
- QuotedForTruth 9y agoIt is replaceable, just not replaceable without expertise and tools. Would you say that most of your car parts aren't replaceable?
- komali2 9y agoIt's a "regular maintenance" type thing - less common than an oil change, sure, but perhaps just as necessary. So why not make it as easy as an oil change?
- metafunctor 9y agoHaving done both, I can tell you that replacing the battery on an iPhone is already easier than an oil change on a typical car. The iPhone parts are expensive, but it's a relatively simple operation for a trained person.
- abakker 9y agoNot to mention that an Apple battery replacement is about the same cost as having someone change the oil in your car if you use full synthetic. I just don't get the complaints. If the battery is dying, get a new one. If you don't want to spend the money, then Apple has provided a feature that lets your phone keep running.
- JSONwebtoken 9y agoNot to mention there are an infinite number of 5 minute tutorials on YouTube. You don't have to be trained, you just need a set of eyes and a brain. I'm glad an increasing number of phone manufacturers, not just Apple, put form factor and durability above user laziness.
- TrainedMonkey 9y agoI do not think situation is quite so simple. Apple has designed phones with insufficiently good battery to guarantee top speed operation as device ages. They have probably done it to make thinner handsets, but the end result is that an older device physically slows down. Moreover each new iOS release is slower and makes the older devices feel cruftish. Where does that leave us? People that must have newest and fastest are encouraged to upgrade every year. Others accept slow downs due to old batteries and new iOS. This is definitely not 'planned obsolescence' because your phone still works. Maybe 'encouraged obsolescence' is a better term.
- robotresearcher 9y agoThere is no such battery.
- ISL 9y agoThe performance requirements could be met, but the battery (and phone) would be larger and more massive.
- valuearb 9y agoEven a bigger battery is going to degrade at the same rate. It might limit the need for CPU throttling, but probably not by much.
- ProfessorLayton 9y agoSeeing as iPads are basically iPhones with much larger batteries, and don't suffer from the same issues, I disagree. This could have been avoided if they weren't so obsessed with thinness. I reckon that if it was thick enough to not have a camera protrusion, it would be the perfect balance of form and battery life.
- ISL 9y agoA larger battery, running the same CPU, with the same stated "battery life" as the original battery, will degrade gracefully for a longer period of time before the compute performance must also degrade.
- sambe 9y agoThat quote really hurts. My iPhone 6S has had spontaneous shutdowns since the first winter it was out (and is supposedly not in the replacement program). No previous Apple phones did. This winter it's the same. To me it suggests a more widespread defect that they do not wish to admit.
- valuearb 9y agoWhy didn't you replace it the first winter you had it? Would have been free.
- manmal 9y agoHad the same problem - they told me I‘d have to wait up to 8 weeks for them to return my phone. I instead chose to pay a local repair shop €50 to swap the battery within 30 minutes. For €80 they would have used an original Apple battery replacement.
- abakker 9y agoFYI - https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/ https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/ that was effected by a recall. You should check your serial number.
- sambe 9y agoLike I said, it's not part of the replacement program.
- bastijn 9y agoPut in my number for fun, found out it is eligible for a replacement. Good things after 2 years a free new battery :).
- bastijn 9y agoSo got my battery replaced today because of this thread. Feels very smooth again but may be between my ears. Only now realize I forgot to do a benchmark test with the old battery still in.
- calibas 9y agoThis is kinda of a gray area, if they really wanted to treat their customers well, they'd have easily-replaceable batteries and a notification that lets people know their phone is slowing down because they need a new battery. Still seems like planned obsolescence, or at the very least, encouraged obsolescence.
- valuearb 9y agoI don't want an easily replaceable battery, the trade-offs are too costly and benefits too small.
- epistasis 9y ago>if they really wanted to treat their customers well, they'd have easily-replaceable batteries It's an extremely infrequent service, but it's not difficult. Certainly much much easier than an oil change on a car, which is a frequent service. Instructions, third party supplies, and third party services are abundant for it. I don't think it's fair to call it anything but "easily-replaceable."
- Fnoord 9y ago> I don't think it's fair to call it anything but "easily-replaceable." Yeah? Well that is peculiar. Here [1] [2] it says: "Difficulty: Moderate". I guess someone is wrong on the Internet, and I don't think its iFixit. You see, the battery in my phone can be replaced in literally under half a minute. Without any special tools. Without any guide. The only thing is, I gotta buy the battery from the vendor, for 20 EUR. That is, according to my reference point, "easily-replaceable" indeed (I could even do it whilst I'm hiking without any special tools), while the circus act you're going to have to put up (which includes all kind of non-standard tools (with additional price tag) which you can read about at [1] and [2]), clearly -without the shed of a doubt- makes it a lot more difficult to replace the bloody thing. And let us be honest: that is entirely intended. Because else, Apple would use standard screws, and wouldn't use all kind of acts to use more obscure screws. Fun fact: my mother, in her 60s, has changed oil numerous upon numerous times in her life. She's never replaced a battery in a phone though. Some people are scared opening up hardware. Heck, I bet she was scared refreshing oil the first time as well but my father guided her (he became blind, so couldn't do it anymore). Another one: the other day I was replacing a battery and reapplying thermal paste on my partner's MBP and my partner's sister complimented that I was doing that, even though it was my first time doing that and I was just using iFixit's guide. (I still managed to kill the iSight camera, even though the guide said I shouldn't worry about that connector. GG). That guide said Moderate difficulty as well IIRC. And I screwed it up. So... easy? Give me a break. Its tedious. And that, too, is way more difficult than opening up a ThinkPad T61. Ergo, my point is that calling it "easily-replaceable" completely and utterly ignores how easy it used to be to replace your cellphone's battery. Call it a reality distortion field if you must. So your reference point is yours, and mine is mine. We can call it there. I won't though; I want other people to take iFixit's reference point more serious than randomers because they are experts at defining the difficulty and their guides have been proofread and used. By many eyes. [1] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6+Battery+Replacement/29363 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6+Battery+Replacement/29... [2] https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6+Plus+Battery+Replacement/29424 https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iPhone+6+Plus+Battery+Replaceme...
- acchow 9y agoAlternatively, you could say Apple is putting in a barely-sufficiently-sized battery for planned obsolescence... and masking it under "make it as thin and light as possible". In reality, it's probably some mix of both sides.