Apple intentionally slows down iPhones as they get older. I don't know how many times I heard people say this as a conspiracy theory — one that I've dismissed, chalking it up to operating system updates and more demanding apps — but it turns out, it's true. Apple really is slowing down phones as they age with use (specifically, as their battery gets worn down), apparently as a way to mitigate issues that come with reduced battery life. Evidence was uncovered by Geekbench developer John Poole this week, and Apple admitted to it this afternoon.
There is some good reason for Apple to do this. By their nature, lithium-ion batteries degrade over time, storing less and less of a charge. This happens very quickly on a device we use 24/7. So it's not a bad idea for Apple to limit speeds on older phones, such that they don't push things too far on a depleted battery. That absolutely makes the phone more useable — it apparently helps stop random shutdowns, which are a major pain. And I would think it helps with battery life in general as well.
But it also speaks to a really enormous problem with the iPhone: this $700 to $1,000-plus product, as designed, isn't able to function near its peak after just a year of use. That should be unacceptable.
Slowing down the phone is one way to work against aging issues, but there are other, more obvious things Apple could do here. It could put larger batteries in the iPhone in the first place, so that they last longer before this kind of adjustment needs to kick in.
Or Apple could make it easier and cheaper to replace the iPhone's battery. Even just making it clear to people that replacing their battery will meaningfully improve their phone could go a long way — it turns out, replacing the battery will restore the phone’s proper performance again. Apple does offer a battery replacement service for $79, but that requires either taking your phone to an Apple store or mailing it in, which will leave you without a phone for at least a few days and likely more.
Until now, it had seemed that once your phone got this way — say, a year or two after launch — the only solution was to get rid of it and buy a new one. It had seemed that, by their nature, phones just started to give out after a year or two of use and needed to be replaced. This has led to a lot of people replacing their phones every two years or so. But the reality may be, in part at least, that it's a much simpler problem: a bad battery. Something that can be swapped out for $79.
There's still a lot we don't know here. Apple indicated that it started doing this last year for the iPhone 6, 6S, and SE, and this year for the iPhone 7. It's not clear if it did this with older iPhones — if it didn't, then it means that, yes, a lot of this slowdown is natural, since iPhones had this problem well before last year. It’s also unclear just how much Apple is limiting the processor. The Geekbench scores make it seem substantial, but Apple suggests that it only limits the processor from hitting particularly high peaks, which means this behavior may not dramatically impact day-to-day performance. It might just mean slower performance when, say, you launch a new app.
We also don't know if other companies take the same approach. It's easy to imagine that this behavior isn't limited to Apple, since all phone makers are going up against the very same processor and battery issues. By no means is Apple the only phone company with devices that see dramatically reduced performance just a year or two down the road.
But the big conspiracy has been that Apple intentionally slows down your phone every time a new one comes out, a subtle way of encouraging you to buy it. And now we know that it’s true on some level, even if you take Apple's word and see this as about preservation and not a sales tactic, since the software update that comes out alongside every phone seems to be what introduces the throttling. Here’s how Apple puts it in its statement describing what’s going on: “Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices.”
Apple’s story isn't really that much better though, because it means that Apple is knowingly designing and selling products that begin to fall apart after a year — which certainly has a way of encouraging people to buy a new one. This isn't something buyers are warned about, and they aren't presented with options to fix it. It's always just been assumed that you have to buy a new phone, which is a big expense.
This problem is, to a very real extent, unavoidable. Phone batteries will wear down and die, and Apple is doing somewhat of a right thing by trying to mitigate that so that your phone stays useable. But there are two bigger problems here: for one, Apple should be designing phones that don't degrade this rapidly; and two, it should have let owners know what was going on. There's already a low-power mode built into the iPhone — it wouldn't be farfetched to include a toggle to let more demanding iPhone owners turn off processor throttling if they don't want it. A simple popup after this feature is introduced or enabled would go a long way toward letting iPhone owners understand what’s going on, too.
Or, come on, just make a slightly thicker iPhone with a bigger battery. We’ve all been asking for it anyway.
Comments
I’ll say it again: This is bad business, and looks like that could be Apple’s VW-emissions moment. I sincerely hope it rids us of Cook, Schiller, Cue, and the whole incompetent lot who’s managing the company’s pipeline as if they’re coasting towards retirement.
By DKrants on 12.20.17 5:17pm
lol wat.
So Apple keeping their phones usable as batteries degrade(which happens on everything with a lithium battery), is the same as a company rigging their vehicles to cheat on an emissions test and polluting every person on earth?
Might want to rethink that.
By igneous on 12.20.17 5:20pm
FTFY.
I agree that the two situations are different (VW vs Apple), but I’d rather have battery life cut by ~25% than to experience continuous laggy performance from a year old flagship.
By PhatDummy on 12.20.17 5:35pm
Got to agree with you there. I might add that they should put user-replaceable batteries in. That was one thing I loved about the Palm Pre, was the battery was replaceable. Also with the Pre there was homebrew, specifically webOS Internals (great team btw) that made an app called ‘Govnah’ that allowed CPU speed thresholds and manipulation. When added with an OC kernel, you could have super great speeds on some lucky devices. The best part about this duo was you could choose when to overclock with bad battery life and when to downclock to save battery life. I miss webOS, I really do. Not even Apple can correctly copy how seamless that UI was.
By fxspec06 on 12.20.17 6:38pm
Oh man, these memories…you’re breaking my heart all over again. :’(
By Johnny Socko on 12.20.17 7:30pm
I’m so sad my Pre 3 broke. I would have still used that today. Maybe not in service, but as wifi only yes.
By fxspec06 on 12.20.17 7:46pm
That’s just not apple to do something like that lol.
Even google and most other android manufacturers are moving away from user replaceable batteries.
By range910 on 12.20.17 8:11pm
Are moving away? They moved away years ago. And good riddance too, the number of problems I have had with phones with loose batteries over the years – dust getting in, the copper (or whatever) connectors getting worn, the case cracking.
People have this rose-tinted nostalgia about replaceable batteries, conveniently forgetting the downsides. And the fact that only a tiny few actually want to carry an extra battery with them.
As for the slowing down of iPhones – I have never noticed it in my daily use since the 4s. My 6s Plus is still as fast as I remember it being. My kids use my old 5s for playing and watching youtube. It is fully updated and works brilliantly. Slower with the opening of apps than my 6s but how would it not be?
Anecdotal, I know. But whatever Apple are doing with battery and processor tricks, it works really well for me.
By Mha71 on 12.21.17 6:10am
Sorry but I never had any of those problems with user replaceable batteries. Also, I carried one or two with me everywhere I went in case I couldn’t go home that day. Lastly, you forget about extended batteries. I always chose the fat battery with the fat back and extra life over a skinny, short life battery. Also, just because you had a bad experience doesn’t mean everyone will. There’s far too many advantages for replaceable battery than downsides my friend.
Funny how you have problems with replaceable batteries but have had no slowdowns. Personally I just traded a perfectly good 64gb 6 (not the s, not the plus, just a 6) that had battery and slowdown issues. I was bitching and moaning and complaining and frustrated every day, every time I launched an app. I literally could not figure out why that phone was so fucking slow when it was so fast when I got it. I attributed it to cpu overheating and part deterioration. Had I known all it needed was a battery replacement, I would have shelled out the money and kept it for another year, maybe two, but Apple made my decision for me by not informing me that it was the battery that was causing the CPU to downclock. The final point is that it should be an option in settings.
But really man. Jump off the Applewagon.
By fxspec06 on 12.21.17 7:49am
Or you should jump off the replaceable battery wagon?
Like i said, it’s anecdotal. It’s my personal experience with a 4s, a 5s, and a 6s Plus. The replaceable battery experiences are way back pre-smartphone or thereabouts.
I don’t think I treat my batteries better than most, so maybe I have just been lucky. And my 6s Plus runs fast and smooth today. What else do you want me to say?
By Mha71 on 12.21.17 9:08am
I had quite many phones with replaceable batteries and never had any issues with them. However I was also one of those who didn’t miss the replaceable batteries since I always thought that a powerbank is more convenient way to get longer battery life than the need to turn off the phone and tear off the back cover.
This was before I realized that now our phones become close to obsolete after one year because the batteries degenerate sooner than I was thinking. I thought that one battery starts to show its age after 3 years and that would be fine for me since I usually use one phone for maximum of 2 years.
By Antti Eskelinen on 12.22.17 2:04am
All of those features you listed have been available via rooted apps on Android since forever. I was doing this shit with my Samsung Moment on Eclair. (Worst phone ever made, by the way)
By Robb-Nunya on 12.21.17 10:16am
Depending on the age of the phone and battery it’s not just degrading the battery by 25%, the battery was causing the phone to shut down.
By steviet02 on 12.20.17 8:01pm
When batteries wear out they will often shut down when they have remaining percentage reported by itself. It’s weird but maybe an electrical engineer can explain.
By VisionaryShaolin on 12.20.17 9:41pm
Why are only iPhones doing this?
By forwardisstilltheonlyway on 12.21.17 8:26am
Are they?
By VisionaryShaolin on 12.21.17 12:32pm
Definitely not just iPhones. I had an HTC One M8 that started shutting down and performing poorly shortly before 2 years of ownership. Same with a Nexus 5 and a Motorola G3.
By robt5017 on 12.21.17 1:10pm
Do batteries typically do this on Androids after a year? Batteries fail early sometimes I get that, but this really doesn’t become a problem for most people until 2-3 years of ownership.
By VisionaryShaolin on 12.20.17 9:39pm
Yes, they do. I know a few people that felt they had to scrap their (Android) phones after about one and a half yeasz because the battery was shot or it got unbearable slow and somehow a factory reset did not solve the problem. The difference was that they were half the cost of iPhones in these cases.
By RF9 on 12.21.17 5:06am
Stop generalizing. My Sony phones don’t.
By Tag H on 12.21.17 1:43pm
So because you don’t have problems others don’t?
By VisionaryShaolin on 12.24.17 12:50pm
I am still using my OG Nexus 6P perfectly fine. I charge to 80% in the morning before I go to work at 8AM. I come back home at around 6PM. I still have 30% or so left. Some mild browsing. Go to bed. Wake up at 530 AM, I have about 20% left. Charge it back to 80% and repeat. No issues whatsoever. I don’t think anyone can generalize battery life. It depends on a great number of factors. But what Apple is doing is classic Apple. They are making a choice for the user which is bad. Let the users decide if they want better performance or better performance and good battery (aka new phone).
By motiver on 12.21.17 6:48pm
Full performance on a worn battery might mean you don’t have a working phone when you need one. That’s the intent behind this move.
By VisionaryShaolin on 12.24.17 12:52pm
Nice try. In the context of mass customer deceit, with the resulting frustration and expenditure, it’s not such a far fetched analogy. And for Apple to keep on denying it up till now, that is gross gaslighting.
Top-of-the line phones being stealthily underclocked after merely a year in use is not "keeping your phone usable". Please.
By DKrants on 12.20.17 5:36pm
Where did the article get this from? It provided sources for other claims but not this one.
By VisionaryShaolin on 12.20.17 9:42pm