iPhone performance degradation with battery aging

Minstadave · 19 Dec 2017 at 20:04

I was reading earlier an interesting article earlier about how Apple may be quietly slowing down specific iPhone models as the battery ages:

https://www.geekbench.com/blog/2017/12/iphone-performance-and-battery-age/

So I ran Geekbench on my 2 year old iPhone 6S and it was about a third slower than it should be. I looked at how much it cost to replace the battery and found there was a recall programme for some specific iPhone 6S batches and mine qualified so I’m sending it in for free, result! Has anyone used this option already? Do they replace the battery or simply send a refurb out?

I’ll run Geekbench again after it’s repaired and see if it’s back to normal.

Combat squirrel · 19 Dec 2017 at 20:46

yup this is confirmed.....old batteries cannot sustain the high power needed sometimes so apple programmed older bat phones to run at lower clock speeds/power, slowing the phone.

So older iphones do run slower than they should....the rumour is true.

bremen1874 · 19 Dec 2017 at 20:59

My 6S will be 2 years old in two days (so purchased about 3 months after they were released) and still seems fine (2521 in Geekbench).

It's had at least one full charge/discharge cycle every day.

Maybe I just got lucky with the battery.

Feek · 19 Dec 2017 at 20:59

Minstadave said:
Has anyone used this option already? Do they replace the battery or simply send a refurb out?

I took Mrs. Feek's phone into an Apple store and the battery was replaced under this recall. They had the phone for a couple of hours, we went for a nice meal and picked it up afterwards.

Irish_Tom · 19 Dec 2017 at 21:24

Mine is eligible for the replacement but I haven't done it yet — the nearest Apple Store would basically mean a day trip and I don't know how long I'd be without it if I sent it off.

I need to replace the screen on my MBP as well but again, I don't know how long I'd be without it.

I really need a day in Southampton and get them to sort the phone and the laptop at the same time… I just hate Southampton.

Minstadave · 19 Dec 2017 at 22:23

bremen1874 said:
My 6S will be 2 years old in two days (so purchased about 3 months after they were released) and still seems fine (2521 in Geekbench).

It's had at least one full charge/discharge cycle every day.

Maybe I just got lucky with the battery.

Sounds like it, mine only does 1800 in Geekbench and does feel more sluggish but I thought it was iOS 7. Hopefully a fresh battery will get another year or two out of it.

delta0 · 20 Dec 2017 at 01:19

I was reading about this. I’m not sure what battery wear level this becomes an issue but my 6 is on 12% wear.

Edit: going out into the cold caused it to increase to 23% wear

Hades · 20 Dec 2017 at 10:16

This has hit the mainstream news now:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/19/apple-iphone-reduce-speed-old-batteries

I'm afraid it leaves me very cynical as to Apple's motives. As far as I can tell there are likely two reasons for them slowing down the processor speed:

1) To prevent unexpected shutdowns due to iOS needing more power (older batteries sometimes can't produce the same peak power - my daughters phone sometimes shuts down unexpectedly).

2) Planned obsolescence to encourage people to upgrade the whole phone instead of just replace the battery.

Perhaps the original intention was indeed to help older phones in scenario 1. But if that was the case I would have expected Apple to announce it as a great new feature of iOS... "Fantastic new power management features added to the latest upgrade as Apple help users with older phones". I would also expect them to include more visible changes such as limiting the maximum brightness and having these options available to enable and disable in settings. But I don't recall any such announcement and it's being discovered by end users instead. So that leads me to believe that part of the reason is to encourage people to upgrade to a shiny new phone on the assumption that their old one can no longer run the latest update satisfactorily.

If that's the case then it's a massive great big slap in the face to their customers.

Rroff · 20 Dec 2017 at 10:21

I'm pretty cynical - aside from the odd battery Li-ion tends to just keep going until one day it just doesn't hold its capacity any more and you'd have to change it anyhow - the gradual degradation upto that point shouldn't cause any kind of scenario like that unless Apple has screwed up somewhere and trying to work around it.

EDIT: The current output capabilities of a Li-ion battery hardly diminish (over its useful lifetime) and are usually far in excess of the peak draw of a mobile SoC, etc. so tons of overhead for degraded performance over time.

I've several older phones/tablets where the batteries have gone over a few years down to like ~80+% of their original performance and after that very quickly go to barely lasting 20 minutes from a full charge and rebooting under load, etc. but by that point the battery is done anyhow.

Pretty foul way to treat customers but it seems to be the way lately and few seem to push back against it.

Shocky-FM · 20 Dec 2017 at 11:43

Samsung have been working to slow down degradation of their battery life with great effect with the Galaxy S8, on the other hand Apple do this.

Nice contrast between the two companies there.

Hades · 20 Dec 2017 at 11:48

I assume this would also happen with ipads now too?

What about macbooks?

FreeStream · 20 Dec 2017 at 14:22

Hades said:
I assume this would also happen with ipads now too?

What about macbooks?

Doesn’t happen on MacBooks.

Clock speed on my MBP is maintained until 5% IIRC at which point the cpu is locked to 800mhz.

Journey · 20 Dec 2017 at 23:35

I see Apple have indeed confirmed they are doing this, and slowing down phones intentionally, it even includes the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. I smell a class action lawsuit coming on in America, and I doubt Apple have a leg to stand on, especially with people that upgraded due to the artificial slow down.

McBain · 21 Dec 2017 at 10:28

Confirming what we all pretty much already knew, my 6 runs like a dog these days and it's only a couple of years old.

I have no desire to change because it fulfils everything I need but it's become so sluggish it almost feels like Apple is intentionally forcing me to upgrade rather than 'Providing me with a great customer experience by slowing my phone down'.

Antx777 · 21 Dec 2017 at 11:56

Hades said:
I assume this would also happen with ipads now too?

What about macbooks?

I'm still working bullet speed on iPad Air 2 10.3.3 and had it about 2.5 years. No slowdown, so I don't think it's uniform through all apple products but perhaps just phones? I'm still on 10.3.3 on my Air 2 and iPhone 6. (Non S) but my brother who has an iPhone 5s and was forcibly upgraded in the night as he was charging it to ios 11. At least apple shouldn't force you to upgrade to ios 11 (it seems they do with their constant nags, and "your phone will be updated to ios 11.00 between 3 am when connected to power """). Or at least take them of there "compatible with ios 11XX" list.

Tony.

Minstadave · 21 Dec 2017 at 12:23

McBain said:
Confirming what we all pretty much already knew, my 6 runs like a dog these days and it's only a couple of years old.

I have no desire to change because it fulfils everything I need but it's become so sluggish it almost feels like Apple is intentionally forcing me to upgrade rather than 'Providing me with a great customer experience by slowing my phone down'.

Well if a £20 battery brings it back to life that’s a win for us.

Not sure the 6 is affected though, be worth checking a geekbench score.

IvanDobskey · 21 Dec 2017 at 12:55

This looks suspiciously like apple trying to con people into buying a new iPhone rather than just replacing the battery

Pretty scandalous if you ask me.

McBain · 21 Dec 2017 at 13:03

Minstadave said:
Well if a £20 battery brings it back to life that’s a win for us.

Not sure the 6 is affected though, be worth checking a geekbench score.

Just checked Geekbench, CPU scores are down ~40%.

As you say, could be a case of new battery time.

Antx777 · 21 Dec 2017 at 13:36

Just downloaded Geekbench 4 and test results on my iPhone 6 on ios 10.3.3. are as follows:

Single core 797

Multi core. 1371

Now the iPad Air 2 also on ios 10.3.3

Single core: 1823

Multi core: 4388

notice the MASSIVE difference between the phone and iPad Air 2? There shouldn't be "that much of a gap" looking at online tests, but the iphone is decked by my air 2 scores. Also of note, is that my iPad Air 2 i older than my iPhone 6 and used more.

PS: just wondering if charging my iPhone 6 on the iPad Air 2 charger has damaged it? Even if Apple do say its ok. ? And would. A NEW battery speed it up again/ as get 6-7 hours battery life on the phone, so battery seems ok??

Feek · 21 Dec 2017 at 14:36

Antx777 said:
PS: just wondering if charging my iPhone 6 on the iPad Air 2 charger has damaged it?

No, that won't have damaged it.