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I have an iPad Mini 2 that’s gone from iOS 7 to iOS 11 over the years and I haven’t noticed any slowdown. If anything it’s faster and has better battery life than when it was new.
 
On average, Apple batteries are FAR better than the competition. Just the 6s/6s+ batch had issues I think - and of that, only a small percentage. And instead of just replace all the millions of 6s/6s+ phones they tried to minimize the problem with the downclocking. (My guess). Out of the millions of 6s+/6s owners, maybe only 30-55k had problems and of that, only a few thousand knew about it. (again, this is a huge assumption on my part).

But in my experience, Apple Batteries are exemplary. My 6+ had ~240 cycles after almost 2 years, 97% life left. My 6s+ had 220? cycles after 1.7 years and 95% life left. My Samsung Note 3 after 150 cycles had less than 60% life left (yeah probably a bad battery) - but my coworkers Note 3, same thing, and my coworkers Note 4 phones - same thing. The only good thing about Samsung, the replacement battery cost $10 on Amazon and with a removable back it was easy to replace.

I'm a HUGE battery OCD nut - and Apple's batteries are amazing imo - the hardware and battery are big reasons why I own an Apple.
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Wow look at that. Hard to argue with those results. That's proof in my book - quite a few others just like you.
You’d be impressed to hear that the current Samsung s8/note 8 batteries are quoted to only lose 5% capacity over a year. Last years s7 was quoted to lose 20% in a year. Massive breakthrough by Samsung.
 
Exactly. Though, in my case, I lost $80. lol. But oh well.
I cracked the screen on my 6+ once in September 2015.

This was right around the release of iOS 9. I was on iOS 8.1. Took it in for a replacement. $150 plus tax.

Angry Apple 'Genius' took one look at my jailbroken iPhone and said I needed to restore. Fine. I had a backup and figured that might happen.

I informed her that she might want to do a DFU restore and update though. It was jailbroken.

She ignored me (because she was the Apple genius), took my phone in the back after iTunes restarted the phone and told me to come back in an hour.

An hour later I returned and an entirely different genius, who was actually very nice, says to me "We couldn't get your phone to boot so we are replacing the entire phone for the cost of the screen replacement."

Well, cool! But duh! Yeah, you couldn't get the phone to boot because your Apple 'genius' updated a jailbroken iPhone and put it into a friggin bootloop! But you guys want to ignore my suggestion of a DFU restore, sure I'll take a brand new iPhone for the cost of the screen replacement!

Then the genius tells me that Apple has been having issues with iOS 9.0. Right. Great cover for your idiot genius who thinks updating a jailbroken iPhone straight through iTunes is okay.

But I smile, say thanks, pay the man and walk out with a brand new iPhone for the cost of the screen replacement.

Two weeks later I ported out of Sprint and had to turn that phone in. One of the sadder moments for me as that particular 6+ was a real NICE phone and was only two weeks old at that point.
 
You’d be impressed to hear that the current Samsung s8/note 8 batteries are quoted to only lose 5% capacity over a year. Last years s7 was quoted to lose 20% in a year. Massive breakthrough by Samsung.

I believe it and it is REALLY cool - I hear Samsung is putting some serious resources into battery R&D too (in the news a few weeks ago?). That is really really cool - thanks for letting me know. Like a lot of other great members here, I too am considering an Android phone again.
 
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If apple gave us larger batteries, things would be much better for everyone. Apple gets as much or more out of their small batteries as android does from much larger ones. My s8+ and iPhone 8 Plus are very similar in size. The s8+ has a ton of stuff inside it, yet it has a 3500mah battery and room for a headphone jack. The iPhone 8 Plus has a tiny 2691 mah battery. For a phone as powerful as the 8 plus, I just don’t think that’s enough. Apple definitely maximizes it’s battery capacity to provide solid battery life, but an extra 500mah or so would really put it over the edge. How is Samsung able to fit an extra 800mah in the s8+? My s7e was smaller than the 8 plus and it had 3600mah and a headphone jack, plus a cooling pipe inside of it. I’d happily take a bit thicker phone for an extra 500 to 800 mah. Capacity loss wouldn’t mean anything, because even after a year or 2 it would still have more capacity than they come with now. The standby drain is very impressive, but iPhones routinely fall behind android phones in terms of battery life while in use. They’re still competitive even with the huge capacity difference, but why just compete when you can dominate.

I’ve read stories talking about Apple increasing the battery sizes next year. Somehow I feel like even with a 3000+ mah battery, it will still get comparable battery life to this year’s phones, and the size increase is to make up for the more taxing iOS 12 and the fact AR and 4K video will be more mainstream. I also doubt the standard size will be 64gb. I’m expecting 128 or 256gb options.

As it is, Apple has nailed battery efficiency, but the size of their batteries is disappointing.
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I believe it and it is REALLY cool - I hear Samsung is putting some serious resources into battery R&D too (in the news a few weeks ago?). That is really really cool - thanks for letting me know. Like a lot of other great members here, I too am considering an Android phone again.
I just came from an s8 +, and I think most people would have to agree it’s the phone of the year. The note 8 is right there too, and more impressive in a few ways. 6.3” super amoled screen and 6gb of ram, along with an s pen. Anyone looking to jump ship to android has so many choices from Samsung, google, lg, Motorola, hauwei and more. The iPhone is the most refined, but it’s restricted. I like that after years of tinkering with androids.
 
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I have an iPad Mini 2 that’s gone from iOS 7 to iOS 11 over the years and I haven’t noticed any slowdown. If anything it’s faster and has better battery life than when it was new.
That's really hard to believe. o_O
[doublepost=1512958107][/doublepost]Really interesting Reddit thread the article references: https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/7inu45/psa_iphone_slow_try_replacing_your_battery/

Not just for person I replied to :D it merged my separate posts. Sorry about that
 
I came across that article this morning. Not seeing how this provides evidence of planned obsolescence. Sounds more like the 6s had quite a few batteries and/or power management controllers which were defective and instead of owning up to it and replacing said components, Apple throttled performance of the phone. This in my opinion is worse than planned obsolescence but certainly not evidence of it.
People reported having the issue with the 7 and 7 plus too soo...
 
Who knows... I went to an Apple Store this weekend and played around with the 8 and the X (the 8 is so bad-A).... but the magic's gone. What happened :oops:
 
This whole thread explains so much of what I’ve seen of Apple devices and how they claim they don’t purposely slow them down with iOS upgrades. They’re right, it’s the battery life/voltage that does it!

My 6 Plus is supposed to be at 1.4GHz and is now at 1.1Ghz. Low Power Mode puts it at 894MHz so at least I’m not at rock bottom like some. Not bad for 3 years use.
 
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I have a question: How does Apple know which devices are affected by the restarts (supposedly due to faulty batteries) and henceforth know which devices to throttle? I'd think they would have to throttle all the 6s.
 
This whole thread explains so much of what I’ve seen of Apple devices and how they claim they don’t purposely slow them down with iOS upgrades. They’re right, it’s the battery life/voltage that does it!

My 6 Plus is supposed to be at 1.4GHz and is now at 1.1Ghz. Low Power Mode puts into in 894MHz so at least I’m not at rock bottoms like some. Not bad for 3 years use.

I just hate how Apple Stores refuses to do anything with your battery unless it is under 80% capacity. If they're slowing down phones, they should let people pay frigging $80 to replace their battery when they want.


CPUs are such complicated things these days - they downvolt, downclock for a myriad of different reasons. That is why I believe these tests are not always consistent. Someone can run Geekbench 5 times and get different numbers every time - battery at 60%, get less numbers than when 100%, and what not. Kinda like checking your battery's design capacity - it is only accurate at 100% charge and can vary by quite a bit if not 100% charged.

My wife's iPhone 6s+ CLEARLY had a bad battery, anyone with a brain could have seen that. Apple refused to do anything with it and I lost $80 because of it. But I've had good service from them since the iPhone 4s so I'll give them a little slack. But so far what I'm seeing with this 6s battery stuff is sad.

Moral of story? Use the **** out of your phone - if it has a problem, Apple should replace it. Apple went against that philosophy with the 6s/6s+ for an unknown number of users. My guess is the % was so small they decided not to do anything about it (just silently downclock CPUs) because the cost would be so great and the negative press so bad.
 
Sent my iPhone 6 to Apple for a new battery since it wasn't holding a charge like when it was new. I paid like a $100.
A few days later I get the phone back with a note saying the battery tested ok....so the battery wasn't replaced.
I called customer service and I explained that the battery was 3 years old with well over a 1000 charge cycles on it. The Apple rep said the battery tested good and they wouldn't replace it even if I paid for it (which I did). I argued that the battery was over three years old and had exceeded it's rated life expectancy. After a brief argument, he finally conceded and made a "one time exception" to have it replaced on my dime. I seems to me that Apple has no incentive to keep older phones running.
 
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Sent my iPhone 6 to Apple for a new battery since it wasn't holding a charge like when it was new. I paid like a $100.
A few days later I get the phone back with a note saying the battery tested ok....so the battery wasn't replaced.
I called customer service and I explained that the battery was 3 years old with well over a 1000 charge cycles on it. The Apple rep said the battery tested good and they wouldn't replace it even if I paid for it (which I did). I argued that the battery was over three years old and had exceeded it's rated life expectancy. After a brief argument, he finally conceded and made a "one time exception" to have it replaced on my dime. I seems to me that Apple has no incentive to keep older phones running.
Wow. Thanks for sharing. That's a bad Apple rep.

Apple really doesn't have any incentive for anyone to keep their old devices. It brings them little money compared to a new phone purchase.

Apple will be your savior if you buy their latest at top dollar, and they will bless you with top-notch (heh) devices.
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I have a question: How does Apple know which devices are affected by the restarts (supposedly due to faulty batteries) and henceforth know which devices to throttle? I'd think they would have to throttle all the 6s.
They did. The article said that 10.2 did that.
 
Good grief. People make a big deal about battery life. Apple sees an issue that affects battery life as devices age. Do something about it. People freak out and cry "conspiracy!" How about those who believe that just, I don't know, grow up? After over 3 years the battery in my iPad is down 26.4% according to the Battery life app. What's more important, how long between charges or processing power? After about 3 years, by the way. The iPad isn't affected by this, but still.

APPLE IS STILL THE BEST COMPANY OUT THERE who supports equipment over a year old.
 
Good grief. People make a big deal about battery life. Apple sees an issue that affects battery life as devices age. Do something about it. People freak out and cry "conspiracy!" How about those who believe that just, I don't know, grow up? After over 3 years the battery in my iPad is down 26.4% according to the Battery life app. What's more important, how long between charges or processing power? After about 3 years, by the way. The iPad isn't affected by this, but still.

APPLE IS STILL THE BEST COMPANY OUT THERE who supports equipment over a year old.

Oh I'll agree with you on that last statement 100%. I don't think there is a conspiracy - just proof that instead of offering more replacements, Apple tried to mitigate a bad battery in a small number of devices by reducing CPU frequencies if the battery had low/bad voltage in the 6s model. But like you said, no other company comes close to the support that Apple has. I always get AppleCare+ and even if this does turn out to be true (it hasn't yet), having had exemplary service since the iPhone 4s - I'll give Apple a bit of slack - I've had great devices from them, and continue to have. (4s, 5, 6+, 6s+, 8+) - not counting iPads. :)
 
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I just hate how Apple Stores refuses to do anything with your battery unless it is under 80% capacity. If they're slowing down phones, they should let people pay frigging $80 to replace their battery when they want.

I’m actually glad that they don’t. Replacing a battery that still has more than 80% capacity is just plain wasteful.
I can just imagine all the obsessed techies replacing their battery every 6 weeks because it’s declined a percent.
 
I’m actually glad that they don’t. Replacing a battery that still has more than 80% capacity is just plain wasteful.
I can just imagine all the obsessed techies replacing their battery every 6 weeks because it’s declined a percent.

Oh yeah, I agree with this because, I'd have replaced mine many many times if I could have. :) I've never replaced my battery in any of my iPhones ever. Even if they did get "recycled" yeah, it would be a waste. I'm sure Apple makes more $/hr selling iPhones than replacing batteries at $80/pop. lol.
 
I sill don't get why this is being debated. Yes, Apple optimizes iOS for older devices, hence less features for devices that cannot support advanced animations, gestures, etc.

In the end the result is the same: buy an iPhone or don't. Other device manufacturers won't bother to optimize anything, not even for new devices. (I believe I posted a while ago about having to literally throw an Andoid tablet away because there was no way to update/restore).

Technology is volatile. You can't just buy a device and expect it to last forever.
 
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I’m actually glad that they don’t. Replacing a battery that still has more than 80% capacity is just plain wasteful.
I can just imagine all the obsessed techies replacing their battery every 6 weeks because it’s declined a percent.

My battery was at 80%+ yet the system throttled my CPU clock 40%+ I’d agree with you if only time between charges was compromised, but the system slowdown is crazy.
 
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Good grief. People make a big deal about battery life. Apple sees an issue that affects battery life as devices age. Do something about it. People freak out and cry "conspiracy!"

Wow, you're joking right?
It's not about battery life. Did you even read any of the thread?
So you would enjoy for Apple to slow down your iPhones processor performance by more than 50%?
Some can't face reality past their undivided love and support for a company that wouldn't think twice about lying and covering up their wrongdoings in order to rip you off and not lose any money in replacing defective batteries.
 
The difference in regards to the article is that Apple’s reason for slowing down those devices is to prevent random shutdowns and allow you to keep using your device without getting a new battery or new phone.
Still not seeing the correlation you are claiming.

It also allows them to claim a fictitious battery life. My battery was on 480 cycles and 82% yet the system was slowed down. I would argue the battery was already failed for purpose, yet Apple is saying it wasn’t
 
APPLE IS STILL THE BEST COMPANY OUT THERE who supports equipment over a year old.
While doing everything in their power to get the customer updated to the latest software and hardware.

Let's not forget that while supporting equipment over a year old Apple prevents you from using any version of iOS older than the current version if you've updated.

We won't talk about 1999-2006 era Macs and the lack of support Apple has for them. ;)
 
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