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ahmede

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 14, 2011
372
276
Has Apple intentionally compromised battery quality in their products

My 6s , after 230 cycles , battery capacity is down to 89% , my spare iPhone 5 with 1200 cycles is at 90% capacity , i see similar posts by members with their iPhone and Macbooks reporting rapid degradation of their battery capacity long before it reaches the magic number of 1000 cycles which has always been the benchmark for Apple batteries.

It's time for Tim Cook to quit , Standards are dropping at a alarming rate , not only batteries, but poor build quality , lack of real innovation,
Apple just finds new ways of milking their hardcore users.

A Tim Cook must quite hashtag should be started.
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Battery technology is generally terrible across the industry. It hasn't really changed or evolved since... well, ever. Lithium ion batteries will always degrade naturally over time, regardless of usage. They're the closest thing to a living component that you'll get in a phone.

Batteries also don't drain consistently. 1 hour and 40 minutes battery life wouldn't mean you'll see it solidly tick down exactly 1% every minute, for instance. The OS has to interpret the readings and judge from there.

You should also stop obsessing over battery 'health'. Those sort of applications only fuel paranoia and hinder the enjoyment of the product, because batteries will always die. Almost anybody would be hard pressed to notice a real-world difference at 90% health anyway. It's frequently down to the luck of the draw.

Again I must emphasise that batteries are not digital. You can get two batteries and use them identically over a year, yet one can fail and the other could be fine. This is the limitation of the industry; for every phone and every laptop. Whoever cracks the next step in battery technology will become unimaginably wealthy.

In conclusion, blaming Apple for your battery draining over time is not only ridiculous, but demonstrates a fundamental ignorance for the very thing you're complaining about.
 

ahmede

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 14, 2011
372
276
Battery technology is generally terrible across the industry. It hasn't really changed or evolved since... well, ever. Lithium ion batteries will always degrade naturally over time, regardless of usage. They're the closest thing to a living component that you'll get in a phone.

Batteries also don't drain consistently. 1 hour and 40 minutes battery life wouldn't mean you'll see it solidly tick down exactly 1% every minute, for instance. The OS has to interpret the readings and judge from there.

You should also stop obsessing over battery 'health'. Those sort of applications only fuel paranoia and hinder the enjoyment of the product, because batteries will always die. Almost anybody would be hard pressed to notice a real-world difference at 90% health anyway. It's frequently down to the luck of the draw.

Again I must emphasise that batteries are not digital. You can get two batteries and use them identically over a year, yet one can fail and the other could be fine. This is the limitation of the industry; for every phone and every laptop. Whoever cracks the next step in battery technology will become unimaginably wealthy.

In conclusion, blaming Apple for your battery draining over time is not only ridiculous, but demonstrates a fundamental ignorance for the very thing you're complaining about.


You missing my point which is that the batteries installed in Apple products are inferior compared to say 3 years back.

You will find numerous posts where users are replacing batteries much sooner due to rapid degradation compared to previous builds.

Your last paragraph is a display of arrogance, Apple is using cheaper / poor quality batteries in their products.
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
You missing my point which is that the batteries installed in Apple products are inferior compared to say 3 years back.

Based on only your experience and nothing more. You can't make wild claims without actual evidence.

You will find numerous posts where users are replacing batteries much sooner due to rapid degradation compared to previous builds.

There are infinitely more iOS users now than there were back when the iPhone 3G came out. More products = more problems mentioned.

Let's just say that there were 1 million 3G users. 25% of them have an issue with the battery, so that's 250,000 complaints. Now say there are 20 million iPhone 5S users. 5% of them have an issue with the battery, so that's 1,000,000 complaints. 4 times as many complaints than the much older gen, but actually a much lower failure rate.

Your last paragraph is a display of arrogance

No more arrogant than coming to a furious conclusion based on nothing but anecdotal evidence.

Apple is using cheaper / poor quality batteries in their products.

Citation please.
 

Tech198

Cancelled
Mar 21, 2011
15,915
2,151
I think what people are worried about is the fact the % left on batteries should be "this" and now it's "that" as the only belief that Apple must be undermining the battery technology...

More complex OS, hardware/software to deal with, (e.g 3D Touch).. While Apple has increased battery over the years, so has the OS grown , now it can more more than just make a phone call. Plug LTE will chew through battery as well.

I can easily get through about 5 days on standby with my iPhone 6s Plus, but if i use 4G/LTE heavy use I often i need to stick my phone on recharge after 2 days... That's acceptable...

It all comes down to how u use it.... The percentage of battery left over the years is probably more inaccurate since the OS is doing allot more than is had to back then.. It's still a gauge, but not as important anymore.

e.g 1% battery difference than the actual OS readout... 2% next year that the OS reports because it now does Touch ID etc..

That's still nothing.. There are now more things done in hardware.. All of that still requires battery power, even if it is not been actually used, it still must drain a small amount just in case to signal it will be used later.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
I recall seeing some articles that apple wanted to use a shaped battery in the new MBPs but could not over come some obstacles without delying the product so they opted for a smaller non-shaped model. I'd say if those reports were true then Apple was working hard at trying to improve the battery not make it worse.

I see no business reason on why Apple would purposely and overly introduce inferior batteries into their products. The competition is just too intense for them to do something as silly as that.
 

Septembersrain

Cancelled
Dec 14, 2013
4,347
5,451
I recall seeing some articles that apple wanted to use a shaped battery in the new MBPs but could not over come some obstacles without delying the product so they opted for a smaller non-shaped model. I'd say if those reports were true then Apple was working hard at trying to improve the battery not make it worse.

I see no business reason on why Apple would purposely and overly introduce inferior batteries into their products. The competition is just too intense for them to do something as silly as that.

Perhaps it was a bit of rush as they didn't complete their shaped battery project?

Not saying they'd intentionally sabotage themselves but look what happened with the Note 7. Companies can make mistakes.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
Perhaps it was a bit of rush as they didn't complete their shaped battery project?
I don't believe it was a rush, because this redesign was in the works for around 2 years based on some of the comments by schiller. They could have underestimated the effort to put a shaped battery in, or after seeing what happened to the Samsung phones, they went back and wanted to make sure the tolerances were better and safer. I don't know but I don't think Apple rushes any hardware out the door.
 

Septembersrain

Cancelled
Dec 14, 2013
4,347
5,451
I don't believe it was a rush, because this redesign was in the works for around 2 years based on some of the comments by schiller. They could have underestimated the effort to put a shaped battery in, or after seeing what happened to the Samsung phones, they went back and wanted to make sure the tolerances were better and safer. I don't know but I don't think Apple rushes any hardware out the door.

You're probably right. I just guess I'm being sucked into all the QC threads.
 
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