iPhone X Why buy X or 8 when it will slow down by 60% like 7?

[AlphaGuitarist]

android phones are notorious for slowing down over time.

Yup, something to the tune of 3 months later. Take a look at the Note 8 review at the link below.

https://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-review-three-months

Some commenters are actually saying things like "so what, just do a factory reset". And we're the sheep? Smh...

 

[BenTrovato]

The iPhone 6s was released in fall 2015. Apple issued a battery recall for a "very small" fraction of iPhone 6s models in fall 2016. Apple released an iOS update with the throttle cheat in early 2017.

That shows Apple was throttling for a phone that was just 1 year old, not 2+ years old. Look at the events that happened and it is clear they are trying to avoid a larger recall of defective batteries.

This is the only thing that ultimately matters and the reason why there are lawsuits. It's so obvious what they are doing.

From a business perspective, they made the decision on the cost of replacing batteries, negative press from the shutdowns, time for Apple store employees to replace the batteries, etc etc etc and compared it to introducing throttling knowing people would figure it out and decided that it was more cost efficient to deal with potential lawsuits. They have a full legal department that needs work too, so I get it from their perspective but as a customer it's terrible. You should be made aware when your device will stop performing as expected and have an option to replace the battery.

 

[AlphaGuitarist]

It is not little bit slower
People report it is unusable
People have benchmark it and it is 60% slower
Would you want a phone that is crazy slow that is unusable or more battery?

This is simply not true. Prior to switching to the X, I had a 6s Plus, whose battery was at 85% health at the time I received the X. I was running iOS 11 on it and, aside from an occasional split second animation lag, it was certainly not "crazy slow" or "unusable".

Not possible! Every single phone Apple sells is now being throttled. Didn't you hear from all those people in a random forum? They say so.

I read on a forum that Apple is now throttling brand new phones out of the box, intentionally making them "crazy slow" and "unusable", in order to encourage users to immediately start saving up for the next year's model. Break out the pitchforks!

 

[mtneer]

Why not just have a "check battery" notification popup when the throttle kicks in? My Mac does that, even my car has a "check engine" light whenever it needs attention. I think that would be a reasonable resolution to this question and a swift kick in the shorts for any "geniuses" who turn away customers looking to pay for their own battery replacement.

 

[neverloyal]

This is simply not true. Prior to switching to the X, I had a 6s Plus, whose battery was at 85% health at the time I received the X. I was running iOS 11 on it and, aside from an occasional split second animation lag, it was certainly not "crazy slow" or "unusable".



I read on a forum that Apple is now throttling brand new phones out of the box, intentionally making them "crazy slow" and "unusable", in order to encourage users to immediately start saving up for the next year's model. Break out the pitchforks!

My 6s became very frustrating to use the day after updating, very noticeable slowdowns and stuttering and hanging etc. It is true, but obviously not a universal experience. I would call it unusable compared the previous 2 years of great performance.

I assumed ios 11 was not very well optimised, I couldn't understand how Apple were still selling 6s as new. Until they admitted the real reason.
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Why not just have a "check battery" notification popup when the throttle kicks in? My Mac does that, even my car has a "check engine" light whenever it needs attention. I think that would be a reasonable resolution to this question and a swift kick in the shorts for any "geniuses" who turn away customers looking to pay for their own battery replacement.

Exactly, and I still think Apple applied this throttle on too may devices. My 6s was great, then overnight it was really poor. not just a bit slower in transitions. For the first time I looked into turning as many features as I could off to try and make it less frustrating to use.

 

[Shinigami301]

LOL, MacRumors never fails to bring out the crazies
I wonder sometimes how some of the folks on here function out in the real world

If MR were to bring back the downvote, it would go a long way toward reality-checking the looney bin escapees. ARS has a thriving comment element partly because of that factor.

 

[Brandonjr36]

Makes no sense that 1-year old iPhone 7’s are being throttled.

It would really help if Apple simply gave some technical information on exactly how when the throttling kicks in, but of course the vague statement from a few days ago that really told us nothing

Does the throttling begin at 90% battery capacity? 80%? 70%? Nobody knows anything this point, besides the company who hid this information from customers and only admitted they cripple device performance once they were caught red-handed by users.

Only reason I’m even considering keeping my 8+ is because it is on iOS 11.1.2, which doesn’t have the throttling virus “feature” for the 8 or X. Still might end up returning it due to Apples shadiness & lack of integrity on this issue, not sure yet...

You can actually jailbreak it soon.

 

[AlphaGuitarist]

My 6s became very frustrating to use the day after updating, very noticeable slowdowns and stuttering and hanging etc. It is true, but obviously not a universal experience. I would call it unusable compared the previous 2 years of great performance.

I assumed ios 11 was not very well optimised, I couldn't understand how Apple were still selling 6s as new. Until they admitted the real reason.

I've had battery issues with my iPhone 6 (random shutdowns at 50%), so I'm sure that there are many people who were affected by the throttle when Apple implemented it. However, the OP stated that pretty much every iPhone becomes unusable and benchmarks 60% slower, which is not true at all. Individual use cases vary greatly. My work phone, an iPhone 6 that was issued to me in June 2015, still functions well, runs iOS 11.2.1 and has a decent battery life. Granted, I don't use it nearly as much as I use my personal phone, but it still does what I need it to do.

 

[boltjames]

The massive slow down includes iPhone 7 which is very new, then why buy x or 8 when we already know it will be slow down so much just few months later? X being the fastest phone now but expecting 60% speed decrease?

Because the good news in this whole phony "scandal" is that we just found out that it only costs $79 to replace a battery which is a pittance for people who can afford a $1,250 iPhone.

And it's not a few months. We're talking about years. No biggie.

 

[ericgtr12]

Apple is only slowing down phones with bad batteries. I upgrade my phone every year so it doesn’t affect me.

As an avid Apple fan it surprises me how many people will defend them no matter how egregious their actions can be. There were no widespread reports of battery and throttling issues prior to this slow down, it was deliberately added to cripple older iPhones that were working just fine before. In fact, after I upgraded my iPhone 6S Plus to iOS 11 it was so slow that it's the main reason I moved to the 8 Plus, to Apple this is a win, to the consumer, not so much. We should have a right to own our iPhone for a couple of years if we want before upgrading without being penalized for it.

 

[bnmcj1]

I never said that. I said that apple is doing this to prevent phones from shutting off randomly because of the batteries degrading, and would you rather your phone shut off randomly versus it still being usable but just slower?

I never said that. I said that apple is doing this to prevent phones from shutting off randomly because of the batteries degrading, and would you rather your phone shut off randomly versus it still being usable but just slower?

I never said that. I said that apple is doing this to prevent phones from shutting off randomly because of the batteries degrading, and would you rather your phone shut off randomly versus it still being usable but just slower?

If this excuse is the case, then the phones are clearly not made ready and should never have been released. Clearly not ready technology.

 

[Superrjamz54]

As an avid Apple fan it surprises me how many people will defend them no matter how egregious their actions can be. There were no widespread reports of battery and throttling issues prior to this slow down, it was deliberately added to cripple older iPhones that were working just fine before. In fact, after I upgraded my iPhone 6S Plus to iOS 11 it was so slow that it's the main reason I moved to the 8 Plus, to Apple this is a win, to the consumer, not so much. We should have a right to own our iPhone for a couple of years if we want before upgrading without being penalized for it.

I have several family members who have old iPhones and don’t have any issues. Guess what a battery loses performance after years of use. That’s too hard for some people to understand. Apple never said the batter will last years. They have always said it needs to be replaced after 500 cycles. Guess they got sick of all the complaining when the phone randomly shutdown that they decided to slow the phone down when it asks for more power then it can safely handle.
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If this excuse is the case, then the phones are clearly not made ready and should never have been released. Clearly not ready technology.

Batteries degrade over time no technology out there that can prevent that from happening. They need to be replaced when that happens. Maybe that’s how Apple gets your attention instead of Android which would rather you buy a phone every year so you can get updated software.

 

[ericgtr12]

I have several family members who have old iPhones and don’t have any issues. Guess what a battery loses performance after years of use. That’s too hard for some people to understand. Apple never said the batter will last years. They have always said it needs to be replaced after 500 cycles. Guess they got sick of all the complaining when the phone randomly shutdown that they decided to slow the phone down when it asks for more power then it can safely handle.

After iOS 11 many of those with older phones were crippled immediately, not after years or 500 cycles, etc., it was immediate. That is actually very easy to understand.

 

[newellj]

Why not make the iPhone so the owner can change their own battery’s?

The answer is because replaceable batteries require design tradeoffs that Apple believes are undesirable. It generally means a bigger, thicker battery and therefore a bigger, thicker phone. You and I might not notice the difference, but that's not how the design and engineering people at Apple see it, and it's been that way from the beginning. If a replaceable battery is a must-have feature, you have to go Android, and Apple's ok with that.

 

[barkomatic]

Apple claimed that the reason for the throttling -- which was that iPhones were shutting down spontaneously -- affected a small number of devices. If that's true, why release a software update that throttled the majority of users who weren't even experiencing that issue? (Excluding those with new batteries in old devices, I know)

Smartphones of all kinds start to slow down regardless due to various factors which I generally accept. This is a deliberate and additional slowdown in iPhones as little as a year old to cover a small portion of defective devices and I don't believe Apple's statement is fully transparent. Although they say the update wasn't meant to encourage people to buy new iPhones, it sure is icing on the cake for Apple isn't it?

Before I knew what was going on, I decided to trade in my iPhone 6s Plus which had become very slow after the iOS 11 update. I couldn't understand it, because normally a new iOS update doesn't slow down *that* much but I went out and got an X.

 

[newellj]

After iOS 11 many of those with older phones were crippled immediately, not after years or 500 cycles, etc., it was immediate. That is actually very easy to understand.

Horse****. They were carrying firmware that could slow them down, but they were not immediately slowed down. Get your facts straight. As I posted, I have a 15 month old iPhone 7 that performs at the top of the GB4 benchmarks. If that's immediate throttling, please give me more. That's actually very easy to understand.
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If MR were to bring back the downvote, it would go a long way toward reality-checking the looney bin escapees. ARS has a thriving comment element partly because of that factor.

Haha. Up-voted your post!

 

[Superrjamz54]

After iOS 11 many of those with older phones were crippled immediately, not after years or 500 cycles, etc., it was immediate. That is actually very easy to understand.

His

After iOS 11 many of those with older phones were crippled immediately, not after years or 500 cycles, etc., it was immediate. That is actually very easy to understand.

how do you personally know that those phones had less then 500 cycles or aren’t years old? The 6+ 6s are multiple years old and not every single phone was affected. Stop posting BS

 

[JackieInCo]

I never noticed any slowdowns on my 6S+. The battery capacity was about 70% before I had it replaced last month. Once the battery was replaced, the phone was just as fast as it was before I got it replaced. As Apple said, they only throttled it during peak times so most likely in my case, making calls, emails, texting and listening to music, wasn't considered peak times.

I also have a 6S but it's jailbroken on 10.1.1. so there will never be any throttling on it.

I bought a 7+ earlier this month and upgraded it to 11.1.2. I'm waiting for the jailbreak to come out soon and it will never be throttled either since 11.2 is the iOS version that throttles on that phone.

 

[newellj]

Hey all, this has been a good debate, but we should move on to more urgent issues. I see that Apple has licensed an Italian clothing maker to use Steve Jobs' name. I think we should debate whether these suits and other apparel items have planned obsolescence or have been "throttled" so that they won't fit or will start to wear out after a certain number of times being worn?

 

[Makayla]

Well if it happens to my 8 plus it will definitely influence my next purchase decision. It could be a moot point though, unless Apple gets rid of that ugly notch. Lol

 

[newellj]

I never noticed any slowdowns on my 6S+. The battery capacity was about 70% before I had it replaced last month. Once the battery was replaced, the phone was just as fast as it was before I got it replaced. As Apple said, they only throttled it during peak times so most likely in my case, making calls, emails, texting and listening to music, wasn't considered peak times.

I also have a 6S but it's jailbroken on 10.1.1. so there will never be any throttling on it.

I bought a 7+ earlier this month and upgraded it to 11.1.2. I'm waiting for the jailbreak to come out soon and it will never be throttled either since 11.2 is the iOS version that throttles on that phone.

I don't want to dismiss the question for owners of 6 and 6S phones, but if you replaced your 6S recently it was probably ~2 years old. Many, maybe most, phones are not going to see throttling inside two years - it looks like it depends on battery wear which is going to be related to battery use/charge cycles. My point is that most people who trade or sell phones within two years probably don't have to worry a lot about this issue. YMMV and you also may feel that it's an issue even if it never actually kicks in on your own phone.

 

[ericgtr12]

His

how do you personally know that those phones had less then 500 cycles or aren’t years old? The 6+ 6s are multiple years old and not every single phone was affected. Stop posting BS

Apple deliberately crippled millions of iPhones overnight, there are multiple lawsuits pending but yeah, some guy on the internet says we're all full of BS and tells us to stop posting. Alrighty then.

 

[TokMok3]

It’s not going to be a problem, this will now change going forward in some way.

I agree with you, the ball is in apple hands now.

 

[tonybarnaby]

As a new iPhone user, I wondered why they stopped giving apps like lirum info on charge cycles and why it's harder to determine battery health. Now it makes sense.

 

[JackieInCo]

I don't want to dismiss the question for owners of 6 and 6S phones, but if you replaced your 6S recently it was probably ~2 years old. Many, maybe most, phones are not going to see throttling inside two years - it looks like it depends on battery wear which is going to be related to battery use/charge cycles. My point is that most people who trade or sell phones within two years probably don't have to worry a lot about this issue. YMMV and you also may feel that it's an issue even if it never actually kicks in on your own phone.

My 6S+ was two years old this month and with the original battery, it has 165 cycles on it with a capacity of 70%. It most likely as you said, wasn't being throttled. My 6S has dropped to a capacity of about 88% with 203 cycles on it. It too is two years old this month and if it was updated to the latest firmware that throttles, it most likely would not be throttled yet either.

I only replaced the battery in the 6S+ because it started doing these random % drops. One night at work, it went from 70% to 17% in 6 hrs and I never pulled the phone from my pocket once that night until the last hour of my shift.