After reports emerged that older iPhone models are being slowed down by Apple, the company responded, and those claims turned into a nightmare for all iPhone users across the globe.
Primate Labs, the makers of benchmarking tool GeekBench, highlighted those claims in their research, and their findings do raise questions as to why Apple feels the need to slow down performance of older iPhones, which costs buyers as much as Rs 70,000?
Basically, Apple keeps a check on the battery health of old iPhones, and reduces its performance levels to let the devices last long. However, this manoeuvre disappoints the users, who expect their iPhones to last them for at least three years in top shape.
So, how is Apple pushing the levels of old iPhones? By rolling out iOS update that secretly manage to throttle down the output of the device, as suggested by John Poole, founder of Primate Labs, which has come out with this report.
The findings of the report also became evident when users of iPhone 6 or 6S decided to change their phone’s battery, and even that didn’t really help matters for Poole and Co during their tests.
Many iPhone 6s devices were shutting down unexpectedly, even after the battery replacement program (which many people weren’t entitled to use). Since degraded batteries don’t last long and end up with a lower voltage, Apple’s solution was to scale down CPU performance.John Poole, Founder, Primate Labs
However, much to everyone’s surprise (and dismay of millions of iPhone users), Apple responded to these claims by saying this:
Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance, and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge, and as they age over time, can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.Apple Statement
Now, only if Apple had better ways to tackle this problem, ie, offering iPhones with bigger battery units (which they’ve only started doing since the iPhone 7 Plus). The performance issues have plagued Android users for years, but Apple admitting that its older models see a drop in performance after merely a year, does raise an alarm.
iPhone buyers shell out big money, mostly because they claim to get premium and a long-lasting experience, and in many ways, they’re right. But this development changes everything.
The other way to look at Apple’s admission is the company’s clever tactics to coerce buyers into regularly upgrading their devices. After all, Apple isn’t closing in on becoming the first trillion dollar by doing public service.
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Phones in 2017 — Fast and Furious
Battery issues have plagued other manufacturers also, most notably, the Galaxy Note 7 explosive fiasco in 2017. Phones are getting powerful and faster, but the penchant to outdo one-another seems to have scaled up to a whole new level lately.
No matter how fast the phones are, everyone craves for one which can last them longer than their normal working day.
OnePlus and Motorola have solved this to an extent by opting for fast-charging technology, while others are still finding their feet in the lithium-ion battery business, which, as experts put, is the most viable option available to phone makers right now.
With Apple, the problem has been closely guarded, which makes its recent admission even more damning. There have been indications (discrete ones) that enlighten us about the capability of the battery on iPhone. This statement pops up on battery section of Apple’s website
The lithium-ion batteries used in Apple’s devices are designed to hold at least 80 percent of their original capacity for 500 complete charge cycles.Apple website
It’s good to see that Apple understands its limitations, and decides to solve the matter before it gets out of hands. But how does one answer to those who probably spend a good part of their paycheck to own the iPhone?
Which is why, it’s quite obvious that all iPhone buyers have every right to know what Apple does with their devices behind the scene, and they should have made these things clear, rather than hearing about it from reports like the one published by Primate Labs.
All in all, what Apple has opened is a can of worms that is surely going to haunt them for a while, and the Cupertino-based giant needs to find an amicable fix to ensure this doesn’t hurt its reputation in the long run.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)