Apple throttling iPhone 6 and 6s? 9to5Mac article link

[994]

This does not look like a conspiracy theory. It looks like a bad fix from Apple since iOS 10.2.1

I'm not posting this to start a "Apple is Evil" thread or some such, but to just make people aware if, like me, you were thinking of getting a new iPhone.

I'm on a 6 that is dog slow since the move to iOS 10 (now 11, because when I asked Apple to look at it, their first fix was "upgrade the OS).

According to this article, it looks like since iOS 10.2.1, Apple has been throttling 6 and 6s CPUs to make up for faulty batteries.

See PSA: If you have an older iPhone with slow performance, a new battery could solve your problems

I ran a test on my phone and my spouse's phone --both are iPhone6, both older than 2 years -- and my CPU is throttled (iOS11) and her's is not (iOS9). Seems to be the real deal.

Don't know how this will play out, but wanted to let iPhone users know.

edit: I changed my battery on my iPhone 6 and it is much more useable now.

 

[uscrx]

Class action lawsuit has been filed.

Why not offer battery upgrade?

Because, then they will sell less newer models of course. And the only reason they admitted? They got caught by independent companies running tests.

 

[Reflector]

Give Apple more of your money. What they do is rightthink, what you think is wrongthought. We were always at war with EastSamsung, not WestMotorola. There was never a HTC. Only the duopoly of two cellphone companies.

(I say this because of the drivel brought up on by "news" outlets trying to defend Apple for no reason by claiming stupid things like "oh they throttled it because the battery could explode or something since its old and has performance problems...")

 

[uscrx]

Give Apple more of your money. What they do is rightthink, what you think is wrongthought. We were always at war with EastSamsung, not WestMotorola. There was never a HTC. Only the duopoly of two cellphone companies.

(I say this because of the drivel brought up on by "news" outlets trying to defend Apple for no reason by claiming stupid things like "oh they throttled it because the battery could explode or something since its old and has performance problems...")

I never owned an iPhone. Now on LG V20. Been a Samsung user for 7 years before. But now with so many excellent Androids like OnePlus, Huawei, LG, Moto, HTC, Samsung.. Not sure how iPhone can compete with new android innovations.

 

[demiro]

...
I'm on a 6 that is dog slow since the move to iOS 10 (now 11, because when I asked Apple to look at it, their first fix was "upgrade the OS)...

I'm curious to know what "dog slow" looks like. I have a 6S, and always update the OS. Seems fine to me, for playing videos, music, surfing etc.

 

[994]

I'm curious to know what "dog slow" looks like. I have a 6S, and always update the OS. Seems fine to me, for playing videos, music, surfing etc.

Well, my battery is updated now, so I can't take any videos or anything, but lucky for me, it misbehaved when I went to the Apple Store, so there are witnesses.

Stuff like screens freezing halfway (like the unlock screen), the camera taking a full 5 seconds to come on, 3 seconds to go from stills to video, the phone app would lock up (trying to dial a customer -- that's not really workable) so I would have to reboot the phone app. I took a risk replacing the battery (what if there was something else wrong - I'm out $80), but it is all cleared up now. In fact, I keep my phone now on Low Power Mode (didn't know about that until I looked into this issue) and on LPM with the new battery, the phone is more responsive than regular power mode on my old battery. And I get a full day now on a charge.

I don't know what the true cause is, but there are lots of folks with the same issue. Some don't have the issues. But the battery replacement seems to solve it.

My phone is 2 1/2 years old, and it gets heavy use. I've no complaint that it cost $80 to refresh. I just think Apple has to come clean that batteries cannot power their phones as long as they seem to indicate. When I replaced my battery it was still in the green zone, but clearly unable to keep up. Something's wrong there.

 

[uscrx]

But the battery replacement seems to solve it.

That's exactly right. New battery fixes the issue. A simple cost effective fix. Yet, Apple went out of their way to throttle the CPU. Why?

Simple. Coerce users to upgrade the phone.

 

[dwig]

That's exactly right. New battery fixes the issue. A simple cost effective fix. Yet, Apple went out of their way to throttle the CPU. Why?

Simple. Coerce users to upgrade the phone.

IMHO, the throttling is not, in and of itself, the issue. The valid complaint is that Apple did this without clear notice that it was being done and that a battery replacement would avoid the need to throttle. Users should have been told upfront by their phone when throttling was done, that a battery replacement was suggested, and the UI should provide an option to disable throttling even though when disabled the user may experience unexpected shutdowns. Hiding the throttling is tantamount to tricking the user into spending money on a complete phone replacement. Its the hiding that is so evil.

 

[steve16823]

I don't think that the goal was to push people to buy new iPhones but rather to avoid the embarrasing and potentially costly admission that the iPhone battery's performance is poorly matched to the iPhone's electrical current requirements.

 

[uscrx]

I don't think that the goal was to push people to buy new iPhones but rather to avoid the embarrasing and potentially costly admission that the iPhone battery's performance is poorly matched to the iPhone's electrical current requirements.

I don't know. The think tank at apple ought to be smarter than that or perhaps not. Wouldn't they have predicted that eventually people will find out..like they have? And now they're faced with not only an embarrassment but more financially damaging class action lawsuit along with potentially losing many loyal iphone users.

 

[uscrx]

IMHO, the throttling is not, in and of itself, the issue. The valid complaint is that Apple did this without clear notice that it was being done and that a battery replacement would avoid the need to throttle. Users should have been told upfront by their phone when throttling was done, that a battery replacement was suggested, and the UI should provide an option to disable throttling even though when disabled the user may experience unexpected shutdowns. Hiding the throttling is tantamount to tricking the user into spending money on a complete phone replacement. Its the hiding that is so evil.

I do think throttling is an issue because people buy new phones as an upgrade to experience fast and smooth operation from the most expensive cellphone on the market. Yes I agree everything else you addressed are concerns as well. Not only Apple throttled the performance, they hid it from their consumers. And there's no doubt in my mind that their marketing considered this as a positive move for the company. Steve Jobs did put premium emphasis on Marketing. I think more so than the R&D.

 

[994]

There are also massive flamewars over this on macrumors, if anyone wants to jump into the mess, lol

 

[uscrx]

There are also massive flamewars over this on macrumors, if anyone wants to jump into the mess, lol

Oh let me go over there and see... LOL.

 

[DynaSport]

I have an iPhone 6s and my battery life has gotten terrible. If I replace the battery, will it remove the throttle down, or will my phone continue to be throttled down? And are the brand new 6s’ which they are still selling, throttled down from the get go?

 

[uscrx]

I have an iPhone 6s and my battery life has gotten terrible. If I replace the battery, will it remove the throttle down, or will my phone continue to be throttled down? And are the brand new 6s’ which they are still selling, throttled down from the get go?

New battery should overcome the throttle down. But once your battery reaches a certain level of lowered charge capacity, the throttle down will be back.

 

[barry]

Hi, does this apply to the 6s plus?

 

[uscrx]

Hi, does this apply to the 6s plus?

Yes sir, and iphone 7.

 

[barry]

Quite interesting to play Apple’s iconic tv ad today, especially in light of the current “throttling” issue:

Someone needs to re-make that, but the slowly walking people should be replaced by people standing in line for Apple gear.

 

[Reflector]

I never owned an iPhone. Now on LG V20. Been a Samsung user for 7 years before. But now with so many excellent Androids like OnePlus, Huawei, LG, Moto, HTC, Samsung.. Not sure how iPhone can compete with new android innovations.

My world used to look like this:
Blackberry
Palm OS
Symbian
Windows Mobile

They were more capable in the day and still could do more with the base OS than modern phones of today. Throw in apps just to level the playing field finally, up until those old programs were just as capable and didn't need the internet to operate or access to your entire contact list and location services as well as the ability to activate your camera and microphone...