Apple admit they have been secretly slowing down older iPhones

Apple iphone in white

iPhone manufacturer Apple admit they slow down the CPU on some older phones to conserve the battery without informing the user.

It has been a bad week for Apple after researches discovered that iPhones 6 and 7s that are updated to iOS 10.2.1 or new versions of the operating system were secretly slowing down the users phones in order to conserve power on batteries which were old and couldn’t meet peak power demands from the phone.

Since November 2016 Apple had been going through a repair program to fix a problem with iPhones 6s shutting off unexpectedly. The shutdown issue is caused when the phones CPU tries to draw more power than the battery is able to provide. This is especially a problem on older phones as batteries degrade with age. One of the fixes that Apple has employed is to slow down the phones CPU so it cannot draw too much power resulting in the phone shutting down.

Unfortunately this fix has resulted in many users of older Apple phones noticing their handset becoming increasingly unresponsive and slow yet and not realising why it was happening, since Apple had failed to notify the phone user what was happening.

A side effect of phones slowing down is that many people then believe they need to buy a new phone since they think their old phone is no long capable of running the latest software, when in reality the speed issue could have been fixed with a new battery being fitted to their phone.

There is no mention in any of the information on the latest iOS updates that the software could slow down your phone when you install it, and Apple do not give the user the ability to switch off the feature to restore the phone to full speed.

Part of the problem is that Apple choose to embed the battery into the phone and not make it replaceable by the end user. This results in a slightly thinner phone and perhaps one that is a little more robust but Apple were well aware that the phones battery would degrade over time and would need replacing. If you take your phone to Apple they will charge $79 dollars for you to have your battery replaced by one of their service technicians. Yet the battery itself is only a $15 part.

Since Apple knew that phone batteries degrade over time but still decided to embed them into the phone and not allow them to be replaced by the end user. Perhaps consumer law should require Apple replace the batteries for free or at least the cost price of the battery.

I think that Apple at the very least need to make the end user aware that they are slowing down their iPhone with a warning message on the screen when it does so and the option for it to be turned off. And to inform the phone own that replacing the battery can restore their phone to full speed.