Apple has now admitted that iPhones do slow down in time, but it's not because it's trying to get its customers to upgrade their handsets by force. Rather, it's to avoid random shutdowns caused by old batteries, the company claims.
Plenty of iPhone owners say that they notice a drop in performance because of iOS updates, and now there's proof that the Cupertino brand really does throttle iPhones as they age.
iPhone Slowing Down Is Confirmed
This all started with a post on Reddit and a series of benchmark tests by Geekbench developer John Poole of Primates Lab.
Users on Reddit came to the conclusion that replacing the iPhone's battery will restore its performance. For instance, the user who started the thread says that their iPhone 6s presumably with a worn-out battery got a single-core score of 1,466 and a multi-core score of 2,512 on Geekbench, but when they changed the battery and ran another test, they got the ratings of 2,526 on single-core and 4,456 on multi-core.
Meanwhile, Poole examined the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 and made a timeline of their respective performances, zeroing in on what's going on. From the look of things, iOS 10.2.1 and iOS 11.2.0 are where the throttling began.
Back in January, iOS 10.2.1 decreased the instances of random shutdowns iPhone 6s units were suffering from, but it was in exchange for performance. Now iOS 11.2.0 is expected to do the same for iPhone 7 units that have old batteries.
Apple Spells It Out
Now Apple has responded to the findings that have been making the rounds online, explaining why it's slowing down iPhones.
"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 or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components," Apple told TechCrunch.
It adds that it "released a feature" for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE that'll prevent them from shutting down when "instantaneous peaks" in performance occur. It also announced that it'll be extended to the iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2 and other products.
Incidentally, this also explains the reason Apple rolled out a tool that lets iPhone 6s owners to check whether or not they're eligible for a battery replacement back in December 2016.
In short, Apple releases iOS updates that'll indeed throttle iPhones so they won't randomly shut down on the user. It's also safe to say that the company is doing this so that the handsets can still keep the lights on as if it were good as new, but needless to say, the price to pay for that is performance.
With all said and done, have you noticed any performance degradation on your iPhone? If so, feel free to hit us up in the comments section below and let us know.
