Apple Slows iPhones With Aging Batteries

Apple has confirmed the suspicions of many iPhone owners by revealing it does deliberately slow down some models of the iPhone as they age.

Many customers have long suspected that Apple slows down older iPhones to encourage people to upgrade. The company has now said it does slow down some models as they age, but only because the phones’ battery performance diminishes over time, BBC reported.

Apple said it wanted to “prolong the life” of customers’ devices. The practice was confirmed after a customer shared performance tests on Reddit, suggesting their iPhone 6S had slowed down considerably as it had aged but had suddenly sped up again after the battery had been replaced.

Technology website Geekbench then analyzed several iPhones running different versions of the iOS operating system and found some of them did appear to have been deliberately slowed down.

Apple has now confirmed that it made changes to iOS to manage aging lithium-ion batteries in some devices, since the batteries’ performance diminishes over time.

“Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, [when they] 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,” the company said.

“Last year, we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We have now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2 and plan to add support for other products in the future.”

Lithium batteries degrade over time because of what happens during the charging and discharging cycle. During both those events, lithium ions migrate through the material forming the battery.

Studies using electron microscopes have shown that each time the ions do this, they make tiny changes to the physical structure of that electrolyte.

The effect is like “rust creeping unevenly across steel”, according to one scientist who has studied the phenomenon. The changes effectively erode the material so it can hold less of a charge and can hamper its ability to provide a steady power supply.