It’s not your imagination: Apple is deliberately slowing old iPhones, but says it’s to protect them
Apple says the move prevents sudden shutdowns on ageing iPhone 6, SE and 7 models
Apple has addressed claims from an app company that says the maker of iPhones slows down the performance of older phones.
On Monday, the blog Primate Labs, a company that makes an app for measuring the speed of an iPhone’s processor, published data that appeared to show slower performance in the Apple’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 models as they aged.
Apple on Wednesday acknowledged that the company does take some measures to reduce power demands – which do indeed have the effect of slowing the processor – when a phone’s battery is having trouble supplying the peak current that the processor demands.
The problem stems from the fact that all lithium-ion batteries, not just those found in Apple products, degrade and have problems supplying the big bursts as they age and accumulate charging cycles, Apple said in a statement the problems with peak current draws can also occur when batteries are cold or low on charge.
“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,” Apple said in an emailed statement. “We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”