Apple had confirmed that it was indeed slowing down the older iPhones. This, according to Apple, was necessary to ensure that user experience remains acceptable and the phones did not shutdown due to the aging battery
A day after Apple agreed that it slows down older iPhones, although not because of some malice but because the old batteries necessitates it, the company is now facing a potential class-action lawsuit in California.
According to reports Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas, represented by Wilshire Law Firm, have lawsuit with a US District Court in California, saying that Apple knowingly slows down the old iPhones like the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 7 when new iPhones are released.
Both Bogdanovich and Speas apparently own an iPhone 7 and they claim their phone is running slow after the update to the latest version of iOS. In their application they said that they did not want Apple to slow down their phone and that Apple never asked them if they “preferred to have their iPhones slower than normal.”
Earlier on Thursday, Apple had confirmed that it was indeed slowing down the older iPhones. This, according to Apple, was necessary to ensure that user experience remains acceptable and the phones did not shutdown due to the aging battery. Apple had explained that older batteries lose the ability to supply peak charge and hence the performance had to be fine-tuned in the older iPhones.
Here is Apple’s full statement:
“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.
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’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”
The Apple statement came several days after an iPhone 6S user found that replacing his phone’s battery made his phone faster again, even with the iOS 11.
Earlier, he found his phone slow after he updated the phone to the iOS 11. The user wrote about his experience on Reddit, showing that after the battery replacement his phone scored around 2X more points in Geekbench, a benchmark that measures the performance of a processor.
Geekbench team noticed the Reddit post and then did its own tests. It came to the same conclusion saying that the older iPhones indeed ran slower with the latest version of iOS compared to a new phone or a phone with new battery.
