Introduction

There’s a good chance you’ve already heard that it’s been discovered Apple are “slowing down” some iPhones with older batteries.

This got them quite a bit of negative attention when it came out- not least because they hadn’t been open about the fact they were doing this, nor had they offered users the choice. Apple is currently being taken to court by several people arguing they’d never agreed to it, and by others who’d bought new phones, not realising the problem could have been solved with a replacement battery.

Regardless, if you have one of the affected iPhone models (as of January 2018, the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE, 7 and 7 Plus), how does all this apply to you- especially if you think your phone is getting slow or your battery might need replacing?

The Problem- and What Apple Did About It

Although the issue was first noticed towards the end of 2017 (when Apple added the feature to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus), iOS had already been doing this for the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus and SE since the start of the year.

If we take Apple at their word, their explanation (given after the issue became public) is quite reasonable. They state- correctly- that battery performance will degrade with usage and over time. This affects both the battery’s charge capacity and- more importantly here- reduces its ability to reliably deliver the higher levels of current needed when the CPU and GPU are operating at full speed.

If the voltage drops too much in these cases (because the worn-out battery can no longer deliver enough power), the phone is likely to start crashing for apparently unexplained reasons.

Apple’s stated solution- or rather, workaround- is to spread out the workload, avoiding “spikes” of activity where the CPU or GPU would be running at full speed, as well as cutting down on power consumption elsewhere. They’ve said that they take account of the battery’s current charge and internal impedance level, and the iPhone’s temperature, and only apply these measures when necessary.

(They’ve also admitted that the effects of such “power management” are more likely to be visible if the battery is in poorer condition- e.g. scrolling, smoothness and responsiveness, launch times, backlight level, volume etc.).

We can confirm what others have said, that replacing the battery with a new, healthy one appears to result in iOS returning the phone to full speed operation.

Battery Replacement

Can Apple Replace My Battery?

However you feel about what Apple did and how they went about it, the fact remains that it could only ever be a workaround for a failing battery. The only true solution is to have it replaced.

Apple themselves offer this as a paid service (aside from a few iPhone 6Ss with a known problem that they’ll repair for free). The bad news is that- on top of the weeks you’d normally wait for an appointment- Apple has run out of batteries at the time of writing (mid-January 2018) and won’t have any more until March or April at earliest.

While it’s reasonable to assume they were caught out by increased repair requests after the story leaked, some are more sceptical, suggesting the shortage is an intentional delaying tactic intended to reduce demand- either until the next version of iOS (due in February) offers user control over the “slowdown”, or so that people will have it done by third-party businesses instead, simply forget about it altogether, or even buy a new iPhone.

Put simply, that last one isn’t implausible- Apple has never shown any real interest in servicing iPhones, preferring instead to steer users towards rather more profitable out of warranty replacements or hoping that they’ll simply upgrade to a new model.

We Can Replace Your Battery Sooner

On the other hand, if you don’t want to wait several months to have your iPhone battery replaced, you can bring it to us at Disc Depot St Andrews. In most cases we’re able to have it done the same day. (We usually keep batteries for recent iPhone models in stock, so there’s no waiting for one to be ordered in).

We’ve been in business since 2001, and have been repairing iPhones for almost as long as they’ve been available. (The head technician in our St Andrews store is an Apple fanatic who had the original iPhone when it first came out in 2007. (Not to mention having been first in line at Aberdeen’s Apple Store when the original iPad was launched in 2010!)

We’re the company many other businesses rely on to sort things out when their Apple repairs don’t go as smoothly as expected.

If you live in St Andrews (or indeed any part of eastern Fife, including Leuchars, Guardbridge, Cupar, Anstruther and beyond), we’re conveniently located for you. Find us at 1 City Road, telephone us on 01334 47 88 66 or contact us online. We also have a store in Dundee, and you can mail us your phone from anywhere in the UK or most of Western Europe- contact us for further details.