Apple Admitted To Slowing Down Older Phone Batteries

In the age of planned obsolescence, it’s not surprising that our electronics need replacing as often as they do—and phones are no exception. Anyone who’s held onto a device for more than two years knows just how slow things can get, and how sad the battery life becomes. Now, Apple actually confirmed that this happens on purpose—but not for the reason you would assume.

TechCrunch points to a thread on Reddit where people complained about their older iPhones running slower, surmising that it was Apple’s petty way to make them upgrade. Apple issued this response:

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.

As someone who has personally experienced that annoying cold weather dead phone problem, I’d say a slower phone is better than a dead battery when you’re stuck in the frigid cold. But then, I’d already upgraded before this release happened, so who knows how I’d really feel.

What do you think? Tell us in the comments.