It's not your imagination...
On Monday a blog by Primate Labs, a company that makes an app to measure the speed of an iPhone's processor published data that highlighted a slow performance for the iPhone 6s and 7 as they aged.
Yesterday Apple admitted to reducing the power demands of the iPhone as it ages as it can no longer supply the peak current the processor demands.
The biggest problem is that the lithium-ion batteries, that are 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. Problems can also occur if your iPhone is cold or low in charge. Twitter users who use Apple devices have been skeptical about the iPhone for a while now:
I was googling how to replace an iPhone battery and my phone turned itself off. COOOOINDCIDNENCE??!
— Liz Hird (@liz_hird) December 21, 2017
@Apple nice to see you finally admit you kill the performance of older iPhone under the guise of battery life. Can you just admit it's a way to get people off the older phones? I switched to Samsung instead :)
— Ace (@Al_in_Maine) December 21, 2017
I've been telling people about how Apple forces you to get a new iPhone by not only slowing down the battery but also by sending software updates that are too large for your phone storage which in turn causes your phone to run slow. Brilliant concept but sucks for the consumer.
— El Once (@GCue__) December 21, 2017
Apple stated that they're working on a support system for each iPhone to stop devices from unexpectedly shutting down:
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.
If your battery begins to flag and your phone's processor is working overtime, the battery sends spikes of electricity that damage the electronics of the phone. When this happens, iPhones would shut down to protect the pricey processor from being damaged.
In 2016 widespread problems with the iPhone forced Apple to issue a software fix that resulted in the slowing of phones with an old, cold or low-charged battery. So how can you fix the problem? For €66.50 you can replace the battery of the iPhone and remedy the problem or Apple will change the battery if it's covered by your warranty.
