We now know for certain what many people have suspected for some time: Apple really is slowing down older iPhones. The phone-maker has finally come clean about what’s going on — it really is purposefully degrading the performance of its phones.
We now know for certain what many people have suspected for some time: Apple really is slowing down older iPhones. The phone-maker has finally come clean about what’s going on — it really is purposefully degrading the performance of its phones.
While there has been speculation that the company has been putting the brakes on aging handsets in a bid to encourage people to upgrade to newer models, Apple says that there’s actually a different reason for old iPhones performing less impressively in benchmarks. That reason is battery life.
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Beginning with the iPhone 6,Apple started to reduce the performance of handsets to avoid problems that could be caused by aging batteries. Last year, the slowdown was added to iPhone 6,6S and SE handsets, and the release of iOS 11.2 saw it added to the iPhone 7 as well.
The secret throttling of devices is something that was thought to have been debunked, but an admission direct from Apple confirms people’s suspicions, and has caused disappointment in the company’s fanbase.
This week Apple said:
So, it seems as though iPhone 8 and iPhone X users have the same fate to look forward to, but Apple is insistent that the forced slowdown is not an example of built-in obsolescence. However, the secrecy surrounding the feature is something that is not going to work in Apple’s favor. While it is possible to see the slowing down of devices as a way of prolonging their life, many iPhone owners will be asking why the company chose to wait so long to be honest about what it has been doing.
Image credit: Chadawan Heemsuhree / Shutterstock
