New data suggests iOS limits device performance based on battery age
- dec
- 18
Is iOS degrading your device's performance based on your battery's age?
Geekbench, a computer and mobile device benchmarking service, has offered some evidence that iOS might be slowing down the processor in your iPhone or iPad once your battery hits a certain age. People with older iPhone have been recording lower-than-expected results in GeekBench 4, causing the company to investigate.
Testing on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 using multiple versions of iOS, Geekbench was able to notice degraded performance in their tests on the phones with older batteries and newer firmware. Geekbench theorizes why this is happening:
Second, the problem is due, in part, to a change in iOS. The difference between 10.2.0 and 10.2.1 is too abrupt to be just a function of battery condition. I believe (as do others) that Apple introduced a change to limit performance when battery condition decreases past a certain point.
Apple acknowledged the sudden shutdown issue that affected the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s earlier this year. However, does the same issue affect the iPhone 7? Apple appears to have added a similar change to iOS 11.2.0 for the iPhone 7.
The so-called "sudden shutdown" bug was seen to affect a certain batch of iPhone 6s units, and Apple offered a battery replacement program for eligible models last year.