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Have you ever noticed that as your iPhone gets older, your device become slower and slower? Well, you’re not alone. Reddit users have noticed that Apple appears to be intentionally slowing down old iPhones that have low capacity batteries as software is updated and old tech struggles to adapt. There’s proof now that Apple is purposefully throttling processor speeds in order to preserve battery capacity and battery life.
Geekbench developer John Poole mapped out performance for the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 over time, and came to the conclusion that Apple’s iOS 10.2.1 and 11.2.0 updated have introduced intentional throttling for different iPhone devices. iOS 10.2.1 is the update that was designed to reduce random shutdown issues that iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S users were experiencing. After that, iOS 11.2.0 introduced similar throttling for iPhone 7 low capacity batteries, Geekbench reports.
While Apple has been intentionally slowing down device to help preserve battery life, some Reddit users have said that by replacing their batteries, their iPhone’s performance and CPU clock speeds went back to normal. This is especially troubling because any reports of slowdowns by iPhone users is an attempt by Apple to try and get their customers to update to the latest device or get a battery replacement done on their iPhone. “This fix will also cause users to think, ‘my phone is slow so I should replace it’ not, ‘my phone is slow so I should replace its battery,'” says Geekbench’s John Poole.
