The 'iPhone Slowdown Thing' seems to be the 'McDonalds Frivolous Lawsuit" of the computer world. As in, misunderstood mainly for ideological reasons. What Apple did in response to aging batteries was perfectly sensible technically, what they failed to do was communicate it properly to the user.
What Apple did in response to aging batteries was perfectly sensible technically
Yep, and what would be even more sensible is allowing users to 'cap' the charge level the way Samsung has started to with a "charge only to 85%" ability. Don't just respond to aging batteries, allow steps to reduce aging.
> But, that goes against the upgrade sales process.
Have you considered your own bias? Apple automatically caps battery charging at 80% but it is algorithmically controlled instead of a manual toggle. I would like the manual target, too, but if your narrative were accurate they would not have implemented the feature to begin with.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't cap anything. It just waits an arbitrary amount of time before charging from 80% to 100%. Simply charging it in that range causes long-term battery wear.
> Yep, and what would be even more sensible is allowing users to 'cap' the charge level the way Samsung has started to with a "charge only to 85%" ability.
You can kinda do this with AOSP, but it's obnoxiously convoluted. You enable the adaptive charging feature, then set a silent alarm for 9:59, then set an alarm on something other than your phone so you can unplug your phone at 7:00 or so. (edit: or I guess you could get a smart outlet to cut power to your phone at 7:00)
The obsession with thinner phones and undersized batteries to allow that was the real issue, in my opinion. Looking at a comparison list[1] the 6s has about half the battery capacity of the iPhone 13, and is the smallest battery of the entire iPhone lineup for its screen / face size.
I would say call that tangential. Properly functioning batteries that are undersized are a battery life problem. A malfunctioning battery that cannot deliver enough current for the CPU at full power is a different problem. It could be argued that the smaller battery would degrade faster due to more cycles, but I don't recall whether there was general dissatisfaction with battery life on the 6S or not. I expect the battery on the 13 to be bigger because I assume (with no research, admittedly) that the SOC and screen both take a good bit more power than the equivalents on a 6S.
> Properly functioning batteries that are undersized are a battery life problem. A malfunctioning battery that cannot deliver enough current for the CPU at full power is a different problem.
These are the same problem. Nominal voltage lowers as batteries age, as does the ability to maintain a voltage under load. The batteries were "fine" for the first year. A larger battery would have been able to keep voltage under load at an acceptable level even as it aged.
> I expect the battery on the 13 to be bigger because I assume (with no research, admittedly) that the SOC and screen both take a good bit more power than the equivalents on a 6S.
And yet the 6 had a larger battery (same screen size). Personally I find the 6S (and 6) to be very thin. They could have easily been a couple mm larger without the consumer noticing (Apple could have made the camera lens flush!).
