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It’s Not Just You: Your iPhone Is Getting Slower!

By Laura Tucker
It’s Not Just You: Your iPhone Is Getting Slower! Featured Image

It’s Not Just You: Your iPhone Is Getting Slower!

Nope. It’s not just you. It’s not just a figment of your imagination. Your iPhone is not as fast as that first glorious day you bought it. It’s getting slower and slower, but not for the reasons you may think. Apple is doing this purposely to help protect an aging battery.

The Accusation

This is something that has been long-argued. iPhones just seem to get slower and slower and will completely shut down at certain points just to make the situation even more annoying.

Some have blamed Apple for doing this intentionally, believing that this was all a marketing ploy and that they were making their phones less productive purposefully to try to force them into upgrading sooner.

But that is simply not the case. While Apple has been blamed for many things in the past, this one just doesn’t even seem plausible. They would be sacrificing their customer base, and that base has always been loyal to them.

The Reality

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While it’s true that iPhones do slow down as they age, it’s not by some nefarious attempt of Apple’s. The reason is more easily imaginable. It’s actually an attempt by Apple to save the battery in the device.

As they told TechCrunch, “Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.”

So batteries in iPhones just aren’t able to keep up when they get cold, have low battery, or get older. And Apple shuts the phones down to try and protect them and slows them down to help them perform better at peak times.

Working on a Solution

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Not only is this purposeful on Apple’s part, they’re doing what they can to reverse the problem.

They explained that “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.”

They’re working on smoothing out that process with the batteries so that they will no longer shut down, and it seems to be a work in progress.

To back that up, users who have replaced their older batteries have reported that they have better productivity in their iPhones. But you’ll notice the changes in performance of your phone far ahead of the notification it will send telling you that your battery is going bad.

By the way, batteries get older and less useful not just with simple age but also by being exposed to heat. So you can keep your battery newer by avoiding leaving it out in the sun.

Still a Fan?

What do you think of Apple’s reasons for slowing their phones down? Do you agree with them? Or do you think this is all just a load of bull? Let us know by chiming in below in the comments section.

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Laura Tucker Avatar
Laura Tucker
Laura has spent more than 20 years writing news, reviews, and op-eds, with the majority of those years as an editor as well. She has exclusively used Apple products for the past 35 years. In addition to writing and editing at MTE, she also runs the site’s sponsored review program.

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