Apple alleged to slow down old iPhone models with iOS updates

Apple is alleged to have made changes to iOS to scale down the performance of the older iPhones as their batteries degrade beyond a specific point, claims findings by Geekbench.

The smartphone performance testing has taken to its blog post to state that its analysis of the scores of several units of iPhone 6s running iOS 10.2.1 compared to those running iOS 10.2 show that there are numerous points where the scores cluster. The firm notes that the scores plunge beyond the single average point was observed previously.

The change is claimed to be due to the result of a minor software upgrade that is likely to have meant to reduce the performance of the devices. The effect is more noticeable with the iOS 11.2, adds the blog post. A similar analysis of the iPhone 7 scores point out at a typical concentration of the scores at one level until the release of the iOS 11.2 update.

A Reddit user claiming that his iPhone 6s had been running pretty slow sparked the investigation. The problem is claimed to have vanished after a battery replacement. The Geekbench that was run before and after the battery replacement was also revealed and the scores seem to have increased to a great extent. Notably, the original battery had a 20% wear level.

The original post suggests that Apple deliberately lowers the performance to make the iPhones last long on each charge as its batteries degrade over a point of time. Other Reddit users have also reported about significantly lower performance with low charge levels despite the Low Power mode being disabled.

The blog post notes that after the rollout of the iOS 10.2.1 update earlier this year, the iPhones were shutting down abruptly and Apple offered the battery replacement programme following the issue. Apple could have tried to reduce the power consumption with the rollout of a software update if the issue was due to the batteries those were failing to deliver a specific voltage threshold.