Since Batterygate, has this behavior actually ended with phone manufacturers, have they resorted to sneakier means, or is it basically as bad as before? Like the way the EU tried to stop Microsoft’s monopolistic behavior with Internet Explorer, but these days Google is basically Microsoft but worse.
My wife’s pixel 3a became so slow to the point of being useless. I tried to restore it but it was still very slow. It started happening after a software update after the pixel 5 came out 🤷
I, and a friend of mine also experienced this. I believe it started after the “final” update, but there’s no way to know. Needless to say i won’t ever buy, or recommend, a google device ever again.
The plausible deniability is the most frustrating bit.
But Pixels are also known for being the most open source of all Android phones, are they not? If you flash it to the final available version of GrapheneOS, does it perform more as expected?
Custom ROMs on the 3a still perform quite well. There is also a WIP mainline Linux port for the 3a that will hopefully extend the life of it for many more years to come.
I’m not sure why the entire phone experience needs to be slowed down by some percent for every phone of a particular model.
It’s not. The throttling is dynamic based on current battery state and current power demands. If you’re doing stuff that’s low-demand, you probably won’t be experiencing any throttling at all. If you do something demanding, only then does it slow down, and only to the extent needed. It may be as simple as dimming the screen brightness a bit while taking a video. Or maybe you’ve edited some video and need to export it. Instead of, for example, the five seconds that it would have taken, it will slow the processor down and take ten seconds. And then when you’re back to just scrolling web pages, the throttling may be gone again. The more severely degraded your battery is and the lower its charge level, the more you’ll experience throttling, but you’ll only experience throttling at the moments when, without it, your phone would have instead just shut itself off. It comes and goes as needed.
Thank you for being a reasonable person. These people have no idea how battery-powered computers work. And the idea that the sensor can tell exactly when a battery is at 0% like a tank of petrol is hilarious.
The computer doesn’t KNOW when it’s suddenly not going to have enough power, that’s insane! There isn’t a little tank of petrol inside your phone, your phone can’t predict how much power you’re going to be using when you’re on it, and your phone can’t see the exact amount of charge left in your shitty old dying battery.
That’s a phone with 8GB of RAM that came out two years ago. Of course it will still feel snappy. Apple agreed to a settlement in 2020 about the iPhone 6s, which came out in 2014, at the time, a 6 year old device. If your phone doesn’t feel snappy in four years then it’s the same playing field
Agreed, nearly every new phone release is just adding numbers to specs with little difference in how a phone feels or new features that improve user experience. Once you have 30 or 40 megapixels, 8GB of RAM, hex core processors, and 5G/wifi 6 etc, anything else just feels like marketing numbers
But unlike the US settlement, which only applied to devices in the iPhone 6 and 7 ranges, the UK lawsuit also seeks damages for those who had iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X devices.
Sounds like it might have kept going on, if the UK is also seeking against more models of iPhone.
No, it will never go away because it’s a legitimately good feature that was introduced in order to extend the useful life of older devices with degraded batteries. Old batteries can’t always consistently deliver the same power as newer batteries. Before “Batterygate” your phone would just shut itself off in the middle of whatever you were doing. That’s the baseline experience. To prevent this, Apple developed a software update to, when and to the extend needed, dynamically throttle power demand in order to stay within the limits of the battery. On a full charge at room temperature, even a degraded battery may still be able to support full unthrottled performance, but if it gets too hot, or if your battery is low, it might not. Even then you may still be able to do stuff without any throttling, but if you do something that requires a spike in power consumption, it might need to be temporarily throttled then, through some combination of slightly slower performance (often not even noticeable) or a slightly dimmed screen. The more degraded your battery gets, the more it will need to throttle.
There are no scenarios where a sudden shutdown is actually preferable to throttling. This was a pro-consumer move that make old iPhones more usefull. It’s a shame that Apple was bullied into adding the ability to disable the throttling feature.
As someone else mentioned, while there are legitimate reasons for this, Apple didn’t tell users about it or give people any option over it. If they had been open about doing it or gave some option in the battery menu to disable it there would be nothing to complain about. But secretly slowing down older devices was obviously going to be controversial when people figured it out.
There’s also the fact that apple makes replacing their batteries difficult. If their motivation was purely to keep people from the negatives of older batteries, a logical step would be to make battery replacement cheaper and easier. Instead slowing the devices feels like an extra push to sell new iphones or at least make money on battery replacements.
Since Batterygate, has this behavior actually ended with phone manufacturers, have they resorted to sneakier means, or is it basically as bad as before? Like the way the EU tried to stop Microsoft’s monopolistic behavior with Internet Explorer, but these days Google is basically Microsoft but worse.
My wife’s pixel 3a became so slow to the point of being useless. I tried to restore it but it was still very slow. It started happening after a software update after the pixel 5 came out 🤷
I’ve got an old Thinkpad that works great. I’m guessing if I ever connect it to the Internet again it’ll mysteriously brick
I, and a friend of mine also experienced this. I believe it started after the “final” update, but there’s no way to know. Needless to say i won’t ever buy, or recommend, a google device ever again.
The plausible deniability is the most frustrating bit.
But Pixels are also known for being the most open source of all Android phones, are they not? If you flash it to the final available version of GrapheneOS, does it perform more as expected?
I wish I thought of this before getting rid of the phone…
While not quite the same device, my Pixel 4a didn’t have that problem
Same here
Custom ROMs on the 3a still perform quite well. There is also a WIP mainline Linux port for the 3a that will hopefully extend the life of it for many more years to come.
Would you prefer your phone works more slowly as your battery drains, or just fucking shuts off at 15%?
All phones do this and for good reason.
If it’s known that the phone will shut off at 15%, the battery gauge should show 0% when it gets to 15% (and scale everything else appropriately).
I’m not sure why the entire phone experience needs to be slowed down by some percent for every phone of a particular model.
It’s not. The throttling is dynamic based on current battery state and current power demands. If you’re doing stuff that’s low-demand, you probably won’t be experiencing any throttling at all. If you do something demanding, only then does it slow down, and only to the extent needed. It may be as simple as dimming the screen brightness a bit while taking a video. Or maybe you’ve edited some video and need to export it. Instead of, for example, the five seconds that it would have taken, it will slow the processor down and take ten seconds. And then when you’re back to just scrolling web pages, the throttling may be gone again. The more severely degraded your battery is and the lower its charge level, the more you’ll experience throttling, but you’ll only experience throttling at the moments when, without it, your phone would have instead just shut itself off. It comes and goes as needed.
Thank you for being a reasonable person. These people have no idea how battery-powered computers work. And the idea that the sensor can tell exactly when a battery is at 0% like a tank of petrol is hilarious.
The computer doesn’t KNOW when it’s suddenly not going to have enough power, that’s insane! There isn’t a little tank of petrol inside your phone, your phone can’t predict how much power you’re going to be using when you’re on it, and your phone can’t see the exact amount of charge left in your shitty old dying battery.
What you just described… Does that become less true when the power is throttled?
No, but the chance of voltage drops due to the battery not being able to keep up with the load is a lot lower.
If your phone gets significantly slower, then it’s still a thing.
My Motorola Edge 30 its still as fast as when I bought it a few years back. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
That’s a phone with 8GB of RAM that came out two years ago. Of course it will still feel snappy. Apple agreed to a settlement in 2020 about the iPhone 6s, which came out in 2014, at the time, a 6 year old device. If your phone doesn’t feel snappy in four years then it’s the same playing field
Yeah true. I will probably keep it for that long since nothing excites me about new mobile phones anymore. Feels like it’s all the same now.
Agreed, nearly every new phone release is just adding numbers to specs with little difference in how a phone feels or new features that improve user experience. Once you have 30 or 40 megapixels, 8GB of RAM, hex core processors, and 5G/wifi 6 etc, anything else just feels like marketing numbers
Nothing excites anyone about new phones anymore. And that’s why this problem exists.
Sounds like it might have kept going on, if the UK is also seeking against more models of iPhone.
No, it will never go away because it’s a legitimately good feature that was introduced in order to extend the useful life of older devices with degraded batteries. Old batteries can’t always consistently deliver the same power as newer batteries. Before “Batterygate” your phone would just shut itself off in the middle of whatever you were doing. That’s the baseline experience. To prevent this, Apple developed a software update to, when and to the extend needed, dynamically throttle power demand in order to stay within the limits of the battery. On a full charge at room temperature, even a degraded battery may still be able to support full unthrottled performance, but if it gets too hot, or if your battery is low, it might not. Even then you may still be able to do stuff without any throttling, but if you do something that requires a spike in power consumption, it might need to be temporarily throttled then, through some combination of slightly slower performance (often not even noticeable) or a slightly dimmed screen. The more degraded your battery gets, the more it will need to throttle.
There are no scenarios where a sudden shutdown is actually preferable to throttling. This was a pro-consumer move that make old iPhones more usefull. It’s a shame that Apple was bullied into adding the ability to disable the throttling feature.
making phones with replaceable batteries seems like a much better idea to me.
As someone else mentioned, while there are legitimate reasons for this, Apple didn’t tell users about it or give people any option over it. If they had been open about doing it or gave some option in the battery menu to disable it there would be nothing to complain about. But secretly slowing down older devices was obviously going to be controversial when people figured it out.
There’s also the fact that apple makes replacing their batteries difficult. If their motivation was purely to keep people from the negatives of older batteries, a logical step would be to make battery replacement cheaper and easier. Instead slowing the devices feels like an extra push to sell new iphones or at least make money on battery replacements.
Not sure why you’re downvoted, other than possible the sentiment that people wish they had been at least told about it.