atomic101

I am on the fence about the 13.1 update on my iPhone SE, and I almost wonder if remaining on iOS 12 would have been better in the end.  Despite the claims of many reviews, I've found that the update has impacted the performance of the device.  The UI and scrolling have taken a hit, and even swiping between the home screen pages causes noticeable judder.  While most of the native Apple apps seem to work fine, some third party apps exhibit significant slowdown (i.e. the NHL app).  I wonder if the additional OS memory and multitasking overhead has finally overwhelmed the SE's specs.

usersinceos1 said:

iOS works beautifully on my SE. Sure, there are a few minor bugs, like any other OS.

I wish I could say the same.  It works beautifully on my iPad Pro, but not as much on my phone.  Hopefully future updates to the OS and apps alleviates this concern.  But right now it almost feels like my SE is running in "Low Power Mode" for the battery.  Will keep my hopes up!

I find the Battery Health function to be dubious.  I appreciate that it's there, but my personal experience with my iPhone 13 has been to watch the health indicator steadily decrease over two years until literally freezing at 80% for the better part of 9 months.  This same thing happened to my Series 5 Watch.  Just last week, the Watch finally dipped to 79% with the requisite warning of degradation, while the phone is still holding at 80%.

It's been over two years, so I'm satisfied with the battery performance as a whole, but the pegging of the health indicator at exactly 80% for such a long time makes me chuckle a bit.

Agreed that it’s wasteful and a bit over the top, but I still think that there is useful information that can be gleaned from these sorts of “tests”. For me, knowing that the watch can take several beatings with a hammer, or that a Nintendo Switch can survive being flung 10 feet into the air gives me some piece of mind that my day-to-day wear and tear is nothing to worry about. 

Cesar Battistini Maziero said:

atomic101 said:

MacPro said:

"  ... including the ability to toggle the power management feature for iPhone models with aging batteries."  The toggle should say 'Sensible mode' and 'Idiot mode.'

False. But kudos for the pretentious name calling. 

The insistence that the throttlling is only for old batteries is inaccurate. Unless you consider a one year old battery with no prior instances of performance issues to be fair game for a 50-66% CPU downclock. 

False, the throttling is far from 55% let alone 66%!!! Mine was less than 12% before the battery replacement. 30% when on high usage activities.

And IT IS idiotic choosing constant random resets and app crashes over a small decrease in performance.

If it bothers you so much just change the old depleted battery for cheap with Apple.

Very worth it!

With replacing the battery, now that Apple will "let" me officially replace the battery, it is certainly in my agenda of things to do. I previously tried to have it replaced and was told that my battery was within tolerances of Apple's diagnostics and that they would not change it, but this was before Apple announced the battery program. Mind you, I went there with the full intent to pay the original $79 for the service - I wasn't asking for a free/warranty replacement. 

I am tempted to wait until this new iOS update is released to test the battery analysis options prior to changing it out.  Part of it is just curiousity and the techie in me, but then I can at least validate how much of an "idiot" I am. 😉

EsquireCats said:

larrya said:

You guys are pathetic.  Apple cut performance by more than 50% and didn't bother telling anyone, and yet in Apple stores customers were told their batteries were fine, even refusing to provide paid replacements, and were encouraged to purchase new phones.  This is fraud, and the prosecutor's conclusion is uncontested by Apple.  You can love their products, as I do, without wearing blinders.

Actually you're pathetic: Apple didn't cut performance by 50% and CPU throttling has always been a device management strategy in the iPhone.

1. iPhones already throttled peak performance prior to these patches. E.g. For temperature extremes and preserving battery life.
2. The changes in iOS 10.2 and 11.2 extended the CPU throttling features to untenable battery scenarios - i.e. situations which would normally turn off the device. Apple acknowledged that unexpected shutdowns were being addressed at the time.
3. The most common worst case scenario resulted in a geek bench score of 2,500 being reduced to 1,500 during a peak load. The device operated at "normal" speeds during other times when the battery was able to supply sufficient power, or not under a stressful load.

Apple cut performance by more than 50%

Not only was peak load not reduced by 50%, but normal device usage was unaffected. Your comment lends to the idea that the phone was suddenly half as fast as before the update - there is no foundation for that.

...and didn't bother telling anyone

It was literally in Apple's statements about the update: "With iOS 10.2.1, Apple made improvements to reduce occurrences of unexpected shutdowns that a small number of users were experiencing with their iPhone."

Of all the devices tested in Geek bench 4 under iOS 10.2.1, the overwhelming majority had no change in performance and the average decrease in peak performance due to the new changes was ~10 - 15% 

So yeah your post is total sensationalist crap, and I think that's pathetic.

"3. The most common worst case scenario resulted in a geek bench score of 2,500 being reduced to 1,500 during a peak load. The device operated at "normal" speeds during other times when the battery was able to supply sufficient power, or not under a stressful load."


I can attest to this being wrong.  My device (iPhone SE) would function at 50% CPU speed and STAY that way.  No matter if the device was fully charged or plugged in.  This from a battery that still tested "ok" by Apple techs.  The situation only resolved itself after Apple admitted to their shennanigans and I was "allowed" to replace my battery.   I posted before and after screenshots two years ago indicating this.  THIS is where my bitterness still stems from...

People here are so defensive about the company.  Sometimes even fans need to take their blinders off every now and then.

I've been an iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch guy for nearly two decades, but never made the transition with general computing.  On a whim, I picked up a MacBook Pro with M2 last month on a great deal.  Despite the learning curve and the need to customize a few options to better suit my tastes, I'm extremely impressed with how well the M2 functions, whether in responsiveness, energy efficiency, or general lack of fan noise.  My Intel-based laptops are obnoxiously loud under even medium load, which leaves a psychological impression that they are inefficient or just poorly balanced.  What really impressed me is the GPU performance... for an "integrated" graphics solution, the M2 is leagues above the Intel Integrated Graphics that I've had to deal with.  Even better, I purchased a Parallels license to get over any Windows "separation anxiety" as a first-timer, and it runs the OS and software better than my relatively new i7 machine.

Granted, the 24 GB of embedded RAM probably doesn't hurt things, but my initial impressions are very positive.

abujazar said:

They're way too big.  Even my 12 mini is way bigger than I need. I don't need a laptop in my pocket. The iPhone 4 size was perfect.

"You DO need one, and you're going to like it!" - Apple

Kidding aside, I'm in the same boat.  Have a 12 mini and still have my original SE hanging around the house, and I'm shocked at how small and pocketable that thing is.  I appreciate a larger size when I'm lounging around with my phone, but I miss the smaller size when I'm on-the-go and trying to one hand it.  This is why I have an iPad and a laptop for more substantial use scenarios.

This just goes to show that the honeymoon period of early A-series chip development is over.  Apple engineers have essentially perfected the fundamental designs of these chips such that there are no "easy" optimizations sitting out there as low-hanging fruit.  The days of 50%, 40%, or 30% year-over-year performance gains are over.... at least until some other paradigm shift in semiconductors arrives.

The Apple/ARM architecture has a great number of advantages over the legacy x86 line of processors, but any illusion of these things continuing their moonshot trajectories should be dampened by reality.

Still, gains and optimizations year-over-year are still very welcome.

Leave it to humans to turn any useful tool into a malicious force.

Have there been any instances of hacked Airpods in the wild that can circumvent the safeguards?