Apple Battery Replacement Offer

After taking flak for slowing iPhones with aging batteries, Apple cuts the price of battery replacement

- Alex Summersby

RECENT MONTHS HAVE seen a ľLurry of reports and comments about “BatteryGate,” as some people were calling it. (This is not to be confused with the earlier iPhone 6s controversy also referred to as BatteryGate — that model iPhone might contain a processor from either of two suppliers, but one of the two reportedly drained the battery much faster than the other. And of course we’re not talking about batteries exploding, as in the case of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 a year ago.) The issue here was that — as Apple admitted — your iPhone will intentionally scale back performance as its battery ages.

Some people cited this as evidence that Apple is cynically driving iPhone users to upgrade. As you notice your old iPhone’s performance deteriorating, the argument runs, you start thinking you need to buy a new iPhone, when actually a new battery might be all it takes to restore your iPhone to as-new performance.