Yes, Apple Slows Down Older iPhones on Purpose. Now What? (Premium)

Everyone who has ever owned an iPhone knows that it gets slower when a new version of iOS---and a new iPhone---is released. But this week, we learned why. No, Apple isn't designing new versions of iOS in a way that makes your phone slower, in the hopes of subtly nudging you to upgrade. But they are, in fact, making your iPhone slower. And they are doing so on purpose.

This raises some obvious questions. Why is Apple doing this? What can you, as an iPhone user, do about it? And ... is this OK? Is Apple's behavior in some way justifiable ... or even commendable?

First, a bit of background.

Last month, The New York Times---oh, how the mighty have fallen---published a wrong-headed article called A New Phone Comes Out. Yours Slows Down. A Conspiracy? No. Just seeing that headline made me recoil: As noted above, yes, iPhones do routinely slow down once a new version of iOS is released alongside one or more new iPhones. There is no argument against this fact: It happens every year. Without question.

I've experienced this phenomenon with every single iPhone I've ever owned, as far as I can recall. And I've owned at least 9 of them, according to a quick count, not including the new iPhone X. But this isn't me using anecdotal data. Just ask iPhone user. We've all experienced it.

(By the way, this absolutely happens to Android as well. In fact, Android seems to suffer from a "performance rot" problem that is very similar to that of older versions of Windows.)

So what did The New York Times have to say about what it called these "perceived slowdowns"? That "it's a myth." And that the reasons slowdowns really happen is that you've been adding too many apps to your phone over the previous year. A version of performance rot, basically. Apple is given a pass for not testing new versions of iOS that are loaded down with apps.

As proof, the author actually quotes two people from Microsoft---because who knows more about what Apple may or may not do with iOS every year---and states, simply, that "tech companies are not intentionally neutering your devices."

Bullshit. And now we have some proof.

This past week, a Reddit contributor benchmarked his iPhone 6S---a phone that was released two years ago---and even older iPhone 6 Plus to determine why iOS 11 was running so slowly. And he was able to prove that Apple does, in fact, throttle performance of older iPhones on newer iOS versions. But not in the way you might expect.

"I did some research, and decided to replace my battery," he explained. Wear level was somewhere around 20% on my old battery. I did a Geekbench score, and found I was getting 1466 Single and 2512 Multi. This did not change wether I had low power mode on or off. After changing my battery, I did another test to check if it was just a placebo. Nope. 2526 Single and 4456 Multi. From what I can tell, Apple slows down phones when their battery gets too low, so you can still have a full days charge. This also means your...