Following comments by HTC and Motorola, LG and Samsung have issued similar denials that it does not throttle CPU performance to account for battery aging. This uniform — so far — response from Android vendors comes as Apple yesterday issued an apology and took steps to address the mounting criticism.
Apple did little to publicly inform users that it throttles processor performance to account for lithium-ion batteries aging over time, among other factors. Rather than have devices shut down while in use due to not being able to supply the necessary amount of power, CPU performance is capped in line with the state of the battery.
Earlier this month, users began noticing how their iPhones were slowing down over time, with benchmarking service Geekbench later concluding from its data that after iOS 10.2.1 last year the iPhone 6, 6s, and SE encountered slow downs. Meanwhile, the same was noticed with iOS 11.2 for the iPhone 7 earlier this month, with Apple finally confirming the practice last week.
Before Apple’s apology yesterday, HTC and Motorola noted that its Android devices do not follow similar throttling practices. Today, in a comment to PhoneArena, LG and Samsung reiterated the sentiment. In a more detailed statement, the latter company notes “multi-layer safety measures”:
We ensure extended battery life of Samsung mobile devices through multi-layer safety measures, which include software algorithms that govern the battery charging current and charging duration. We do not reduce CPU performance through software updates over the lifecycles of the phone.
Meanwhile, Apple is reducing out-of-warranty iPhone battery replacements by $50 to $29 throughout 2018. iOS will get software updates that better detail to users the practice and provide information on the health of the battery.
The latter practice is welcome, and would be a good step towards transparency for the entire smartphone industry.
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