iOS 11.3 Battery Health settings revealed with CPU performance control

For years people have been saying that their iPhones feel slower with age, but why? Some people would say "Apple wants you to buy their new phone", others would say "the new iOS update is too bloated for the old devices" and some thought it was just because you were comparing it to the latest device. Then at the end of 2017 the first evidence appeared showing that older iPhones were indeed having their CPUs under clocked, in some cases by over a massive 50%. And then the unthinkable happened, Apple admitted that they are doing this, however, they also claimed it is for your benefit.

Apple's reason for this is down the battery health, as your device's battery ages it is no longer capable of delivering the power required at times of peak performance, and as a result your device may unexpectedly reboot. Therefore when iOS detected the battery health was poor it would automatically reduce the performance of the CPU, hence your old iPhone feels slower, because it is slower. As soon as this news broke, Apple reduced the price of iPhone battery replacements from $79 to $29. If a user opts to replace the phone battery and iOS detects a new and healthy battery is installed, it restores the CPU back to its full capability.

So, later this Spring Apple will release iOS 11.3 which will include several new features, the most discussed and eagerly awaited of these is 'Battery Health'. This new feature found under Settings > Battery will allow you to see the overall health of your battery as well as letting you choose how you want your devices to use it.

When you open the Battery Health setting you will see two sections which are 'Maximum Capacity' and 'Peak Performance Capability'.

Maximum Capacity - This will show you a percentage value with the description of "This is a measure of battery capacity relative to when it was new. Lower capacity may result in fewer hours of usage between charges."
Peak Performance Capability - This tells you how your CPU is operating, if your battery is healthy then it will display a text that says "Your battery is currently supporting normal peak performance." If however your battery life is poor then it will display "This iPhone has experienced an unexpected shutdown because the battery was unable to deliver the necessary peak power. Performance management has been applied to help prevent this from happening again" This means that the CPU is being reduced, however there is also the option to disable this and restore the CPU to full speed. If you choose to do this then the message will display "This iPhone has experienced an unexpected shutdown because the battery was unable to deliver the necessary peak power. You have manually disabled performance management protections. If another unexpected shutdown occurs, performance management features will be re-enabled."

Apple explains:

Batteries will start at 100 percent when first activated and will have lower capacity as the battery chemically ages which may result in fewer hours of usage between charges.
Apple says a normal battery will retain up to 80 percent of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles under normal conditions.

If you want to read more about the other features coming to iOS 11.3, you can check out our report on the announcement here.

Source: ZDNet | Image via ZDNet