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Comment by konschubert | Hacker News Reader

I think there is a strong temptation for Apple and other manufacturers to push an iOS update that cripples their older models.

Long-term it would destroy their brand but short term they could potentially see an uptick.

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Apple has been signalling to do the opposite, iOS 12 has been great in my experience on their 2013 iPhone 5s model.

I think it makes sense for them to cultivate the reputation for long-lasting given the new price points.

I'm slightly hopefully the 5s will get iOS 13, it was the first 64-bit phone and also has the secure enclave, I'm bet they could pull it off.

This is a little off topic, but it's been driving me nuts and I want to know if anyone else has experienced this. I feel like iOS 11 causes my phone to drop calls...

I have an iphone 5s, and took a loooong time before I updated to iOS 11 from iOS 10.3. I learned the hard way with my iphone 4 not to blindly click update or your phone may be unusable. Anyway, I have been in my apartment since the beginning of the year. I make all sorts of phone calls no problem. Reception is good, usually 3-4 bars.

In June I updated my phone to iOS 11. Since then, a phone call in my apartment will last at best 5 minutes before I get a "Call Failed" screen. It's insane. I look at my phone and it has 4 bars. Literally as I press the "Dial" button, it instantly drops to 1-2 bars. Usually about a minute into the call it drops to 0 bars. Then the call drops. As soon as the "Call Failed" screen goes away, it's back up to 4 bars.

I feel like I'm going crazy. Has anyone else experienced this? I haven't been able to find any similar bug reports or experiences online...

edit: i meant iOS 11. I am hesitant to update to iOS 12 because of my experience with 11

This sounds like you're getting data on LTE, but you don't have VoLTE (not available on iPhone 5s? or not provisioned by your carrier for you). As a result, when you use calling features, your phone will drop LTE and connect on an earlier standard to make calls.

Carriers have been reallocating spectrum from older standards to LTE, so it's not unlikely that carrier changes reduced your calling ability around the same time as you made software changes to your phone.

Double check if VoLTE is available for your phone, and try to get that enabled... Or stand closer to the window when you make calls.

Huh I never thought of that (or even knew about VoLTE). I'll look more into that. I am always hesitant to say "it was definitely such and such upgrade" but I can't think of anything else that changed about my phone in mid June except my iOS update. It took me a month or so to realize that it was a persistent pattern, so it's not like I updated on Monday and on Tuesday realized my calls were dropping.

I don't understand how that's possible. My girlfriend and I deliberately switched from 4s/5s to LG Zone4 specifically because of all the throttling and horrible performance of every native/3rd party app on iOS.

The difference has been mindblowing. We no longer wait 15 seconds for an app to open.

Repair shop owner here...that throttling is typically caused by an older battery. Putting a new battery in the phone revives its performance.

One of the tests I run when a customer brings an older iPhone in is to open the camera. We had a customer with an iPhone 6 where the camera would take 20-30 seconds to open. After we replaced her battery, it opened in a second or two.

I thought that throttling in iOS 12 could be disabled through the software, under Settings.

You can, but the whole point of throttling was that iPhone 6s with older batteries were shutting down randomly, particularly in cold temperatures. The batteries were not able to deliver the voltage the phone required, and as a safety measure the phone just shut down. Apple introduced throttling to combat the random shutdowns.

Of course, Apple being Apple, they did a remarkably poor job of explaining all of this. It took them until people filed lawsuits to introduce their "battery health indicator", and even now people don't really understand that slow performance can often be fixed by a new battery.

Only issue is that the price of a battery replacement is the same as my Zone 4, and I am enjoying the objectively better hardware. Plus, I am biased against apple's ecosystem, but this is more subjective and has to do with my lack of dependence on iOS exclusives.

Thanks for the insight!!!

battery replacement on an iphone from what i have seen is a 30-50$ part and 30min of your time with a screwdriver.

With Android I think the case is not that they'll push updates that cripple older models; they just don't push updates at all.

And Apple seems unlikely to do this given their growth is focused on services now. They need as many people on their devices as possible in order to sell them services.

iOS 12 has a pretty long list of supported devices, and objectively improved performance on the specifically the oldest ones on that list.

So what? I have a Huawei Mate S, from 2016. Quite good at the time, it's still totally serviceable. The lack of a replaceable battery is the only reason I'm starting to consider a replacement. I know, I'm not getting security updates anymore, but the average consumer doesn't care about that. I don't feel I'm losing much in terms of functionality from having an older version of Android.

At least with Android though you can install different, current, updated roms which are often better without the bloat that usually comes from the carrier, and a lot of them still get OTA updates. https://www.xda-developers.com/

And that helps a few geeks with a few phones. That is not a long term solution for most people.

Even worse, with most Android phones, you’re already starting out with slower processors than the iPhone of the same year.

The processor speed hasn't mattered to me for the last few years. I'm still using an "old" Galaxy S6 and it does everything I need it to just as fast as the day I bought it. I don't plan on upgrading anytime soon except maybe a battery replacement at some point, but a charge still lasts me most of the day. I'm not a part of the rat race for the latest and greatest to run apps that I don't care about, or want. I used to. Most apps are crap imo and a waste of time. I use my phone mostly as a work and communication tool and really just have like 5 apps installed. I've removed myself from the pointless yearly upgrade game. I no longer care about having the newest and shiniest gadget in my pocket. My quality of life is improved as I don't spend much time on my phone, and I've saved quite a bit of money since I bought the phone outright at the time of purchase. Nothing during the last few years is really revolutionary. You can throw more resolution at it and my eyes see it the same. I mean on something that is 5" or 6", 1080 looks about the same as 4k. You can throw in a higher clock speed and more memory, but my apps run just as fast.

> That is not a long term solution for most people.

I agree. Someone just needs to make an app to install roms from a repository source easy, so anyone can do it. Like how easy it used to be to jailbreak an iphone simply by just visiting a website and pressing a button.

Their subscription services are making it irrelevant if you use an old phone for 5 years or buy a new phone every year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/31/apple-q3-2018-services-reven...

https://www.recode.net/2017/5/3/15523268/apple-services-busi...

I'm not an Apple fan, but Apple is a long term strategy company and they will not be doing this; just like Microsoft hasn't. Google's Android is so fractured it's basically impossible to do it.

You're getting down votes but this isn't a feeling. This has been confirmed.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/20/16800058/apple-iphone-sl...

This is an extreme example but it just shows they're not that worried about performance of older models. I don't think its sinister or anything. Its just not a priority.

That’s about having an older battery, not an older model. As extensively discussed, Apple says that’s a trade off of performance, battery life and avoidance of sudden shutdown. Performance can be restored with a new battery.

This, on top of it, if you don't want it, you can turn off the slowdown.

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