Apple iPhone battery replacement price knocked down

[bcla]

I don't know who's been following this. It's definitely been in the news that Apple had a software "fix" to keep phones with older/degraded batteries from shutting down due to maximum power demands that outstrip a battery's capabilities as it gets older. Some of the claims were that this was intentionally done such that users would find performance lacking and then upgrade.

The method to restore performance had of course been to pay Apple for a battery replacement, but that was $79 - most of which was labor and profit. The battery itself is probably a small cost, but then again it's not generally a DIY thing unless you're a serious hobbyist and willing to invest in equipment like a heat gun, specialty screwdrivers, and spudgers.

As someone who has done a fair bit of electronics engineering work, I understand what Apple was doing, although I would have preferred they be more upfront about it. I'm pretty Apple isn't the first to think of this. There are a lot of electronics that age as we use them.

https://www.apple.com/iphone-battery-and-performance/
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387

The solution seems to be twofold. One is that starting sometime next month, Apple will lower the price of a battery replacement service to $29 from the previous $79. The other is that they will make battery condition information available on iOS when previously it would require some sort of specialty equipment to access this information. I'm pretty sure that all this information was stored somewhere as part of the battery management software, but for whatever reason it wasn't something that the user could access.

 

[havaneselover]

Nice! I did it myself on my iPhone 6 a few months ago. Had done it on a 4s several years ago. It was a major pain. Would not do it again.

 

[usnuzuloose]

I don't know who's been following this. It's definitely been in the news that Apple had a software "fix" to keep phones with older/degraded batteries from shutting down due to maximum power demands that outstrip a battery's capabilities as it gets older. Some of the claims were that this was intentionally done such that users would find performance lacking and then upgrade.

The method to restore performance had of course been to pay Apple for a battery replacement, but that was $79 - most of which was labor and profit. The battery itself is probably a small cost, but then again it's not generally a DIY thing unless you're a serious hobbyist and willing to invest in equipment like a heat gun, specialty screwdrivers, and spudgers.

As someone who has done a fair bit of electronics engineering work, I understand what Apple was doing, although I would have preferred they be more upfront about it. I'm pretty Apple isn't the first to think of this. There are a lot of electronics that age as we use them.

https://www.apple.com/iphone-battery-and-performance/
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387

The solution seems to be twofold. One is that starting sometime next month, Apple will lower the price of a battery replacement service to $29 from the previous $79. The other is that they will make battery condition information available on iOS when previously it would require some sort of specialty equipment to access this information. I'm pretty sure that all this information was stored somewhere as part of the battery management software, but for whatever reason it wasn't something that the user could access.

Thank you for posting this. You know every company is doing things like this to make sure you buy the most updated version of things which of course always costs more. And it is not just phones or computers. It could be all sorts of things. We refuse to buy a phone that costs 1k. Cant afford it anyway. We would have to go with a cheaper phone. I will let DH know , he is the only with a phone.

 

[bcla]

Nice! I did it myself on my iPhone 6 a few months ago. Had done it on a 4s several years ago. It was a major pain. Would not do it again.

I've seen the guides to do it, and heating up the adhesive doesn't seem like a great idea. I had someone going overseas install a new battery on my 4s. It was actually working to some degree, but the battery was completely shot after about 5 years. The capacity reading was also highly unreliable, which is typical once a battery is aged. They can apply all the models they can to estimate remaining capacity, but there's always a bit of unpredictability. I think they paid about $15 using an aftermarket battery and really cheap local labor.

I've got an iPhone 7 and I'm thinking I'll see if I might be able to get a proactive battery replacement in 2018.

Still - this price is only until the end of 2018. I'm not sure what they'll do by then. Maybe just a nominal price increase? It wouldn't surprise me if it went back to $79, but at this point it might not be the best marketing to do that.

 

[bcla]

Thank you for posting this. You know every company is doing things like this to make sure you buy the most updated version of things which of course always costs more. And it is not just phones or computers. It could be all sorts of things. We refuse to buy a phone that costs 1k. Cant afford it anyway. We would have to go with a cheaper phone. I will let DH know , he is the only with a phone.

I don't necessarily think that it was done so with any nefarious intent. All rechargeable batteries inherently degrade. They always lose capacity over time and under various conditions maximum current can be lower than new. This isn't anything unusual, and I don't really know of many electronics manufacturers that were terribly transparent about it.

There are a lot of electronics that degrade over time. You buy a hard drive and even if it doesn't crash it might have failing sectors. And all the electronics that use flash media storage will degrade over time. The bulk of the electronics to control the flash memory on your solid-state drive, phone, laptop, USB drive, etc are designed around redundancy and coping with failures/loss of performance. Eventually the flash memory breaks down from rewrites, and the electronics use error correction to recover the data. This is absolutely inherent to the technology, but I'm sure that there are people who think it's unacceptable that their flash drives are slowing down.

 

[havaneselover]

I've seen the guides to do it, and heating up the adhesive doesn't seem like a great idea. I had someone going overseas install a new battery on my 4s. It was actually working to some degree, but the battery was completely shot after about 5 years. The capacity reading was also highly unreliable, which is typical once a battery is aged. They can apply all the models they can to estimate remaining capacity, but there's always a bit of unpredictability. I think they paid about $15 using an aftermarket battery and really cheap local labor.

I've got an iPhone 7 and I'm thinking I'll see if I might be able to get a proactive battery replacement in 2018.

Still - this price is only until the end of 2018. I'm not sure what they'll do by then. Maybe just a nominal price increase? It wouldn't surprise me if it went back to $79, but at this point it might not be the best marketing to do that.

Getting the old battery out was a pain. I used a hairdryer. Also getting the tiny screws out wasn’t bad but putting them back in was very challenging. I’m 41 so my eyes aren’t quite what they used to be!

We have local places that charge $60. I’d definitely pay $60 to have it done in the future. $29 is even better!

 

[bcla]

Getting the old battery out was a pain. I used a hairdryer. Also getting the tiny screws out wasn’t bad but putting them back in was very challenging. I’m 41 so my eyes aren’t quite what they used to be!

We have local places that charge $60. I’d definitely pay $60 to have it done in the future. $29 is even better!

I think the real benefit to going to Apple to do that is that if something is somehow messed up, they'll generally have the replacement parts to fix it. If I did something like lose one of those specialty screws, I'd need to find out where to get a replacement and possibly be paying more for the service. And worst case scenario is that they damage something, but then rectify it by replacing the whole unit. Of course at that point the customer needs to have a backup. Strangely enough, my wife doesn't have a full backup of her 6s. She's never connected it to iTunes, so all she has is whatever limited backup is available on iCloud.

 

[Hikergirl]

$29 is great if you have an Apple store nearby if you don't then its a PIA.
My dd changed her own battery and my dh changed my ds's battery and screen. We'll just keep doing things ourselves.
Apple knew what they were doing when they made their products with batteries that weren't easily accessible for the average customer. They know people will buy their products no matter what, even if they have to pay $80 for something that could be done by yourself for less than $20. I mean come on, people are willing to pay $1000 just to have their latest and greatest. People love their iphones so they will pay.

 

[sonnyjane]

I don't necessarily think that it was done so with any nefarious intent. All rechargeable batteries inherently degrade. They always lose capacity over time and under various conditions maximum current can be lower than new. This isn't anything unusual, and I don't really know of many electronics manufacturers that were terribly transparent about it.

There are a lot of electronics that degrade over time. You buy a hard drive and even if it doesn't crash it might have failing sectors. And all the electronics that use flash media storage will degrade over time. The bulk of the electronics to control the flash memory on your solid-state drive, phone, laptop, USB drive, etc are designed around redundancy and coping with failures/loss of performance. Eventually the flash memory breaks down from rewrites, and the electronics use error correction to recover the data. This is absolutely inherent to the technology, but I'm sure that there are people who think it's unacceptable that their flash drives are slowing down.

The issue that everyone is upset about (and that the lawsuits against Apple are about) is that their software updates were designed to slow performance and affect battery life in older models without disclosure, therefore steering customers toward newer models (or at the very least, an expensive battery replacement).

 

[bcla]

$29 is great if you have an Apple store nearby if you don't then its a PIA.
My dd changed her own battery and my dh changed my ds's battery and screen. We'll just keep doing things ourselves.
Apple knew what they were doing when they made their products with batteries that weren't easily accessible for the average customer. They know people will buy their products no matter what, even if they have to pay $80 for something that could be done by yourself for less than $20. I mean come on, people are willing to pay $1000 just to have their latest and greatest. People love their iphones so they will pay.

Who else has a user serviceable battery these days? I heard basically just LG. There are important reasons that these devices are sealed. I suppose the most important is that they're water resistant now, and it would take a lot of care to maintain that while replacing the battery.

I've certainly replaced a battery myself on older devices where it was considered a DIY task. As an engineer I can look at what they did to make the hatch or cover, and I'd think there was a lot of wasted space as well as ways for various debris to enter. My wife had dropped her phone a few times (in a case) and the cover came off. There are sound reasons for such a design choice, but at least now the OEM battery replacement cost is more reasonable.

I think there is also factory authorized 3rd party maintenance service. It doesn't have to be an Apple Store. Still - I think I live in an area with the highest concentration of Apple Stores so I generally wouldn't have to. They also have a mail in service, so that's always an option. I had a warranty repair on a Nokia phone over a decade ago, and the only means to repair it was to ship it.

 

[kimblebee]

A couple points I have seen online..

1- The replacement should be free. I agree with this 100%

2- What about people who upgraded their phone because of the battery issue? They should get to register somewhere for either a refund or a credit for their next upgrade.

 

[bcla]

1- The replacement should be free. I agree with this 100%

I don't really agree with that contention. Rechargeable batteries have always been considered a wear item and every electronics manufacturer is upfront that they won't replace a battery for free after the warranty period is up. Apple has been upfront about battery replacement costs for years.

I don't know of any other manufacturer with a sealed-in battery that charges only $29 for a manufacturer/authorized battery replacement service. And if you need to do it you're going to need to call in for the price and probably ship it to a service center.

The issue I see here is that Apple is getting all this bad publicity even though it's unlikely that they're the only ones doing something like this. It's a pretty basic battery management system that they're implementing. Or I suppose other manufacturers could just ignore it since it's not likely to be an issue until a device is well out of warranty.

 

[kimblebee]

I don't really agree with that contention. Rechargeable batteries have always been considered a wear item and every electronics manufacturer is upfront that they won't replace a battery for free after the warranty period is up. Apple has been upfront about battery replacement costs for years.

I don't know of any other manufacturer with a sealed-in battery that charges only $29 for a manufacturer/authorized battery replacement service. And if you need to do it you're going to need to call in for the price and probably ship it to a service center.

The issue I see here is that Apple is getting all this bad publicity even though it's unlikely that they're the only ones doing something like this. It's a pretty basic battery management system that they're implementing. Or I suppose other manufacturers could just ignore it since it's not likely to be an issue until a device is well out of warranty.

That’s a good point that batteries will naturally lose their effectiveness overtime but Apple sped up the process without warning. Or, maybe there was warning in the pages long Terms you have to agree to before an update. Realistically, if I knew that my battery wouldn’t hold a charge as long as it used to, I’d still do the updates. I definitely notice a difference but it’s not like I have to charge every two hours. That would be a pain..

 

[Hikergirl]

Who else has a user serviceable battery these days? I heard basically just LG. There are important reasons that these devices are sealed. I suppose the most important is that they're water resistant now, and it would take a lot of care to maintain that while replacing the battery.

I've certainly replaced a battery myself on older devices where it was considered a DIY task. As an engineer I can look at what they did to make the hatch or cover, and I'd think there was a lot of wasted space as well as ways for various debris to enter. My wife had dropped her phone a few times (in a case) and the cover came off. There are sound reasons for such a design choice, but at least now the OEM battery replacement cost is more reasonable.

I think there is also factory authorized 3rd party maintenance service. It doesn't have to be an Apple Store. Still - I think I live in an area with the highest concentration of Apple Stores so I generally wouldn't have to. They also have a mail in service, so that's always an option. I had a warranty repair on a Nokia phone over a decade ago, and the only means to repair it was to ship it.

Apple was the first, their fan base didn't bat an eye so of course others will follow suit. I had a Samsung before this, and I held on to it because I could change my battery. They changed that with the next gen that came out and there were lost of complaints. Yet Samsung fans still bought their latest version. Before that dh and I had Motorolas, could change their batteries.
I don't have a problem with it, I own an iphone knowing Apple will continue to do what it does in order to get me to spend more money on their products. I just know I don't have to and can do the stuff myself.

 

[bcla]

That’s a good point that batteries will naturally lose their effectiveness overtime but Apple sped up the process without warning. Or, maybe there was warning in the pages long Terms you have to agree to before an update. Realistically, if I knew that my battery wouldn’t hold a charge as long as it used to, I’d still do the updates. I definitely notice a difference but it’s not like I have to charge every two hours. That would be a pain..

They weren't really doing anything to the batteries per se. They were doing something to reduce power draw depending on any number of factors including battery condition and temperature. Batteries tend to perform poorly at extreme cold/hot temperatures. Several hybrid/electric car batteries are designed with cooling/heating systems to put the batteries in a more efficient state but this is impractical for a phone that fits in your pocket.

If you have a car engine that's lost peak power, the consequence of that is that maybe you don't accelerate as quickly or you lose top speed. But electronics are different. If the electronics attempt to draw more current than the power supply is capable of supporting, the voltage is likely to drop below acceptable limits and the whole thing fails.

Personally I think the one thing that Apple could have done better was to allow users to monitor the healthy of the battery. I have always been able to do that with my Mac notebook computers, but it wasn't an option with an iPhone.

 

[bcla]

So Apple has modified its statement and will apparently make the $29 battery replacement available immediately. The rationale for delaying it until late January was that probably to be able to order more batteries and to have enough employees available to perform battery swaps.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/30/16833002/apple-iphone-battery-swap-now-available

I'm guessing that now there's going to be a crush of people asking for this service, poor appointment availability, and long waits.

 

[Albort]

$29 is great if you have an Apple store nearby if you don't then its a PIA.
My dd changed her own battery and my dh changed my ds's battery and screen. We'll just keep doing things ourselves.
Apple knew what they were doing when they made their products with batteries that weren't easily accessible for the average customer. They know people will buy their products no matter what, even if they have to pay $80 for something that could be done by yourself for less than $20. I mean come on, people are willing to pay $1000 just to have their latest and greatest. People love their iphones so they will pay.

i believe they have a program where you ship your phone in and they replace it. its not just apple stores.

I was so glad the news came down for it... my parent's iphone 6 were in dire needs of a replacement battery. i was just about to swap my parents iPhone 6 out and take it to 3rd party to have the battery replaced when apple dropped this news. so glad i waited!

 

[bcla]

i believe they have a program where you ship your phone in and they replace it. its not just apple stores.

I was so glad the news came down for it... my parent's iphone 6 were in dire needs of a replacement battery. i was just about to swap my parents iPhone 6 out and take it to 3rd party to have the battery replaced when apple dropped this news. so glad i waited!

I'm not sure how it's supposed to work. Some of the talk is that Apple Stores specifically run a diagnostic and will only perform a replacement if it's below the "80% health" threshold. That's always been the standard that Apple has claimed was their rated battery life - that after 300/500/1000 full charge-discharge cycles where there should be an expectation (not guaranteed of course) that the battery should have 80% of its original capacity.

Apparently sending it in incurs a $6.95 shipping charge. I've heard that in the past that if it was brought in for battery service and it couldn't be done immediately that they might send it out and then have it sent to the customer (with the shipping charge). And if it's sent directly to Apple, what do they do if it's not under the health threshold?

https://support.apple.com/iphone/repair/service

We're going to need more details, which they say will be forthcoming. I think there might be a chance that Apple will eat any shipping charges if it's sent in.

Another important detail is that they typically won't do a battery replacement if there's noticeable physical damage such as a cracked screen or massive damage to the case - at least until it's repaired first. Sometimes they don't actually replace the battery but the entire device if that's more convenient. That's one of the reasons why they tell the customer to make sure it's backed up since there's no guarantee that the original device is going to be returned. They obviously wouldn't think it's an equitable exchange to replace a damaged device just for the cost of a battery service.

There's at least one company that's selling battery replacement kits for Apple's promotional battery service price. And they're offering that for all iPhones and not just the 6/6s/7.

 

[EveDallas]

Apple intentionally throttled older phones to get people to upgrade. Period. Of course they're going to claim it was another reason now that they're being sued.

 

[xlxo]

On my laptop.... I have a several battery choices. High-Performance, Balanced, and Battery-Saver. Why could Apple not offer this as a setting?

Looking at my iPhone X.... I wonder will the phone look the same with a battery swap a year from now.

I so miss the swappable batteries on the old phones.