When we started covering the whole case of iPhones that were slower due to worn out batteries, one of the things we said Apple should do was give its customers a practical, official and affordable way to change the batteries of the devices.
Well, as we know, this was one of the things she did, reducing the exchange price from US $ 79 to US $ 29 in the United States, and from R $ 449 to R $ 149 here in Brazil.
Another important difference in customer service was clarified today by the French website iGeneration: before, it could only actually pay the US $ 79 / R $ 449 customers whose batteries were really in a bad condition, after diagnosis made by Apple. Now, more: even if the battery is still good (over 80% of its original capacity), Apple accept making the switch of the iPhone battery at the new lower value if the customer wants it, of course.
As Apple announced in its letter, it all refers to iPhones 6 or higher. We have already received inquiries from owners of iPhones 5s and below (including iPhones 4s), but we are not sure how Apple will handle these cases yet. However, the value of replacing iPhones batteries out of warranty is the same regardless of the generation, so we imagine that owners of older devices will also be able to “benefit” from this lower value for exchange.
Another curious thing that Apple, for now, only promises this lower value until December. That is, in theory from January 2019 the exchange prices will return to US $ 79 / R $ 449, which sounds very strange to me. But it could be something that changes, from here to there. Ideally, these new prices should become official / definitive.
To customers who recently exchanged batteries with Apple paying the full price before the reduction, the company has also analyzed each case and offered partial refunds. There is, however, no universal and well-defined policy on when this is really applicable.
What do other manufacturers say?
Obviously, in the face of all this controversy, one of the main things that was questioned by the company was whether other manufacturers would also reduce the performance of their smartphones when the batteries become worn out.
HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG already issued statements denying. Unlike Apple, they say they do not reduce the performance of their devices even when the batteries are already in poor condition.
Trying to take advantage of the situation (and quite rightly), LG still pinned Apple: “We never did, we never will! We care about what consumers think. ”
Apple did not go into detail at that level, but the fact that this problem only arose from the iPhone 6 onwards may have to do with the very evolution of the power of the “A” chips, which have reached a level that they can only really manage function fully while the battery is in good condition. Which is, again, a problem that Apple will have to solve.
The fate of the Note line
A year after the nightmare of the Galaxy Note7 and its explosive batteries, Samsung is again facing a headache with certain devices of the generation Note8 this one, much worse than Apple's.
According to the Android AuthorityNote8 units (and some Galaxy S8 units, too) are simply dying after their batteries run out. The device turns off and then no longer receives a charge when connected to power.
Samsung has already recognized the problem and is replacing all affected devices. For now, each case is being assessed individually; there is none recall general announcement regarding this issue.
We will still laugh about it all
Batteries that run out fast, batteries that take a long time to charge, batteries that swell, batteries that explode, batteries that affect the performance of devices I think and hope that we will still laugh a lot about it all.
It is a great pity that the evolution of batteries is not happening so quickly. Of course they evolve, after all, they have to endure huge screens today with incredible resolutions, powerful processors, cameras, numerous sensors and so on. But in practice, the feeling for the user is that we are somewhat stagnant.
At most, we find on the market one or the other device with a larger capacity battery (usually, more shaky) that promises to last a little longer than the average. But nothing out of this world, after all, they all use batteries from the same technology, lithium polymer ons. basically the best we have today.
Turn and move paint for studies / discoveries that promise to revolutionize batteries with absurd durations and / or super-fast recharge ("super" really, something from 0% to 100% in, say, two minutes), but until the so far nothing has materialized, even as it is a very delicate component and needs to be extensively tested so that new cases like Note7 do not occur.
But I believe that sooner or later, we will get there. At the nothing reasonable that, in the middle of 2018, we are still happy when our smartphones manage to spend an entire day without needing a recharge.
via MacRumors, The Verge, Phone Arena, AppleInsider
