A number of Android device makers such as HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and LG, say that they don't slow down their older devices to make up for tired batteries.
The statements come in the middle of Apple's PR nightmare after the company acknowledged that it throttles the processors of older iPhones to avoid battery issues and random shutdowns.
Apple's iPhone Slowdown Practice Sparks Controversy
Many iPhone users felt cheated and argued that it's all a ploy from Apple to force their hand into buying the latest iPhone models by making old ones perform worse in time. Apple is facing several class-action lawsuits over its iPhone slowdown practice. The company has since apologized and promised replacement batteries to appease disgruntled customers.
Apple's confession stirred a great deal of controversy, sparking mixed reactions. While some felt cheated and decided to sue the company, others said that this is a common practice that all smartphone makers resort to. Several Android makers, however, refute such claims and assure customers that they don't pull such schemes.
Android Makers Don't Slow Down Aging Smartphones
As more smartphone users are getting concerned about their device's performance, a number of Android makers have now stepped up to reassure their customers that they don't throttle their smartphone's performance.
Motorola tells The Verge that it doesn't throttle its smartphone's processors to make up for aging batteries. HTC's response was along the same lines, similarly saying that it doesn't use this practice. LG also says that it has never throttled its smartphones' processors and it never plans to, because it cares about its customers.
Samsung, meanwhile, says that not only does it not slow down its smartphones in time, it also employs baked-in safety features and software to manage the device's charging duration and the charging current of the battery. This indicates that instead of throttling the device's processor performance to ease the load on the battery, Samsung prefers to take care of the battery as it starts to degrade over time.
Other Android smartphone makers including Google, Sony, Huawei, OnePlus, and more are expected to chime in and reveal whether they pulled a page from Apple's playbook and intentionally slow down the performance of their devices in order to make up for aging batteries.
The responses aim to determine whether slowing down processor speeds to deal with tired batteries is a common practice on the smartphone scene, or whether it's just a few OEMs who resort to such schemes.
