Check Your Battery Health
The number one reason why your older iPhone might to slowing down is simply because the battery is getting old. In that case, an inexpensive battery replacement could give your device a whole new lease on life.
You’ve probably heard of the “Batterygate” controversy. A few years ago, Apple got in a lot of hot water for slowing down older iPhones as their batteries deteriorated. Apple had good reasons for doing this — as batteries age, they can’t handle sudden power spikes very well, and Apple’s engineers figured that reducing the load was better than having your iPhone shut down completely at an inopportune moment.
However, what got Apple in trouble wasn’t the performance throttling, but rather that it didn’t tell anybody what it was doing. For that, it’s paid some hefty fines and had to settle class-action lawsuits from customers who ended up spending big bucks to buy new iPhones when spending far less for a battery replacement would have fixed their performance issues.
Thankfully, as a result of all this, Apple was forced to become much more transparent about what it was doing. This means you can now check your battery health and see if it’s time to replace your battery by opening the Settings app and selecting Battery > Battery Health & Charging.
A note under “Peak Performance Capability” will indicate the status of your battery and whether you should consider a replacement. If performance is being throttled due to your older battery, you’ll also have an option to toggle that off, which should speed up your iPhone, but may also cause it to shut down unexpectedly during more power-hungry activities like taking photos, placing calls, or playing certain games.
In this situation, getting your battery replaced is the best option, as it will restore full performance without any downsides — other than the cost, which runs between $69 and $99, depending on the model. Still, that’s a lot cheaper than buying a new iPhone, and you may be surprised at how much of a difference it makes.