Apple Accused Of ‘Locking’ Batteries To Their Latest iPhones

Apple has a rather long-standing reputation for being a pretty poor company when it comes to their iPhone batteries. It’s not, incidentally, that the batteries are bad, but it was for example revealed in 2017 that they were deliberately throttling the performance of older phones under the guise of ‘extending their battery lifespans’. A factor that led to the company having to offer a £25 replacement promotion. I know because I had my battery swapped under this deal!

In a new video posted by YouTube channel ‘TheArtofRepair‘, however, Apple has now been accused of very deliberately locking out part of their battery features if they are replaced (even with a legitimate Apple battery) from a 3rd-party source.

Apple Accused of More Battery Shennanigans!

So, what’s the deal here? Well, in the video a battery is replaced within an iPhone XR. This is legitimate Apple battery and, for all intents and purposes, you would think that swapping it wouldn’t cause any problems.

Upon turning the phone back on, however, it was revealed that the ‘battery health’ information within the settings menu was essentially locked out with a message stating that it was unable to determine if this was a legitimate battery.

Put simply, Apple may have added a level of software that directly locks your battery to your specific phone!

What’s The Problem Here?

Well, firstly, Apple never said that it had done this. In addition, it does only appear to be an issue with their latest models. Models that were, incidentally, released after a lot of the battery backlash they received. Make of that what you will…

More so, however, the biggest issue seems to be that to get this feature to work again, you are literally over a barrel to have this done officially at an Apple Store. Paying, of course, an obvious Apple charge for the service. Think of it essentially as having an engine warning light on your car that only your dealer (very deliberately) is capable of removing.

Apple is yet to comment specifically on this matter. It does, however, again highlight just how much they really don’t want you interacting with third parties. Particularly when it comes to repairs or replacements. They want that business entirely for themselves!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!