Image credit: Mike Liu/ Flickr

Now that Apple’s admitted to slowing down iPhones with degraded batteries, you’re probably interested in figuring out whether your battery is losing its ability to hold a charge (and whether you should replace it). There are a few ways to do this, either with an app or by waiting a few weeks, when Apple says it will provide customers with more information about their batteries. Still curious in the interim? Here’s what to do.




Check Your Battery With an App

You can download a few diagnostics apps available in the App Store to learn more about the quality of your iPhone’s battery. If you want a detailed look at how your battery operates under stress, you can download an app like Geekbench 4, a diagnostics tool that will offer detailed information about your iPhone’s speed, battery life, and computing power. You can also use it to check whether or not your iPhone is affected by Apple’s speed throttling.


For a quick glimpse at your battery to make sure it isn’t completely shot, use an app like Victor Robinson’s Battery Life. It’s a straightforward app that tells you how much capacity your battery life has left. If you’ve got an older iPhone, you’ll see a dip in your battery’s overall capacity when you visit the Raw Data page.



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Get a Discounted Battery From Apple

Since Apple’s confessed to slowing down old iPhones with degraded batteries, the company has gone on to offer a discount on replacement batteries, after classifying them as consumable components. It will also update iOS 11 itself to include more detailed information about your battery. Instead of the usual $79 charge for replacing a battery out of warranty, you can get it replaced by Apple for $29 beginning in late January 2018. The company will release more details about the process “soon,” according to a press release.


If you’ve got a bad battery, you could always replace it at the Apple Store. You could also take it to a smartphone repair retailer like uBreakiFix, though you’ll be paying an estimated $69.99, which seems a bit steep compared to the alternative.