Roger Fingas
Apple on Friday made a slight adjustment to the terms of its AppleCare+ warranty for iPhones, iPads, iPods, and the Apple Watch, allowing people to get a free repair or replacement if their battery holds less than 80 percent of its original charge.
Customers in Canada or the U.S. need only submit a valid claim, the updated warranty states. Previously the warranty only allowed free battery drain-related repairs if a device fell under 50 percent of its original capacity, by which point a product may have already become impractical to use.
The change also applies to the custom version of AppleCare+ for the Apple Watch Edition, which in the U.S. costs $1,500 with additional $1,000 service fees for accidental damage, but extends out to three years since by default the Edition already has a two-year warranty.
Most Apple products — including the regular Watch and the Watch Sport — get only one year of default warranty coverage.
AppleCare+ costs $49 for the Watch Sport, $59 for the iPod touch or classic, $69 for the standard Watch, and $99 for iPhones or iPads. Special Watch/iPhone bundles are available for people getting a new Watch who have an undamaged iPhone less than six months old.
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8 Comments
What I'd like to see is a change to the iPhone battery chemistry. iPad, Mac, and Watch batteries last 1000 cycles before dropping to 80%. The iPhone is 500, something that will easily be eclipsed with daily charging during a two year contract.
This should just be out of the box for the Apple Watch. My new Mondaine Helvetica One (light) came with 2 year warranty and I was given my first battery/service included on top of that.
Apple said the battery would do 1,000 cycles - just guarantee it. If they going to pretend this thing is not a gadget made in Taiwan but a piece of jewelry they should at least act like it.
It's pretty poor that Apple stuff which is marketed as "premium" only has a year warranty anyway. It doesn't put much weight behind their claim of quality. In the UK, the Sale of Goods Act mandates that premium products have in some cases a 6 year claim period for defects. And in Europe in general there's a 2 (iirc) year period but the onus is essentially on the buyer to prove its a fault from the factory. An Italian regutor sued Apple for failing to honour the 2 year EU warranty law a few years ago.
Apple said the battery would do 1,000 cycles - just guarantee it. If they going to pretend this thing is not a gadget made in Taiwan but a piece of jewelry they should at least act like it.
Battery cycle endurance depends on user treatment and is subject to abuse. Extreme temperatures, deep discharges, leaving it uncharged will wear the battery faster. This isn't under Apple's control and I doubt you'd be happy if Apple said warranty void if device goes over 100 degrees.
The powertrains of cars are designed by law to last 15 years/150k miles (emissions regulations) but warranties are 5-7 years/100k miles. Same reason.
What I'd like to see is a change to the iPhone battery chemistry. iPad, Mac, and Watch batteries last 1000 cycles before dropping to 80%. The iPhone is 500, something that will easily be eclipsed with daily charging during a two year contract.
Well, there's an unfortunate gap between supposed to "last 1000 cycles before dropping to 80%", and actually accomplishing it.
I have a mid-2011 MacBook Air, and in just about 500 cycles, it was at and sometimes under 80%. It's an indoor computer so there isn't an "abuse" or "extremes" issue, Apple tells me I'm treating it properly, and, as it was under warranty, Apple replaced the battery.
Just over a year and a half later, I noticed the replacement was at 79% after 458 cycles. Although it bobbed up into the 80's for awhile, it is now consistently in the upper 70's, at 656 cycles, but, of course, AppleCare has now expired.
For what it's worth, the utility I use to track it stores the info online, and per its graph, my experience is typical of its subscribers.
I know, "RMV", but this is typical of my experiences with this and a MacBookPro, and several iPhones and several more iPads and iPods...
So I'll state very firmly that the NEXT phone, the NEXT tablet, and the NEXT laptop I buy...
will most certainly be from Apple...
Yeah, it'd be nice if I got the performance they suggest, but mostly I just wish they'd make more accurate, more real-world promises...
Expectations are a b*t*h...