Eric Ravenscraft
Apple has had an open offer to replace your old iPhone’s battery for $29 since January. It’s a pretty good deal, but it won’t last. You only have a few more months to get it done.
Apple started offering cheap battery replacements after it was revealed that the company had been slowing down phones with aging batteries. Due to a quirk with how batteries work, as your battery gets worn down with repeated charge cycles, phones that run at their normal speed have a higher risk of shutting down unexpectedly. Apple’s solution was to slow phones down a bit as they get older to prevent shutdowns. However, this led to some people thinking their phones just necessarily get slow when they’re old, so they replace the whole phone. In reality, you could just replace the battery to get a phone that works almost like new.
To compensate for the miscommunication, Apple started offering $29 battery replacements, even if your phone or its battery weren’t faulty. If you have an older phone, this is just a good idea all around. You get a fresh battery that will last a little longer and your phone will get a new lease on life for way, way less than it costs to buy a whole new phone. It’s a no brainer.
It’s also a temporary deal. After December 31st, the price for these battery replacements will go back up to their normal prices. Which is free if you’re under warranty or covered by AppleCare (in which case you might not need the new battery just yet), or up to $79 if you’re out of warranty. That’s still a lot cheaper than buying a new phone, but it’s pricier than the repair is now.
If you want to get your phone’s battery replaced, you can head to this page to request the repair service. Be sure to get your requests in before the end of the year, though.
