A month or so ago, I wrote a post in desperation. It was about my iPhone 7 Plus — something was wrong with it, but Apple diagnostics did not unearth and problems, hence Support did not want to provide me with a replacement unit. I tried everything, from spending multiple hours on the phone with Apple Support, to escalating the issue, to calling Apple Support in other countries — all to no avail. I finally wrote a very long email to Tim Cook and Phil Schiller…

First of all, the whole issue has been a nightmare — I knew something was wrong with the phone, the Apple Authorised Service Provider also acknowledged this, but since diagnostics did not show any problems, they were unable to help. Apple Support in Cork did not have a solution either. I detailed this in my previous post.

Secondly, I hate that I had to resort to escalating the issue as I did — it does not sit right with me that regular Apple Support channels did not solve the issue.

Anyway, onto the letter I wrote… I won’t quote it in full (it’s over 1500 words long).

Today, November 15, I dropped my iPhone (around 10:00 CET) off at an Apple approved service centre ([redacted], Poland) at the suggestion of [redacted]. I received a telephone call from her a few hours later (at 16:51 CET) in which I was informed that diagnostics show no faults (as expected). She also told me that the service centre reports that my iPhone lasts for 8 hours of “intensive use.” Please note that at the time of the call, the service centre had the phone in their possession for less than 7 hours.

From what I know, these tests do not replicate real-world scenarios. I completely understand that the phone passes all of your tests, but that does not mean it doesn’t have a problem. The bottom line is that my iPhone 7+ is nowhere near the official battery life specs — it drains power too fast.

At this point in time, I have a $1200 (€1100) paperweight, which requires me to charge it halfway through the day, despite me getting 2 or more days of battery life from both my iPhone 6 Plus and 6S Plus. Despite documenting this power drain, Apple Support claims that my phone “is fine” and that “there is nothing wrong with it”. Basically, this indirectly suggests that I am not telling the truth, and also leaves me out to dry — there is nothing that I can do but take a huge financial hit and sell this faulty phone […]

All of the above has basically made this the most disappointing experience that I have had so far in my life with Apple and the iPhone as my company and product of choice. Unfortunately, at this point in time, my trust is hanging by a thread.

I receive a phone call from Apple Support the next morning. My contact informed me, that because I “was relentlessly pushing” (I’m paraphrasing, I don’t recall the exact words — to clarify, they were not meant to be negative) for a new device, I will receive one (again, I felt bad for having had to resort to that email). I had a choice of either returning my current iPhone and buying a new one, which would require me to wait between 3-4 weeks, or to get a replacement unit via their Authorised Service Repair Provider in 4-7 days. I chose the latter, obviously. It arrived 6 days later, three hours before my flight to France, which allowed me just enough time to restore it from my iTunes backup.

Four screenshots, four different days.

The new unit’s battery life, after the first day (top left screenshot) was nothing special — evidently better, but not close to my 6S Plus. This was to be expected — iOS was still indexing 150 gigs of photos, thousands of emails, etc. The next two days completely exceeded my expectations however — battery life was back right to where I expected it to be. The last screenshot (lower right) was taken after a long and rather atypical day, away from Wi-Fi, and using it frequently. It suggests I can probably get up to 12 hours of usage.

At this point, I’m more than happy with the new device. I just wish I hadn’t gone through a month of diagnostics, emails, and a lot of frustration. I’m also quite sure that I wouldn’t have received a replacement unit from any other manufacturer other than Apple.

I truly hope I will not have any more issues with my Apple hardware — I really have come to expect it “to just work” over the years.