Everyone has a smartphone these days and while processors have often got more efficient over the years, and software tweaks have been made to conserve battery life, many heavy users still struggle getting more than a day's use out of their phone. However, that could start to change from next year, as a new technology has been developed that promises to power devices ranging from smartphones to electric cars for longer periods of time.
This new promising battery technology is being developed by SolidEnergy Systems, which is led by researchers at MIT. They have developed a battery that replaces the common anode material we are used to with a much thinner, high-energy lithium-metal foil that can hold more ions.
As Techspot points out, previously there has been issues with using lithium metal due to higher resistance and temperature constraints. However, a new liquid electrolyte solution has been formed, which allows these batteries to run, without worrying about minimum operating temperatures.
Essentially, these new batteries from SolidEnergy can hold two times the energy density of what we have now, so batteries could either shrink while maintaining current performance, or you could squeeze more juice out of a similarly sized battery. These new batteries are currently heading for a 2017 release, and from there, SolidEnergy will be moving on to wearables.
KitGuru Says: Better battery life has been a focal point for many over the last few years. We haven't had many major breakthroughs, but this new technology could help push things forward. How long does your smartphone last on a single charge? Do you think battery life needs a big improvement on smartphones?
Don’t make them slimmer ffs, we can live with the current thickness and longer batter life.
Gosh I hope so… I really do… I am sooooo burned out after 10+ years of reading such headlines only to see the tech never work out or be mentioned ever again. I am still waiting for those amazing magnesium ion… sulfur ion… aluminum ion batteries to come out.
The thing with breakthroughs is they never usually go anywhere. At least once a year I see articles on groundbreaking new discoveries into these things that just end up going under the radar forevermore days later
not sure if trolling or just stupid
because they’re not breakthroughs. news agencies call em that to get clicks.
when there’s a breakthrough, you see it happen. That’s the whole definition of the word.
Neither, it was a valid comment
Phones are already plenty thin. I rather have a phone that is same size as current phone and only need to be recharged from 0% once a day. Then a skinnier phone that’s got to be recharged multiple times.
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Why would this be trolling? I also don’t think we need paper thin phones. The thickness of phones have been fine for the past 5 years. I’d much rather have longer battery life but I know some companies will just thin out the phone further and keep the battery life the same which sucks.
It’s because journalists (a) usually don’t understand science and its impact and (b) like to get clicks so they can sell ads.
Apple 🙂
Indeed.
I also don’t see the appeal of wafer-thin phones that struggle to even last a single day.
I went the complete opposite with recent phones and brought 3rd-party XL batteries for them.
For my current one it added about 40% more thickness to the phone, but from 2100mAh to 4600mAh on the battery. lasts three days light usage or 1day minimum even at extreme usage*…
Talking to people i find people are generally more annoyed by tiny batteries than the minor plus points of a thin phone, yet the manufacturers seem obsessed by it and seem highly reluctant to offer phones with sane battery capacities.
I’m worried by the more recent trend of non-user-replaceable batteries, which will end my favourite hack of XL 3rd-party batteries…
*(as a side effect, this makes it awesome for pokemon go 😉 )
Most of the entire phone industry as well sadly… :/
Yeah true, but Apple really takes the cake with their iPhone 7. They even went as far as removing the 3.5mm headphone jack to make it even slimmer.
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