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darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
The new battery technology is already discovered, it's just a matter of throwing money at it to make it market ready.

And exactly what is this magical "discovery" that will work? The razr maxx has a great battery, but that is under patent, and guess who owns motorola? Google. You don't think these companies aren't investing billions into the technology? That is the next major improvment they are working on. You can't bring any more drastic improvements to smartphones without drastically improving the battery. And they will become stagnant without the improvments. These companies know that, and they are working on it. I would bet within 3 years there will be signficant improvements in battery life. Night and day.
 

Agent-P

Contributor
Dec 5, 2009
2,502
23
The Tri-State Area
Wow, why all the hate on the OP for suggesting this? I actually have to agree. All this focus on making devices thinner and have higher resolution is just dumb now. On a mobile phone screen, our eyes can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p, so why even bother going with a resolution race?. And there will be a point where a phone will be too thin. I don't want a wafer in my pocket that could break with very little force.

Battery tech hasn't changed much ever since lithium ion became a thing. Wouldn't it be nice to have your phone fully charge in an hour? half an hour? 15 minutes? How about a mobile phone battery that lasts a week? Two weeks? A month? If everyone sat around with the attitude that "it's good enough as is, why bother trying to make it better?" then we never would've had some of the great technology we have now.

I'm not saying it's Apple's job to do something about battery tech (any company could get behind this, and I would encourage them to), but it's the point the OP makes; Apple has all this money sitting around. Why not create something that can make your own devices even more special and unique?
 

darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
I'm not saying it's Apple's job to do something about battery tech (any company could get behind this, and I would encourage them to), but it's the point the OP makes; Apple has all this money sitting around. Why not create something that can make your own devices even more special and unique?

What makes you think Apple isn't spending the money to do just that? I can guarantee they are further ahead than the rest in R&D and spending billions doing just that. The smartphone industry has really only been around for about 5 years. Remember what smartphones were like 5 years ago? Pretty pathetic. People want everything to improve 1000% overnight. Research doesn't work that way. Do you know how much is invested by these companies in research? For every advancement made, there are hundreds of failures in the process. The general population is so clueless about science and research, especially Americans. They just think these improvements just magically appear in a "Watson come here" moment. It's sad the level of ignorance people in general have.
 

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,599
33
I think the fact that we have an iPhone with twice the pixels and several times the processing power of the original yet still has all day battery life and then some is pretty innovative.

I was thinking about this today. The iPhone 5 has nearly the same processing power as the original Macbook Air, but fits in your pocket, weighs about as much as a deck of cards, and lasts a day or two on a single charge. That's pretty amazing, and I think we're only a generation or two away from having Core 2 Duo performance in an iphone, but I guess some people still want MOAR!

The iphone 5 has no where near the power of a core 2 duo of any type. I suggest you try some other benchmarks.

People want more because there are competitors phones that have much better battery, especially in real world use. The razr hd and hd maxx absolutely murder the iphone in real life battery life.
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
Think the battery tech in the iPhone 5 is quite decent already. They managed to make the phone thinner and lighter, and even improved the battery level as compared to the 4S. If that isn't good, I don't know what is.
 

vastoholic

macrumors 68000
Jan 28, 2009
1,957
1
Tulsa, OK
The iphone 5 has no where near the power of a core 2 duo of any type. I suggest you try some other benchmarks.

People want more because there are competitors phones that have much better battery, especially in real world use. The razr hd and hd maxx absolutely murder the iphone in real life battery life.

They also both are larger phones, allowing for a bigger battery.

3300 mAh for the Razr Maxx HD compared to about 1400 on the iPhone. And considering the Razr HD has a 2530 mAh and gets only slightly better battery life. I'd say apple is doing pretty well at optimizing it's device and functionality for the battery tech that is available today.

From endgaget in the iPhone 5 review.
On our standard battery rundown test, in which we loop a video with LTE and WiFi enabled and social accounts pinging at regular intervals, the iPhone 5 managed a hugely impressive 11 hours and 15 minutes. That's just 10 minutes shy of the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx.
 
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darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
Battery tech hasn't changed much ever since lithium ion became a thing. Wouldn't it be nice to have your phone fully charge in an hour? half an hour? 15 minutes? How about a mobile phone battery that lasts a week? Two weeks? A month? If everyone sat around with the attitude that "it's good enough as is, why bother trying to make it better?" then we never would've had some of the great technology we have now.

I guarantee they can charge a battery in 5 minutes. I can also gaurantee it will blow up in your hand. Is that what you want? There are strict safety standards that they must maintain. What good is a battery if you charge it in 15 minutes and it burns your house down in the process? There have been thousands of scientists working on trying to solve the "battery" dilemma for years. Nobody is sitting on their hands saying it's "good enough". More money is likely being spent on energy alternatives than most other fields of science and engineering.
 

SomeDudeAsking

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 23, 2010
1,250
2
They also both are larger phones, allowing for a bigger battery.

3300 mAh for the Razr Maxx HD compared to about 1400 on the iPhone. And considering the Razr HD has a 2530 mAh and gets only slightly better battery life. I'd say apple is doing pretty well at optimizing it's device and functionality for the battery tech that is available today.

From endgaget in the iPhone 5 review.

Why are you quoting something that compares the Razr Maxx instead of the Razr Maxx HD? The Razr Maxx was released all the way back in January 2012. The Razr Maxx HD was released in November 2012. The Razr Maxx used more power hungry LTE chips than what is available now for the Razr Maxx HD.

If you actually read the review for the Razr Maxx where they also tested with just using 3G at http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/31/motorola-droid-razr-maxx-review/, you would have seen:

Two words: holy smokes. We took the phone off the charger at 8:30 AM, began our standard video rundown test that consists of an endless video loop while connected to 3G, walked away and waited. And waited. And continued waiting until 1 AM the following morning. That's right -- the Maxx lasted 16.5 hours playing the same video over and over before giving up the ghost.

And if you read the review for the Razr Maxx HD where they used LTE, you would have seen:

On our standard battery drain test (which involves looping a video with the display brightness set at 50 percent, WiFi and GPS turned on) the RAZR HD chugged along for an impressive 10 hours and 42 minutes -- that's longer than most tablets. The MAXX only takes things further, testing this reviewer's patience by refusing to die for 14 hours and four minutes. That doesn't quite match the epic longevity of the first MAXX, but it's still a nearly unheard of number. What's more, both lasted almost a full hour longer than Motorola's official figures -- that's about as pleasant a surprise as one can get.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/19/droid-razr-hd-and-razr-maxx-hd-review/

These are numbers that Apple cannot match and all on a larger screen, too. The Razr Maxx HD even with LTE far surpasses the battery life of the iPhone 5. And if you use 3G, the Razr Maxx HD would further increase it's tremendous lead.
 

vastoholic

macrumors 68000
Jan 28, 2009
1,957
1
Tulsa, OK
Why are you quoting something that compares the Razr Maxx instead of the Razr Maxx HD? The Razr Maxx was released all the way back in January 2012. The Razr Maxx HD was released in November 2012. The Razr Maxx used more power hungry LTE chips than what is available now for the Razr Maxx HD.

If you actually read the review for the Razr Maxx where they also tested with just using 3G at http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/31/motorola-droid-razr-maxx-review/, you would have seen:



And if you read the review for the Razr Maxx HD where they used LTE, you would have seen:



http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/19/droid-razr-hd-and-razr-maxx-hd-review/

These are numbers that Apple cannot match and all on a larger screen, too. The Razr Maxx HD even with LTE far surpasses the battery life of the iPhone 5. And if you use 3G, the Razr Maxx HD would further increase it's tremendous lead.

Again.......because it has a bigger battery than the iPhone. That is why it outperforms. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp? The Razr Maxx and Maxx HD both use the same battery.
 
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SomeDudeAsking

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 23, 2010
1,250
2
Again.......because it has a bigger battery than the iPhone. That is why it outperforms. Why is that such a hard concept to grasp?

Why is it such a hard concept to accept that the iPhone 5 does not have enough battery life and Apple should spend some R&D money on better batteries instead of reusing the same one over and over with each iPhone?
 

vastoholic

macrumors 68000
Jan 28, 2009
1,957
1
Tulsa, OK
Why is it such a hard concept to accept that the iPhone 5 does not have enough battery life and Apple should spend some R&D money on better batteries instead of reusing the same one over and over with each iPhone?

I never said I thought the battery was enough. I don't think it's enough. I would personally like to be able to comfortably go a full day with heavy usage and still have about 20% left on my battery. But do I think it's apple's responsibility to design a battery? No. That's not their specialty. Their specialty is optimizing their hardware and software to make the most out of the battery technology that is provided to them.
 
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ChristianVirtual

macrumors 601
May 10, 2010
4,122
282
日本
I think the priorities from Apple are Ok. They try to reduce the power consumption with a defined mix of CPU and display. That's a good way.
They also innovated/change on the physical design of batteries; make them not user-changeable anymore in exchange to fit them perfectly into the devices. Not everyone like that.
But I also agree, it wouldn't hurt if they sponsor some more on "chemical innovation" to extent the capacity/energy storage.
 

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,599
33
They also both are larger phones, allowing for a bigger battery.

3300 mAh for the Razr Maxx HD compared to about 1400 on the iPhone. And considering the Razr HD has a 2530 mAh and gets only slightly better battery life. I'd say apple is doing pretty well at optimizing it's device and functionality for the battery tech that is available today.

From endgaget in the iPhone 5 review.

In real world use the iphone 5 does much worse than the regular hd. No one actually gets that much time browsing in real life.
 

vastoholic

macrumors 68000
Jan 28, 2009
1,957
1
Tulsa, OK
In real world use the iphone 5 does much worse than the regular hd. No one actually gets that much time browsing in real life.

Not everyone has the same results though. There are people on here reporting 10 hours of usage and up to 15-20 hours of standby time on their iP5's. Not all phones are equal obviously, which is the sad part. Because I generally get 8 hours of actual usage time with around 15 hours standby.
 

JS82712

macrumors 6502a
Jul 1, 2009
799
0
My speculation is that there are better battery technologies being developed, except they simply arent cost efficient enough for apple to put in their products. After all, apple doesnt wanna lose all that delicious profit margin from their iOS devices.

But on the other hand, apple's iPhone 5 is currently the most energy efficient phone with a powerful processor that consumes minimal power.
Meanwhile, competitors like samsung simply stuff in ridiculous amounts of battery into their phones running the bloated android OS.
 

Jordan921

macrumors 603
Jul 7, 2010
5,069
2,171
Bay Area
With all that money just sitting around collecting dust, why doesn't Apple use it to bring to market new battery technology that is more advanced than lithium ion? You know, the new battery technology that always seems to be just around the corner like full charges in 5 minutes with 10 times the capacity of lithium ion? The only component Apple seems to spend R&D money on is the A5/A6 processors. You would think they could throw a few billion in R&D money around new battery technology.

If it's so easy to develop new tech why don't you just go and invent better technology. Just because they have all they cash they shouldn't be throwing it at something.
 

E2EK1EL

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2012
493
8
I hope this video explains some questions about Apple's battery designs and technology.

http://youtu.be/w6lLdFxiZPc



Just like everyone else, when I first read the specs about the IP5's hardware along with the 1440mAh battery, nothing makes sense at all until some 3rd party iPhone parts dealer puts the IP5's logic board under a microscope and confirms all the chipsets nm specs.

If you compare the CPUs, GPUs, the size of the phone, size of the screen, the multi region LTE bands, the battery life and look at the benchmark results, no other manufacture comes close. After all that, look at how smooth iOS runs and how efficient battery life can be with heavy usage in a "strong signal area"

Imagine if Apple made a massive 5.5" phone, Quad Core CPU & GPU, 2GB RAM and accompanied with a 3000mAh battery? It would be 2-3x faster then the Note 2, last 2-3x longer and perform 2-3x faster. Android needs all that horse power just to stay a live with all their manufacture skins, blotware and sketchy OS builds.

My iPhone 3G still runs very strong on the original battery, it's all about how condition the battery and your signal strengths plays a major role on battery life. Apple should stay away from dev a new form of battery material, if they did that they would blow all their money in R&D like Nokia and end up like Nokia, making prototype phones that will never see the light of day.
 

iAlphard

macrumors regular
Aug 29, 2012
178
0
I agree with OP, i can't understand the nay sayers here about the battery capacity.
The iPhone has been stuck at 1400ish mAh battery capacity since the iphone 4. They made it 20% thinner, they have the cash to at least increase it to 2000ish mAh. They already have the iOS efficiency, why not increase the battery capacity.
The simplicity of iOS, combined with almost 300k choices of Apps, it will be no doubt the iPhone would sell 5-10 millions more if it has more battery capacity. Even if it's back to 4S thickness, increase in battery capacity is always a good thing.
It means more customization could be added, to iOS interface. And for user, they can enjoy more from the iPhone, in every situation.
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
My speculation is that there are better battery technologies being developed, except they simply arent cost efficient enough for apple to put in their products. After all, apple doesnt wanna lose all that delicious profit margin from their iOS devices.

But on the other hand, apple's iPhone 5 is currently the most energy efficient phone with a powerful processor that consumes minimal power.
Meanwhile, competitors like samsung simply stuff in ridiculous amounts of battery into their phones running the bloated android OS.

That, I'll have to agree. The A6 is really amazing and energy efficient like what Phil said. Not to mention how despite it being dual-core, still ranks one of the highest in most benchmark tests.:)
 

blackhand1001

macrumors 68030
Jan 6, 2009
2,599
33
That, I'll have to agree. The A6 is really amazing and energy efficient like what Phil said. Not to mention how despite it being dual-core, still ranks one of the highest in most benchmark tests.:)

Except when compared to the exynos 5250 it stands no match.
 
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