The lithium polymer battery in the iPhone is good, but Apple knows it has to get a whole lot better. They, and many other companies are spending lots of money in R&D to find a solution. If you look at the problem: They are limited in size. People like the form size of the IPhone. They might increase the size a little to squeeze in a bigger battery but not meaningfully. They have a sophisticated OS that tries to be as efficient as possible in managing power requirements. They might be able to obtain more efficiency out of it, but again, not to a great extent. Apple can't shrink the electrical components very much in order to put a bigger battery in the space. And the problem will continue to grow. If the new IPhone has an advanced processor people will want to use its capabilities to do more power intensive applications such as gaming and videos. Customers also don't want to turn off certain features to get more battery life. You buy a phone to get these features. Battery technology has lagged behind and there doesn't seem to be any quick solution. Even if an exotic battery technology emerges it will take a few years to test and manufacture in quantity. So the next IPhone will be really good, but will still face the power problem. It looks like there will be a market for the next few years for supplemental power manufacturers like Mophie, etc. It might pay Apple to get in on this area. Maybe they can change the design to allow a quick battery replacement like some Android phones and digital cameras.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Battery Technology: The Race is On
- Thread starter jimbo1mcm
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The current battery technology lasts long enough for the average user. You just need to charge it every night and do not expect 2-3 days between charging.
OP brings up a good point. Apple has about a year at most to figure out a solution. What do I mean by this? As technology moves forward, we need to too.
4G LTE IS A BATTERY HOG. Add an A5 processor and the mystical "4 inch screen" to this and your in trouble. Coming from an HTC Thunderbolt, I can tell you that battery life IS a problem. With that phone, I was getting 3 hours with light usage. LIGHT usage. Add dual core to that...well forget about it.
So like I said, Apple has about a year. I wouldn't worry about. Well, maybe I would. Who knows, Apple has been famous for introducing "revolutionary" new features in things. Then again, their quality control has gone down significantly in the recent years based on my experiences. (iMacs arrived broke, yellow, loud, buzzing. iPhone broken home buttons out of the box, yellow screens, etc.) Who knows
4G LTE IS A BATTERY HOG. Add an A5 processor and the mystical "4 inch screen" to this and your in trouble. Coming from an HTC Thunderbolt, I can tell you that battery life IS a problem. With that phone, I was getting 3 hours with light usage. LIGHT usage. Add dual core to that...well forget about it.
So like I said, Apple has about a year. I wouldn't worry about. Well, maybe I would. Who knows, Apple has been famous for introducing "revolutionary" new features in things. Then again, their quality control has gone down significantly in the recent years based on my experiences. (iMacs arrived broke, yellow, loud, buzzing. iPhone broken home buttons out of the box, yellow screens, etc.) Who knows
I feel like I am in the minority that wishes it had a better battery, even if it had to be a little bigger. The iPhone 4 certainly has a better battery than my 2G iPhone, but it could still be better. I guess I just use it a lot.
Maybe if it's plugged into a wall. We're talking about something that runs off a lithium ion polymer battery.
dual cores suppose to work faster, without much more voltage, thus save your phone time to get a job done. apparently you got more juice to use compare with single core phone. anyway, I heard there's some new battery technology (not sure the name 
). But it's unreliable, impossible to commercialize, and still in the lab.
). But it's unreliable, impossible to commercialize, and still in the lab.
Yes, it would be great if the next big mobile breakthrough was about the power supply.
About a year ago, MIT researchers used carbon nanotubes to build a lithium battery with ten times the usual output.
In other words, if your battery usually gave five hours, the MIT version could give fifty hours. That's an incredibly useful increase for handheld devices.
I'm waiting for someone to come up with a way to mass produce those puppies, or something like them.
PS. Anyone remember that company a few years back that claimed they had built an antenna good enough to power a laptop just from all the radiated 60Hz power and radio signals currently in the air everywhere? Whatever happened to them? Jail?
About a year ago, MIT researchers used carbon nanotubes to build a lithium battery with ten times the usual output.
In other words, if your battery usually gave five hours, the MIT version could give fifty hours. That's an incredibly useful increase for handheld devices.
I'm waiting for someone to come up with a way to mass produce those puppies, or something like them.
PS. Anyone remember that company a few years back that claimed they had built an antenna good enough to power a laptop just from all the radiated 60Hz power and radio signals currently in the air everywhere? Whatever happened to them? Jail?
You are not the only one. When I hear others say that the current batteries last long enough for what everyone needs reminds me of Gates statement about no one needing more than 640k of RAM.
I think they are now claiming that they have a battery that lasts ten times longer!
I'm just kidding, of course, I'm not doubting MIT.
We need more power efficient displays. LCDs are huge power hogs.
The experiment at MIT wasn't a real battery. The electrodes they made were nowhere near the size needed for a real battery. It does look promising though
The experiment at MIT wasn't a real battery. The electrodes they made were nowhere near the size needed for a real battery. It does look promising though
Last edited:
Bringing the price of OLED screen down is key in the battery conservation department. I bet you could get a twice the battery life out of an iphone with an oled screen and maybe 1.5 for a computer.
With OLED screens, sites like this would also thrive : http://www.blackle.com/
I personally think the real problem is 4G -- right now that is.
Think about it. The HTC Thunderbolt basically has the same design and interals as the Droid X (both have 4.3" displays, about the same processor, etc), but the Droid X is 3G, HTC Thudnerbolt is 4G.
Droid X = 9 hours of battery life with a lot of usage (much like the iPhone)
HTC Thunderbolt = 3 hours of battery life with LIGHT usage
The explanation for the horrible battery life is kind of obvious
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)
My battery does not last a day - meaning 8-9 AM to midnight. It usually dies around 6 and so I carry a mophie powerstation with me. I used to have a battery case but it is way too thick and ugly (also from mophie) so I agree with you - whoever comes up with the best battery technology will make a lot of money selling to apple
My battery does not last a day - meaning 8-9 AM to midnight. It usually dies around 6 and so I carry a mophie powerstation with me. I used to have a battery case but it is way too thick and ugly (also from mophie) so I agree with you - whoever comes up with the best battery technology will make a lot of money selling to apple
Apple is (as always) way ahead of you. People fail to realize the Liquid Metal buisness Apple purchased has a alternate use other than the new fancy laptop or phone case everyone keeps wanting.
It has potential to be in the next gen BATTERY.
http://9to5mac.com/2011/01/05/apple-using-liquidmetal-alloys-in-future-batteries-report/
It has potential to be in the next gen BATTERY.
http://9to5mac.com/2011/01/05/apple-using-liquidmetal-alloys-in-future-batteries-report/
Can you imagine the day when we will never have to recharge our phones because of technology like this?
Relax. The point is not whether Gates said it or not, it's about people's blinders on current needs and underestimating future needs.
efficient = as in it uses less power. the A5 uses less power than the A4 despite being more powerful
The race for megapixels is pretty much over, no one wants a camera over 8MP, in fact a 5MP camera with a great sensor and a lens is enough.
The race for the screen size and density is pretty much ending aswell. Apple is there, Android will move up the resolution and that's it.
CPU and inside spec race is always on going but that too, much like laptops and desktops is becoming a "good enough" thing.
I am surprised how there is no battery race, it must be very hard to come up with a new battery technology, whoever comes ups with a new tech though to make a modern smartphone last 2-3 days or even a week is going to be an instant winner.
Imagine using your phone actively and not needing to charge it for a week!
A more efficient(and smaller) battery will also have a huge effect on the size of the phone cause the biggest part in modern phones other than the screen of course, is the battery.
The race for the screen size and density is pretty much ending aswell. Apple is there, Android will move up the resolution and that's it.
CPU and inside spec race is always on going but that too, much like laptops and desktops is becoming a "good enough" thing.
I am surprised how there is no battery race, it must be very hard to come up with a new battery technology, whoever comes ups with a new tech though to make a modern smartphone last 2-3 days or even a week is going to be an instant winner.
Imagine using your phone actively and not needing to charge it for a week!
A more efficient(and smaller) battery will also have a huge effect on the size of the phone cause the biggest part in modern phones other than the screen of course, is the battery.