Battery Technology: The Race is On

[korndawg]

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.

Say what? Apple is already there with a 3.5" screen? I think screen wars are far from over.

 

[Cod3rror]

Say what? Apple is already there with a 3.5" screen? I think screen wars are far from over.

Look, megapixel wars aren't over either, but they are nothing new, there are larger screen phones available already, it's not a novelty anymore.

Also for Apple and most casual users 3.5" might be over, if they increase screen size they'll have to change the resolution or else they lose the "Retina" tag, if they increase the resolution instead doubling it, it'll also screw up apps and make it hard on devs having to update them.

 

[kdarling]

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

Darn. Thanks for the info!

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.

Definitely. Devices should be usable all the time, not sit in our pocket/purse like a prima donna.

(As for the Gates quote, he was wryly poking fun at himself when he was asked, over a decade later, why they chose to go from 64K to 640K. He said that, at the time, engineers thought that 640K would be enough to handle memory demand for ten years. As it turned out, it was only enough for about five years. So indeed you're right... it's a quote meant as a cautionary tale when planning ahead... not as an actual "we'll never need more than" belief.)

 

[korndawg]

Look, megapixel wars aren't over either, but they are nothing new, there are larger screen phones available already, it's not a novelty anymore.

Also for Apple and most casual users 3.5" might be over, if they increase screen size they'll have to change the resolution or else they lose the "Retina" tag, if they increase the resolution instead doubling it, it'll also screw up apps and make it hard on devs having to update them.

So you're saying technology is gonna stop evolving with camera lenses, sensors, screen panel technologies, etc?

 

[TonyC28]

Couldn't agree more. This conversation is going to become more important as time goes on. Phones keep evolving and growing in power but the batteries stay the same...for the most part. If phone technology is to keep evolving at this pace then pretty soon someone is going t have to come up with a better battery.

 

[Cod3rror]

So you're saying technology is gonna stop evolving with camera lenses, sensors, screen panel technologies, etc?

No, I never claimed that, it's just that when "race" and "war" is mentioned it is implied that it's a technological explosion, a boom.

Right now there is no "boom" of cameras and the only boom waiting to happen with screens is Android and iPad.

It's a boom of mobile phones industry as a whole though.

 

[VulchR]

....
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?

They became investment bankers in November 2007.

Seriously, though, if I know I need additional power, I just use a battery case. It doubles the bulk of the iPhone but I do not mind. It would be nice, though, if some of the press releases about the next-best-amazing-all-singing-all-dancing batteries actually had an element of truth. I am amazed at how gullible journalists can be (or perhaps they just don't care).

 

[acfusion29]

how about Apple stops trying to make the iPhone paper thin and puts in a proper battery?

they keep trying to go thinner, and i think that's wrong as it makes it harder to handle. i would prefer the iPhone to be a little bit thicker, get that extra battery life and have a good grip on my phone while using it.

screw off with the "let's make the thinnest phone possible"

 

[flipster]

how about Apple stops trying to make the iPhone paper thin and puts in a proper battery?

they keep trying to go thinner, and i think that's wrong as it makes it harder to handle. i would prefer the iPhone to be a little bit thicker, get that extra battery life and have a good grip on my phone while using it.

screw off with the "let's make the thinnest phone possible"

I dont really think they're aiming for that anymore -- I hope not anyway. The iPhone is already thin enough If it becomes any thinner, it's going to be uncomfortable in the hand to use. Personally, they need to fix the antenna problem, because it DOES exist. If you go to the speedtest.net app, run it normally, you'll get the average speeds, but if you put your finger on that corner, it's going to significantly increase the ping and drop the speeds, tested this myself on both verizon and att iphone 4s

 

[fabian9]

maybe this is the future of battery technology?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_sulfur_battery

currently being used in Qinetiq's Zephyr UAV, which currently holds the world record for the longest uninterrupted unmanned flight (think it was about 2 weeks)...

 

[nateo200]

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?

Don't know the specifics about the whole battery tech your talking about if so I would LOVE to get an after market internal battery that lasted longer and throw it in my current iPhone...I'd be exstacic about have everything on my iPhone on without worrying about 30% battery at 2:00 in the afternoon....and about the laptop thing...if you could send me a link to that I would be impressed.