Smartphone Battery Life May Be on the Decline Because Lithium Ion Batteries Can't Keep Up With New Technology

[avtella]

Wait, I thought OLED was supposed to save power versus LCD?

On a mostly white screen such as in web surfing AMOLED is pretty power hungry as pretty much every sub pixel has to be active. It’s during things like movies (due to mixed color content) and dark backgrounds that it’s usually much better than LCDs. Also OLED displays in current phones already only have 2 sub pixels rather than the standard 3 set RGB pixel layout leading to a lower effective resolution, though with higher resolution it compensates and becomes unnoticeable. A proper RGB OLED would be even more power hungry.

Main reason for RG-BG layout is to have much larger blue sub pixels as these decay the fastest (fraction of the life) compared to red & green. Green is what the human eye is more attuned to so hence why RG and BG pixels in pentile displays. Early HD oleds with this layout you could easily make out the graininess which is why I believe Samsung ramped up resolution to compensate.

 

[redfirebird08]

Battery technology is definitely a handicap. This is why we need to be able to charge if we are simply connected to WiFi. A true wireless charging solution.

Or even better: the ability to charge through Internet in general including cellular Internet. That would be amazing. As long as you have cell signal or Wi-Fi, your phone battery wouldn't ever run down. lol

 

[morphineseason]

Solar panels are obviously not practical in mobile devices, for many reasons. The biggest and most obvious reason is that solar panels must sit in the sun to be of any use. That is the exact opposite of a good idea if that device happens to be a computer (or little computer, AKA mobile device). Computers can overheat. You better believe using your phone in the sun will cause it to overheat. Not to mention it'll give you quite the sun burn.

No, it's not going to work. Normal people wouldn't even go that far, and would probably just keep their phone in their pockets/purses when not using it, negating any benefit from having the solar panel.

IF it's done right, you wouldn't need to let it "sit in the sun for hours". You see people looking at their phone outside all the time. If you can get like 50% of your battery back in maybe 15 minutes, you would be recharging your battery significantly while you're just casually checking your social media when walking around outside. Perhaps they could even get it to work with ambient lighting indoors, similar to the little panels on calculators.

It doesn't seem practical now because the tech doesn't exist, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. Someone needs to start getting a little more creative with these devices though outside of releasing different screen sizes, making things a little thinner, and adding a few megapixels to the camera specs.

 

[ericinboston]

This isn't rock science or even difficult. The battery supplies X power for Y minutes at full usage.

The phone manufacturer(s) understand this when designing EVERYTHING that involves the phone including the screens, chips, OS usage, App usage, etc.

It's only been recently (2 years?) that Apple has put in sleep modes that I can set such as 11pm-7am that disables a,b, and c. If you want your phone's battery to last longer, we should all know some of the basic 3-4 things to check (I will not list them here). In fact, I would argue that Apple needs to have a Battery Saver screen where people can configure the basic 3-4 things that use the battery the most or are simply overlooked. For example, setting the screen brightness from 100% to 80% provides how much more life?

Apple should offer a "Phone-Only" mode that turns off everything except for the phone chip and actual phone functionality. I'm not talking about Airplane Mode and I'm not talking about turning off Wifi...I'm saying when in Phone-Only mode, the only thing your phone is doing is waiting for phone calls. No texts. No emails. No apps. Zip. This feature would not only save a lot of battery life but it would help people become less addicted/distracted with their Phone. This would be a simple option to implement. There are several workarounds now (power off your phone).

Other than these suggestions, manufacturers need to either increase the battery capacity and/or reduce the stuff that drains the battery. Real simple folks. But something tells me there aren't going to be iPhones anytime soon that last for 7 or 30 days on a full charge and being used all the time. Something tells me Apple and many other companies are counting on you buying all those extra chargers and kits and cables and Anker battery packs. Something tells me they enjoy the fact that you need to charge your phone every day.

 

[kemal]

I would rather have a shorter and more awesome-er experience with the highest tech phone. Then have a life away from the screen.

 

[Gudi]

Also why would Samsung report about something that will not see the light of day, like Apple did with AirPower? Samsung is not Apple.

Because a few idiots will believe the lie and spread it. Gullible people will mistake rumors for facts and base their purchase decisions on unsubstantiated dreams of better (battery) life in the future.

Bill Gates even became the richest man on earth selling vaporware. But we agree, Samsung is not Apple and Windows is not macOS.

 

[citysnaps]

As salty as you are Samsung is definitely developing graphene batteries while there's hardly anything anybody can say about Apple and battery tech related.

You may not be aware of Apple's culture of secrecy with respect to technology and product directed research and development.

Apple chooses to not reveal details of their R&D efforts, other than their 2018 R&D budget being around $14-$15 billion.

As battery research evaluating different electrode and electrolyte materials is a such a highly investigated area, with potential results paying huge dividends in products that rely on rechargeable batteries, I'd be shocked if Apple's scientists and engineers were not heavily involved.

Of course you may disagree, believing that if Apple were engaged in such battery research, they would publicize their findings and results, sharing them with the world.

 

[FelixDerKater]

Add a thicker battery and there will be room for a headphone jack.

 

[Smooley]

Because there is no reason to know such a thing. And I'm talking specifically about new battery tech not L shapes or T's or anything like that.
Going by your logic I can assume Earth was visited by aliens. Certainly nobody can prove me wrong so why not?

Also why would Samsung report about something that will not see the light of day, like Apple did with airpower? Samsung is not Apple.



No it's not the only company but it's certainly the most involved.

The most involved???? You are out of your mind, Graphene battery research has been going on for years and years. Did you read the article that was posted earlier about the buses using Super Capacitors in like Belarus?

A Rumor site (much like MacRumors) posts a rumor article that Samsung might bring Graphene technology to market next year and suddenly Samsung invented Graphene.

Graphene by itself is not anywhere near ready for mass production for small battery use. They are just now starting to bring it to market for larger products. If Samsung does bring it to market it will be like the article said, in conjunction with other battery tech to allow for much faster charging but will probably do nothing for battery life for a number of years.

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

IF it's done right, you wouldn't need to let it "sit in the sun for hours". You see people looking at their phone outside all the time. If you can get like 50% of your battery back in maybe 15 minutes, you would be recharging your battery significantly while you're just casually checking your social media when walking around outside. Perhaps they could even get it to work with ambient lighting indoors, similar to the little panels on calculators.

It doesn't seem practical now because the tech doesn't exist, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. Someone needs to start getting a little more creative with these devices though outside of releasing different screen sizes, making things a little thinner, and adding a few megapixels to the camera specs.

You are not going to get 50% of your battery back in 15 minutes on solar. Not even close.

 

[spacemnspiff]

Samsung is the only one doing the innovating. No other OEM knows enough or cares enough.

https://www.techspot.com/news/77076-samsung-graphene-batteries-which-can-charge-phone-12.html

Have you read up on Confirmation Bias lately? Let me help you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

I am guessing you have a Samsung device and hence the tromment (troll comment).

 

[npmacuser5]

Its not about thickness, it is weight that is the issue with a bigger battery. Too heavy to hold. The X is already too heavy.

Invest in a gym membership!

 

[mi7chy]

Something isn't right when the richest company in the world is throttling via software for battery inadequacy while others like Samsung are R&D'ing new battery technology like graphene. Software throttling is more profitable so it's better I guess.

 

[mattopotamus]

This isn't rock science or even difficult. The battery supplies X power for Y minutes at full usage.

The phone manufacturer(s) understand this when designing EVERYTHING that involves the phone including the screens, chips, OS usage, App usage, etc.

It's only been recently (2 years?) that Apple has put in sleep modes that I can set such as 11pm-7am that disables a,b, and c. If you want your phone's battery to last longer, we should all know some of the basic 3-4 things to check (I will not list them here). In fact, I would argue that Apple needs to have a Battery Saver screen where people can configure the basic 3-4 things that use the battery the most or are simply overlooked. For example, setting the screen brightness from 100% to 80% provides how much more life?

Apple should offer a "Phone-Only" mode that turns off everything except for the phone chip and actual phone functionality. I'm not talking about Airplane Mode and I'm not talking about turning off Wifi...I'm saying when in Phone-Only mode, the only thing your phone is doing is waiting for phone calls. No texts. No emails. No apps. Zip. This feature would not only save a lot of battery life but it would help people become less addicted/distracted with their Phone. This would be a simple option to implement. There are several workarounds now (power off your phone).

Other than these suggestions, manufacturers need to either increase the battery capacity and/or reduce the stuff that drains the battery. Real simple folks. But something tells me there aren't going to be iPhones anytime soon that last for 7 or 30 days on a full charge and being used all the time. Something tells me Apple and many other companies are counting on you buying all those extra chargers and kits and cables and Anker battery packs. Something tells me they enjoy the fact that you need to charge your phone every day.

That is why we have cellular apple watches. Honestly, it is the only thing I bring with me on the weekends.

 

[ocnitsa]

I remember back in 2015 there was a rumor about company making hydrogen fuel cells that could fit inside of iPhones and provide a week of charge. One drawback was that it required a small vent for water vapor exhaust.

I say Apple embrace it like they did the notch; I've already got a brilliant ad campaign for them:

View attachment 800427

Ivy will demand they use a Virginia Slim.

 

[jeff275]

I would love to settle for a bigger battery!!!

 

[rafark]

If the UI and all apps and websites were OLED-friendly black, you would see a difference.

This is ridiculous. That's like saying: "I bought a new computer but I turned off these many settings to have an aceptable performance". If this new $1000+ phone comes with oled, then it should have a capable battery.

 

[ericinboston]

I would love to settle for a bigger battery!!!

That's the other piece I forgot to mention in my post a few hours ago...Apple (and others) have just been slashing the thickness of phones for the past 7 generations. Apple could simply make a 15% thicker battery (oh the humanity!) and likely that would give a significant improvement on improved usage time.

The iPhone 7 Plus is 7.1MM thick...that's the whole darn thing and is still incredibly thin (too thin for me actually). From looking at iFixit videos, the battery itself seems to be about 4MM thick. Increase that that 15% and it would be 4.6MM thick. Apple could then add the additional 0.6MM to the iPhone 7 Plus. 0.6MM out of 7.1MM is 8% thicker overall iPhone. And if the battery is actually 5MM thick than a 15% thicker battery would be 5.75MM or an additional 0.75MM needed. 0.6MM vs 0.75MM basically is what the additional, overall thickness of the iPhone.

The iPhone 4S (which I still have and love) is 9.3MM and the iPhone 5 is 7.6MM. Apple made that huge thinness jump going from the 4S to the 5. My proposed 15% thicker battery would still yield an iPhone 7 that is just a teensy bit larger than the 5.

 

[bluecoast]

Apple/Samsung : use your billions to found a company to outfit major chains like Starbucks with wireless charging mats built into coffee table s

And keep on making more phones like the XR.

And if we all got slightly less addicted to our phones and use them at 2012-2013 levels that’ll help too.
[doublepost=1541185544][/doublepost]

That's the other piece I forgot to mention in my post a few hours ago...Apple (and others) have just been slashing the thickness of phones for the past 7 generations. Apple could simply make a 15% thicker battery (oh the humanity!) and likely that would give a significant improvement on improved usage time.

The iPhone 7 Plus is 7.1MM thick...that's the whole darn thing and is still incredibly thin (too thin for me actually). From looking at iFixit videos, the battery itself seems to be about 4MM thick. Increase that that 15% and it would be 4.6MM thick. Apple could then add the additional 0.6MM to the iPhone 7 Plus. 0.6MM out of 7.1MM is 8% thicker overall iPhone. And if the battery is actually 5MM thick than a 15% thicker battery would be 5.75MM or an additional 0.75MM needed. 0.6MM vs 0.75MM basically is what the additional, overall thickness of the iPhone.

The iPhone 4S (which I still have and love) is 9.3MM and the iPhone 5 is 7.6MM. Apple made that huge thinness jump going from the 4S to the 5. My proposed 15% thicker battery would still yield an iPhone 7 that is just a teensy bit larger than the 5.

Since I bought my 7 in 2016 it’s barely been off low power mode & often I turn off 4g and WiFi when I’m not using it.

There’s no way it would last me to the end of the day, otherwise.
[doublepost=1541185697][/doublepost]

This depends on the phone’s overall size, as iPhone SE, for example, still offers a very good battery life and is not heavy to hold.

..So obviously Apple had to kill it.

Fingers crossed for a SE/8 ‘XRE’ ie a smaller XR.

 

[syclone]

Apple went from 9.3 mm (iPhone 4) to 7.7 mm (iPhone Xs). That's a lot of anode and cathode layers that could be used for battery capacity.

The XR gained some of that back at 8.3 mm. It's noticeably thicker than a 7.3 mm thick 8 at work and my 7.5 mm thick 8+ that its replacing. Some of it is surely for the LCD, but they filled it with battery too. I got mine last Friday and the thickness did take a little getting used to, but I'm happy with the trade for the battery life. The lowest it's been at the end of the day so far is 60%. This thing is going to do much better with long air travel days and still fits in my pocket just fine.

 

[one more]

So obviously Apple had to kill it [iPhone SE].

Fingers crossed for a SE/8 ‘XRE’ ie a smaller XR.

They had a few reasons to drop SE: too inexpensive, so cannibalising other sales, and quite difficult to assemble compared to the latest iPhones. I use 7 now and having tried XR in an Apple Store I also hope at some point they can make a smaller than X(S) iPhone.

 

[UK-MacAddict]

Keyboards use a tiny tiny fraction of the power that a phone uses. You can hardly compare the two. An indoor solar panel would generate almost nothing, just as it does for a keyboard. Again, practically useless.

Solar cells react to sunlight and light from a light bulb in a similar way.

You could have lots of solar panels indoors in a really brightly lit room and generate a similar amount of energy to leaving them in direct sunlight. The only issue is that running the lights in that room would cost money whereas sunlight is free.

Although a solar cell on a phone would be so small it probably wouldn’t collect enough energy to meaningfully charge the phone in a reasonable amount of time.

My original point was that solar cells don’t need to be in direct sunlight to charge. I wasn’t saying a solar cell in an iPhone would keep it fully charged all day.

 

[B4U]

This is not true. Apple was the one of the only smart phone manufacturers offering a 4 inch smart phone for almost three years with the SE, when all other smart phone manufactures were offering 6 inch devices and above. The fact that Apple even offered an SE in the first place said milestones that they were listening to the consumer, especially if you watch the 2016 Keynote, Greg Joswiak stated that one of the reasons they brought SE form factor back was because it was requested from the consumer.

I Think it’s more reasonable to be thankful that they even offered the SE when they did from the time it was here. It’s not to say that Apple won’t bring back a smaller iPhone again in the future either.

Sony on the other hand still offer their flagship model in a smaller package...
Meanwhile, iPhone SE soldiers on some (not all of) 6S's hardware...
[doublepost=1541208429][/doublepost]

I’m going to counter with : They’d have to keep raising the battery size every year if they want to add more tech and eventually you’d have doubled the thickness and made the thing at least 50% heavier.

Eventually, you either have to have a less powerful computer in your pocket or less battery life.

Not quite true. In fact, if we look at the iPhone from the past few years, we can see that they maintained similar battery life with faster and more powerful hardware. If they would slightly increase the battery size, the life would also extend.

 

[SactoGuy18]

Let's face it. Until dry-electrode lithium-ion batteries start mass production (probably by 2020), we're right now pushing at the very limits of usage time per charge on a cellphone. It'll be interesting to see who will be first with a phone using this new technology.

 

[PickUrPoison]

I heard through the grapevine that thinner-is-better strategy might have something to do with it. I don't know if it's true, but that's just what I've heard.

Seriously, if you keep making crap thinner, what a heck do you expect? Form over function at its best these days.

iPhones have gotten thicker every year since iPhone 6. Function over form. Your meme is played out.