The downside about phones getting thinner and lighter is that batteries inevitably get smaller and smaller, too. The end result of this air-thin design is a really, really bad battery life.
In fact, most people nowadays actually wouldn't mind a slightly bulkier phone if it meant all-day power for their smartphones. Unless, of course, it's a Huawei.
At the Battery Symposium in Japan, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer revealed its latest battery tech. Developed at Huawei's Central Research Institute in a division they call "Watt Lab," the company has created the fastest quick charging battery in the industry today.
Huawei's impressive battery innovation charges up to ten times faster than traditional batteries. For example, the company says a 3,000mAh battery can juice up almost halfway through in just five minutes. That's about the size of a tablet or a phablet. For regular-sized smartphones with a little more than half that battery capacity, users may be able to get through the rest of the day off just a two-minute charge.
This is much, much faster than current quick charge technologies like Qualcomm's Quick Charge and Samsung's Adaptive Fast Charging. To make their batteries charge so quickly, Huawei "bonded heteroatoms to the molecule of graphite in anode, which could be a catalyst for the capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds. Huawei stated that the heteroatoms increase the charging speed of batteries without decreasing energy density or battery life," the company explains in a press release.
To make the science more consumable to everyday customers, Huawei says their new battery technology in Huawei's future devices would allow us to charge Huawei phones in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Naturally, it would make sense for Huawei to license their technology to other companies for use in other devices like electric vehicles, wearable devices, mobile powerbanks and even in iPhones.
Yes, in iPhones. Why not? iPhones are already equipped with sensors from Sony, along with many other parts from other "competitors." The iPhone 7 (or most probably the iPhone 8) could have batteries made by Huawei too, and the iPhone's usual 1,715mAh battery could theoretically be fully charged in under seven minutes. Sipping on that venti Americano from Starbucks should allow for enough time for our smartphones to sip enough juice to last the rest of the day thanks to Huawei.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
