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Sony Creating Sulfur-Based Batteries With 40% More Capacity Than Li-Ion (hothardware.com)
MojoKid writes: Since the original iPhone was released in 2007, we have seen some incredible advances in smartphone processing power along with a wealth of feature improvements like faster Wi-Fi and cellular speeds and larger, higher resolution displays. However, battery technology, for the most part, hasn't kept up. There are a few major battery suppliers but Sony is currently an underdog, commanding just 8 percent of the market for compact lithium-ion batteries. Its three largest competitors — Samsung (SDI), Panasonic and LG Chem — each command around 20 percent of the market. In an effort to change that, Sony is developing a new type of battery chemistry that can boost runtimes by 40 percent compared to lithium-ion batteries of the same volume. Sony's batteries use a sulfur compound instead of lithium compounds for the positive electrodes, reportedly allowing for much great energy density. Sulfur batteries can also supposedly be made 30 percent smaller than traditional lithium-ion cells while maintaining the same run times. The company is now working to ensure that the new battery chemistry is safe enough for commercial use.
Let me know when there are factories building these batteries, until then, *yawn*
I think phones are small enough. How about we work on making them last at least 1 day on a full charge?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Energy density is not all that matters, and even energy density is *complicated.* One can have high energy density if one looks at maximum energy per mass, or per volume, and depending on the application and how different they are one or the other can matter, which is why tables generally include both https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density#Energy_densities_of_common_energy_storage_materials . But even aside from energy density one has other issues, like recharge time and lifespan. It doesn't matter if you can make a battery with very high energy density but with a very short lifespan. In general, I'm skeptical of claims of massive improvement in batteries. As with new solar systems, if every single in-lab claimed battery improvement all were genuine and implementable we'd have solves all the world's energy problems years ago.
Battery research is far more important than building smaller phones and tablets. Increased energy storage density has important implications for household and grid storage, and electric-powered transport.
The problem is that there have been at least a dozen or so stories about new battery tech in the past 12 months. Some of them remind you of the old joke about nuclear fusion; it's always 20 years away. Enough crying wolf; wake me when I can buy one.
Li-Ion batteries already go up in nice flames. Consider what you would get with 40% more energy and sulphur getting burned off into the air.
How about we work on making them last at least 1 day on a full charge?
I have a Galaxy 5. After a full day, it is typically still about 90% charged. I turn off Bluetooth and Wifi when I am not using them. I don't play games on my phone, and I don't use it to watch Youtube.
I predict, that most — if not all — of the added capacity will be eaten by new hardware and features, as happened with the rest of the computer-industry.
By Moore's law, today's computers ought to be over 256 more powerful, than in the previous millennium (16 years ago) — and the hardware is. But the operating systems and applications ate most of it. And not only because of the new features which the users want (as well as those we do not), but also because the programmers choose wasteful technologies like programming languages, that are more convenient for them, and otherwise sacrificing speed to software portability and maintainability.
It is quite common for people to complain, that their computer has "become slow" — they don't realize, that the machine is just as fast as when they bought it, but the software (including open-source) has become more demanding.
For similar reasons, the phones using these new batteries will not run for 40% longer...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
" it would be nice to have a phone about the size of an iPhone 4."
WTF, are you on crack or something?
An iPhone 4 is fucking TINY! Who in their right mind would want a miniature piddly wee phone like that after living with a lovely iPhone 6 Plus for a year?
Seriously dude, WTF!?!?!
People who doesn't need a large phone to compensate for their small penis?