When buying a phone, we look at many different features according to our usage habits. While the camera performance is important for some of us, others take a look at the processor of the phone and are interested in how powerful it is.
The common question for everyone is ‘how long does the battery last?’ It is possible. After all, it is important to know how long a device that we have around the clock will last… But there is a problem with this; phone charges that used to go for days now last for two days, even if the stone cracks. This is a realistic time if the usage rate is low. Well, why can’t the technology giants, which spend money and develop phones, develop and produce batteries that will last for days?
First of all, let’s look at the issue of ‘the charge used to last for days’;
In fact, the answer to this question is not difficult to guess, you may already know. But let’s go over it anyway.
In the past, although phones had much ‘smaller’ batteries, we did not need to charge them for days. This inevitably brings this question to mind when we think of the phones that we sometimes charge twice a day today.
But in the past, phones were just ‘phones’. He wasn’t smart…
In the past, we only used phones to say ‘hello’ or to send sms. Come on, you didn’t know how to play snake… Now, we do everything you can think of with our phones, which means that much more powerful processors and screens are needed. As a result, the energy used by the phone also increases. So this is actually the simplest answer to this simple first question.
Phone batteries are actually improving. However, many other hardware features of phones are developing faster… More power consumption, ever-increasing screen time and our phone usage patterns… Each of these causes it to not last very long, no matter how advanced the batteries are.
‘Well then, let’s make batteries strong enough to last for days’
This is the second question that will rightfully come to your mind. In fact, when you see the news that ‘a brand new and more powerful battery technology has been developed’, people involuntarily think ‘why can’t we see those powerful batteries’. But there are many logical answers to this question. Let’s take a look at all of them one by one.
First of all, more powerful battery means ‘bigger battery’
This is our first reason. The size of smartphones has grown to some extent, but there is a limit for these phones to remain as ‘mobile phones’, after all. This, of course, creates a size limit for the batteries that can be put into phones.
Likewise, thinner and lighter phones are also a criterion that many of us look at due to their changing aesthetic perception and ease of use over the years. This is another obstacle for a more powerful battery.
We have largely reached the maximum capacity limit for phones on lithium-ion batteries
Lithium-ion batteries have been used in phone batteries for many years. Today, especially in flagships, very powerful batteries of 5000-6000mAh are used. It is said that the point reached is at the peak of the maximum efficiency point that can be obtained from lithium-ion batteries.
In lithium-ion batteries, there is a limit to the ‘power that can be compressed’ due to the nature of the battery. Since more power cannot be compressed, it is actually quite normal for the batteries to stay at a certain limit…
Isn’t there another battery technology, let them do it then…
Of course, a lot of work is being done for more powerful, smaller and longer-lasting batteries. Developments are being made with different materials for solid-state batteries that will replace standard lithium-ion batteries. There are also some batteries that work well in the laboratory environment.
However, many different titles need to be evaluated for batteries. The fact that a new battery can be used for many more days without recharging with today’s average usage time is not the only criterion. In addition, numerous factors are evaluated, such as how it affects performance, how long it can work in a healthy way after being charged.
In addition, producing a new battery with a new raw material will be a process that needs to be prepared for manufacturers, studies will need to be done for compatibility with phones where a lot of hardware works together, and numerous steps should not be skipped.
Of course, there is also the issue of cost. Keeping the prices of smartphones at a certain level is very important for the consumer.
Although this has become a laughing matter for us in our country, there is a psychological upper limit to the price of smartphones for consumers around the world, and manufacturers cannot afford to exceed it. I even remember that when the iPhone prices first saw $1000, it shocked and Apple received a lot of backlash in the USA…
Not very effective on charging behavior for the user
Obviously, another important reason is that phones that will be charged for days have not become a ‘need’ for the consumer and will not have a direct impact on purchasing behavior. Of course, if such a phone comes out, it will attract everyone’s attention, but for now, there is no such intense demand from consumers.
Considering the average usage time, a phone whose battery lasts for about a day and whose battery can work as efficiently as two years seems sufficient for everyone.
Charging technologies are developing instead of batteries
Although technology giants cannot increase the performance of batteries indefinitely, they are closing this gap with new charging technologies. Many new generation phones now charge in less than an hour. Thanks to technologies such as fast charging and contactless charging, it’s not that big of a problem to charge the phone once in a while. So, as we mentioned above, a more powerful battery is not a big need.
Perhaps if charging technologies hadn’t improved and a phone took hours to charge, then it would have been needed more, but it isn’t.
Long story short, with the ongoing R&D studies, of course, much stronger, much longer-lasting batteries will become the new industry normal in the coming period. However, the way we use phones will probably have changed with those batteries as well… We’ll wait and see what awaits us.
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