How long will it take for new mobile phone battery technology? Maybe 10 years!

"The batteries of digital devices are too short-lived", this is almost everyone's worry. Powerful smartphones need to be charged every day, and tablets and laptops can only last for a dozen hours at most. If you also have an Apple Watch, sorry, you need to charge it every day. Obviously, the growth of battery technology is seriously inconsistent with the performance of equipment, and there are some unfortunate cases of battery explosions that often occur. So when can people use stable and long-lasting new batteries?

Current status: Improved battery technology is not yet widely available

Since various advanced battery technologies are still in the research and development stage, if we want to achieve commercialization in a short time, the most realistic approach is to improve the current lithium battery technology. For example, LG used a layered lithium-ion battery design on the G2 mobile phone, which increased the capacity by 16%; Qualcomm's fast charging technology changes the battery experience from another direction. Of course, these technologies have not fundamentally changed the defects of lithium batteries, such as instability and short life.

We have also seen some attempts in different directions, such as the Upp fuel cell mobile power supply currently launched in the European and American markets, which can convert hydrogen into electricity and has a very long battery life. The inconvenience is that you need to buy fuel boxes. In addition, there are also some mobile phones with integrated solar charging panels in markets such as Japan, which absorb light and convert it into electricity at any time, but the device itself still relies on lithium batteries.

New batteries are still a ways off

So, what about the battery technology of the future? Unfortunately, whether it is the lithium anode battery led by Stanford University, the silicon battery studied by the University of California, Riverside, the "battery tattoo" created by the University of California, San Diego (which can be charged by absorbing human sweat), or the "nanogenerator" (generated by absorbing environmental noise) jointly developed by Nokia and Queen Mary University of London, they all sound too fantastical. The biggest problem with them is that they can work, but only in extreme environments such as laboratories, and scientists have not yet found a commercial method. In addition, consumer giants such as Apple, Google, and Dyson are also actively cooperating with battery manufacturers in the hope of achieving breakthroughs, but it is difficult to make great progress in the short term.

It sounds a bit pessimistic, but it is true. As the most mature, low-cost and easy-to-produce battery technology, lithium batteries will not disappear soon; while new battery technologies will take a long time to solve various problems and achieve the basic conditions of high efficiency, stability and easy packaging and use before they have the potential for commercialization. It may take 5-10 years, or even longer.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.