1. Enhancement in Smartphone Performance Exposes Lithium-Ion Battery Shortcomings
During the era of feature phones, it was common to have standby times of over ten days, allowing users to go a week without charging. Today, while the lithium-ion battery capacity of most smartphones is several times that of feature phones, users often need to charge their phones once or even twice a day.
This is because smartphones are continually evolving with more features, increased performance, and larger screens, significantly boosting energy consumption.
This highlights that insufficient battery life in smartphones has become one of the biggest drawbacks affecting user experience.
2. Slow Development of Lithium-Ion Battery Technology
The reason why there has been no qualitative leap in smartphone battery life is that it relies solely on the development of lithium-ion batteries, whose rate of improvement lags far behind the increasing demands placed by smartphones.
Even Elon Musk and Tesla, known for breakthrough innovations, have made strides in lithium-ion battery management but have not significantly advanced the battery materials and technology, continuing to use traditional Panasonic lithium-ion batteries.
In the realm of smartphones, the situation is more complex. The current trend favors thin and light designs, which conflict with increasing battery capacities.
Currently, the weight-to-capacity ratio of lithium-ion battery materials is about 150mAh/g. Without exceptional industrial design, simply increasing capacity would lead to bulkier phone designs.
Therefore, many smartphone manufacturers opt to forego larger lithium-ion batteries to meet aesthetic requirements.
3. Solutions to High Lithium-Ion Battery Consumption
Presently, the most common solution is carrying a portable power bank. While smartphones may not have extended standby times, a 10,000mAh power bank can generally meet charging needs during travel.
The second approach involves manufacturers innovating in charging methods, such as wireless charging technology and Wi-Fi signal charging technology, which reduces the need for users to carry multiple cables.
The third method relies on efforts by smartphone manufacturers and chipset manufacturers like Qualcomm to minimize power consumption from core components such as processors and screens. Simultaneously, continual optimization of system and interface settings extends smartphone battery life.
To fundamentally address the issue of inadequate smartphone battery life and achieve thinner, lighter phones with small yet high-capacity lithium-ion batteries, breakthroughs in battery materials are essential.
However, new types of batteries like fuel cells and nuclear energy batteries are costly, coupled with immature technology and safety concerns, necessitating time for true commercialization.