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At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, smartphone manufacturers showcased advancements in battery technology to address consumer demands for faster charging and longer battery life.

Barcelona – A smartphone that can charge in less than 40 minutes. Even better: a small nuclear battery that can power it for 50 years.

Faced with consumers who are tired of having to plug in their phones all the time, device manufacturers are racing to produce more powerful batteries that can charge faster and last longer.

Telecom companies highlighted some of their achievements at the industry’s largest annual exhibition, the four-day Mobile World Congress (MWC), which began on Monday in Barcelona.

“All manufacturers are striving to provide better functioning batteries. There is a sense that it is an area that is falling behind, and that we must go forward,” Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson told AFP.

As smartphone models become more identical, having a stronger battery allows you to “stand out from the crowd,” he said.

Since the first smartphones reached the market in the 2000s, there have been significant breakthroughs in battery technology, such as wireless charging, but there is still considerable opportunity for development.

According to Allied Market Research, the increasing popularity of power-hungry applications such as gaming and social media is driving demand for “mobile batteries with high battery capacity” and prompting manufacturers to innovate.

The bulk of smartphones today run on lithium-ion batteries, which are built of scarce elements like lithium, cobalt, and manganese, whose costs have skyrocketed and degrade over time.

To address this issue, producers are looking at alternatives like lithium sulphur or graphene, which may last longer and rely on less rare elements.

AI requires

Honor, a Chinese handset company, has invented a new higher capacity battery technology that employs silicon-carbon for its new AI-infused flagship Magic 6 smartphone, which it claims will fully charge in less than 40 minutes and last longer than its primary competitors.

It is the best smartphone battery, according to a ranking compiled by DXOMARK, a commercial website that rigorously evaluates cellphones.

As AI technologies consume more energy, “of course we need a powerful battery life,” Honor CEO George Zhao said during the phone’s global launch in Barcelona on Sunday.

Samsung, the South Korean electronics giant, is apparently creating a solid-state battery that can hold more energy, charge faster, and provide greater safety. It intends to launch it in 2027.

According to South Korean tabloid ET News, its primary rival Apple, which surpassed Samsung as the world’s top smartphone vendor last year, is developing its own battery technology with the goal of incorporating its designs into mobile devices as early as 2025.

Battery manufacturing has traditionally been outsourced, but device makers are increasingly aiming to “reduce their dependency on certain suppliers,” as they are already doing with chips, according to Husson.

Nuclear charge.

Betavolt Technology, a Chinese business, announced a novel nuclear battery in January, claiming it can power a smartphone for 50 years without needing to recharge.

The Beijing-based startup claims that its next-generation battery is the world’s first to miniaturize atomic energy by incorporating nickel-63 isotopes into a module smaller than a cent.

The business, which is not attending the Barcelona exhibition, did not specify when the battery will be mass produced for commercial applications, just stating that it was in the pilot testing phase.

Legislators can occasionally require adjustments.

In June, the European Union parliament approved new rules to make batteries more sustainable by requiring them to contain a minimum amount of recycled content and be more durable.

“The development of electric vehicles has resulted in more money being spent on battery technology than ever before. Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, told AFP that it is an exciting time for batteries.

“If someone could solve the battery issue, that would be a game changer. Imagine having a mobile phone that lasts two weeks; that would be incredible. But we are many years away from it happening.”