NEW SMARTPHONES PUSH THE BATTERY LIMITS
Late summer is the season of new smartphones. Apple, Google, Samsung, LG are only a few names that announce their best ever devices in September. By now, you have all heard of or seen the new iPhones including the iPhone X, the beautiful Galaxy Note 8, the highly acclaimed LG V30, and today, the new Google Pixel 2 family. The Internet abounds with device reviews so this post will stay focused on their batteries.
Let’s start by comparing the batteries from this year’s devices to their kins from last year. The capacity figures (the mAh) vary up or down a little. For example the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus lose a few mAh compared to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus but nothing significant. The Galaxy Note 8 sports a slightly smaller battery. LG adds a little extra capacity to the V30. By and large, it would be fair to say that battery capacities have not changed significantly from 2016 to 2017. Modest improvements in power consumption most likely contributed to maintain the status quo in battery capacity.
The other visible trend is that 6-in devices continue to use capacities in the range of 3,200 to 3,500 mAh, while their smaller 5-in brethren are using batteries with capacities near 2,700 mAh. It is not a surprise that the larger devices show a better battery life lasting one day or even longer. The iPhones 7 and 8 continue to lag with reviews complaining of less-than-standard battery life.
But not all is good news. The third trend is increasing pixel resolution and density. Full HD displays (1080 x 1920 pixels) are giving way to displays with much higher pixel count, pixel density and color experience. The Galaxy Note 8 exhibits the largest pixel count at 1440 x 2960 closely followed by the LG V30 and the Pixel 2XL which was manufactured by LG for Google. These larger and richer displays do consume more power and they will strain the battery’s capability to last all day. It is true that the new OLED displays are somewhat more efficient than LCDs but size and pixel count remain the dominant factors in the power equation. Expect that trend to continue well into 2018 causing the smartphone manufacturers to consider batteries with higher capacities while still maintaining slim designs.
The Galaxy Note 8, the LG V30 and the iPhone X gave us this summer a vignette of the future: Rich edge-to-edge displays with unmatched computational capabilities all embedded in very elegant and thin designs. That spells one thing: The battery challenge will not abate any time soon.