Phone Batteries Are Getting More Compact, but the Us Is Missing Out

It feels like the new ultra-thin phones from Samsung and Apple were probably designed with this technology in mind, but for whatever reason it just didn't make the cut for their first generations. Instead they ended up having to ship premium devices which awkwardly have worse battery life than their cheaper counterparts.

Very odd title. Apple samsung and google also sell phones outside the us and the chinese manufacturers mentioned probably sell quite a lot of phones in the us.

The article begins by implying tech companies want thin phones. Which while not false is not entirely true either.

Tldr the cheaper chinese companies have been replacing graphite with silicon in the batteries to improve capacity at the expense of longevity. It's a new technology and it's obvious why the large companies would avoid it for now.

One interesting fact is that one practical limit for battery capacity is... Regulations! Any battery over ~ 5,400mAh would be classified as hazardous and cost more to ship, at least to eu.

> That might be one reason why we haven’t seen Apple, Samsung, and Google jump on board. All three make long-term product support one of their selling points, so switching to batteries that might die off early wouldn’t be a great look. Then there are EU regulations, which now require smartphone batteries to retain 80 percent of their capacity after 800 charging cycles. Silicon battery manufacturer Group14 says its batteries meet that threshold, but it’s still an area where tech giants are likely to be cautious.

So according to the article they’re not being used because they don’t last.

We are missing out on batteries that aren’t good enough yet.

Nice headline Verge.