Can the battery on your smartphone last all day? If your answer is YES, then you belong to the group of rare lucky people. On average, the battery on a smartphone that you use normally (for calls, SMS, message applications, taking photos occasionally and you are connected to the Internet) barely lasts 12 hours. Given this fact, it can easily happen that you run out of phones at a time when you really need them.
You must be wondering why the situation is like this. Can’t phone manufacturers make an effort to make batteries that will be more durable? Why do the batteries seem to be getting worse and worse? And what factors affect the battery life of your phone? Since we all suffer the same torment, we decided to investigate all the reasons why the batteries on smartphones last for a short time and to find out if the problem is only in the phone manufacturers or there are other factors.
- Battery-making technology is not advancing fast enough. This is really one of the reasons for the short battery life of smartphones. While all other smartphone components are becoming more efficient, smaller, and faster, the battery industry seems to have reached a dead end. Every time a new top model from a large manufacturer appears on the market, we hear stories that it has a much better battery that lasts longer. However, it later turned out that this was not true.
Battery technology is advancing, but not as fast as we expect. Some of the innovations in this field that companies are testing and trying to commercialize are:
- constant improvements on lithium-ion batteries most commonly used in our smart devices,
- testing of micro batteries that are small and efficient enough, so that several pieces could serve an average phone quite nicely,
- a solar film that would fit under the screen and power the phone during the day,
- charging the phone without a cable, with wireless chargers.
The innovation we mentioned last is the most advanced and is expected to be available in some public places soon.
No, it’s not about libraries and galleries, but Starbucks and McDonald’s restaurants where you can use wireless devices to charge your phone.
As you can conclude, we are working on the development of batteries, but we must be patient. At the moment, it is much more important for the manufacturers that the phone is light, thin and looks good, so there is no sense in putting a thick battery in it, which might last a couple of days, but would completely disrupt the harmony in the design. After all, how else would you decide to buy a newer model next year if your old battery lasted indefinitely?
- Demanding hardware components shorten the battery life of your smartphone. Another reason why batteries on smartphones are not long-lasting is very powerful hardware components. You have probably noticed that certain parts of your phone are just as powerful as parts on the average home computer. The processors on mid-range phones have four cores each, and there is no need to talk about the top models and their eight-core processors. This type of machinery is very demanding and simply swallows battery power.
In addition to the processor, there is also a screen, which is getting bigger and bigger. Brightness and contrast on a surface of 4 to 6 inches diagonally are not small consumers, so a good part of the battery goes here as well. When you add a camera, memory, and sound, here’s a small laptop. Now imagine that your home computer is powered by such a small battery, so you will understand the state of energy consumption on the phone. When you look at things from this angle, you will also say that your battery lasts a long time due to the “force” it supplies.
- Apps, notifications, and syncs are battery-powered on your smartphone. Now add all the applications you use during the day to the machinery hidden under the case of your phone. It doesn’t have to be a large number, but there are some that are constantly active. For starters, there’s WiFi because you need internet, so SMS or some other IM service (Viber, Whatsapp, Hangout, Messenger, it doesn’t matter), Facebook is inevitable, and Twitter and Instagram often go with it in the package.
Although these applications are not activated, they are active. They collect background information, post notifications, sync with your current location, and do their job. They all devour the battery. You won’t believe it, but the Facebook app is one of the most destructive to your battery, and Instagram is no better either. So, if you want to be informed and in trend, don’t be too surprised that your battery lasts only one day.
- Games are the enemy of the No. 1 battery on a smartphone. Of course, another reason why our batteries leak in an hour is games. You’ve probably noticed that the green line of the battery turns red very quickly when you play. That shouldn’t surprise you, because games today are real graphic masterpieces. In addition, they require a lot of processing power to work flawlessly, so it is normal for the battery to suffer.
If the game you are playing is free, it will often happen that some ads and commercials pop up. This also drains your battery power (sometimes more than the game itself), so it should come as no surprise that your battery suddenly drains even when playing Sudoku or Puzzle, which are not graphically demanding.
In the end, when you think about it and look at the reasons we have given, you will realize that it is not surprising that the batteries on smartphones last so short. Today, phones are expected to be communicators, navigators, fully functional mini-computers, cameras, and HD cameras, video and music players, and mini-game consoles. It is a real miracle that their battery lasts for a whole day because it is not an easy task in front of them.
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