Compared to most tech batteries have long lagged behind, but that could soon change as Nokia Bell Labs and AMBER (Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research) have created battery technology that offers 2.5 times the life of current batteries, in the same volume and weight.
This could benefit any number of devices and industries but might be especially beneficial for the sorts of use cases 5G will enable.
For one thing, downloading or streaming 4K and 8K videos, streaming console-quality games, and all the other good things promised for 5G phones in the near future could be a massive battery drain, so units that last more than twice as long as what we have now will make these applications much more viable.
A whole world of batteries
But it’s not just 5G phones that could benefit from these batteries. With the Internet of Things also likely to take off in a big way once it has 5G networks to back it up, we’re going to be seeing batteries in more and more devices, many of which will need to last a long time without falling back on wired power.
5G-powered drones, robots and self-driving cars could start being seen more often too, with large power requirements of their own, so this will also help with those.
Paul King, one of the lead investigators on the project and a member of the Technical Staff at Nokia Bell Labs, said: "by packing more energy into a smaller space, this new battery technology will have a profound impact on 5G and the entire networked world."
Some of these applications and devices won’t just need long-lasting batteries but also compact, lightweight ones, so the size and weight achieved here is important too.
What’s not clear is if or when this battery technology will actually be made available – this isn’t the first time impressive battery breakthroughs have been made, with many seemingly disappearing shortly after announcement.
But Nokia Bell Labs claims a patent has been filed to protect the technology design and help bring it to the marketplace, which sounds promising. We’ll update you if we learn more.
