While Apple is likely to expand many features in their range of iPhones next year, one likely area of improvement will be in the battery life of their devices. The most recent reports from insiders reveal that Apple is developing a new solution to replace its two-cell battery design with a more efficient, L-shaped single cell.
The news is sourced from a noted technology analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, an employee of KGI Securities. This report states that by refining the currently use two-cell battery structure into an L-shaped single cell Apple can save on internal volume and thus store more energy in their phones. This process would require Apple to master the tricky task of forcing a single cell battery into the required L-shape.
In the past Apple has used irregularly shaped batteries to help achieve the maximum battery life of their products. An example of this can be seen in the 2015 MacBook which had a stepped battery that provided more space to store power inside the laptop chassis.
The new L-shape for iPhone batteries looks likely to function in a similar way to the 2015 MacBook, increasing the internal volume for power by changing the shape and packing of the battery.
Mr Kuo’s reports shows that a new battery shape in the iPhone could offer an increase of 300 mAh in battery life, translating to roughly 10% more power capacity. As phone software becomes smarter in its power usage a combination with this new battery design could cause a significant boost in the battery life of future iPhones.
Despite the fact that bigger phones give more room for power storage, research shows that consumers generally prefer a thinner phone with less battery life than a brick that can last a long time. Therefore smartphone engineers have had to experiment with ways of maximising the small real-estate they have to work with alongside developing more power efficient software.
The battery life of devices is a strong point of competition between smartphone manufacturers. Apple is generally thought to have an advantage in this area as their integrated software can be better refined than that of Android phones, which vary greatly in their construction.
Lovers of the iPhone will welcome this change of battery design as it will allow them to get more usage out of their sleek and stylish devices. This development will likely put pressure on Android to optimise the battery performance of its own devices in order to stay competitive.