I’ve heard some depressing things as an entrepreneur in the mobile space.
The first is clearly ridiculous, yet came from an intelligent person.
Even then, it’s minimal.
The last complaint is such a sad thing for us in the industry to hear.
The fear of running out of battery wields such an extraordinary influence over how we use smartphones.
We benchmark every task according to how much battery it takes.
I have good news: we are on the verge of true all day battery life.
Many phonesclaimall day battery life but we all know that’s mostly bs.
Of course, there were always specialist phones like theDroid Maxxthat had true, all day battery life.
“True all day battery life” is a tricky phrase because usage is never the same.
you could always drain battery faster.
- and I’m not shy to use them.
I download lots of apps and average 6 hours of onscreen time a day.
With the iPhone 5S, I’d run out of battery by 7 pm.
With the OnePlus One, I’d have 10% left at 2 am.
There will be no power bank industry and no one will care whether batteries are removable.
While bigger displays require more power, they also tend to come with bigger batteries.
The increase in battery size has more than compensated the bigger power draw.
Better Hardware
Obviously, battery size isn’t the only driver of battery life.
Hardware matters, too.
TheSony Xperia Z2is a good example of how much of an impact better hardware can have on battery life.
The Z2 is similar to the Z1; both were released just six months apart.
To compensate, the Z2 has a 3200 mAh battery whereas the Z1 has 3000 mAh.
Yet, in TechSpot’sbattery life test, the Z2 scored 13 hours and 48 minutes.
Merely 8 hours and 29 minutes, a stunning 61% difference:
Two factors drive this enormous gap.
Second, the Z2 has a Snapdragon 801 chipset while the Z1 has the Snapdragon 800.
The 801 does some things more efficiently from a power perspective, like image and video processing.
Android L
Wait, what about iPhone?
Apple has always done a great job optimizing battery life.
They’ve consistently squeezed more with less.
We expect that to continue, but we also suspect most of the easy gains have been achieved.
There is more potential in Android.
That’s just amazing.
With bigger batteries, better hardware and software improvements, smartphones will soon feature true all day battery life.
In two years' time, all new phones will likely have true, all day battery life.
Sensors on, with any app that catches your fancy.
