Mobile battery life is one of the things that Smart phones and modern mobile technology is having a problem with improving. This affects the mobile culture because people need to constantly be charging their phone, and thus are not as mobile as in the days when cell phones had so few functions that they could last a week without a recharge. People need to constantly be looking for an outlet if their phone is running low on juice, and the fact that they can run out so quickly makes people more reluctant to travel long distances without an insured power source to charge their phone on. Battery life is one of the only complaints that people have about the mobile phones of today, but since people love all the features they have access to, this creates a paradox. People like being able to connect to wifi, 3g networks, and all sorts of other things that suck up battery life, but they don’t like the fact that these things decrease their mobile device’s longevity. Mobile companies are trying more and more these days to find out how to prevent this decreased battery life. An end to this problem may be in sight however.
Engineers at Northwestern University have developed a new battery that can make mobile phones battery life last longer than they have before. With all of the smart phones that are constantly using energy to stay connected to networks, battery life is getting more and more limited. The power consumption issue that plagues smart phones these days is a main issue that users of new mobile technology complain about, so this new battery could completely change the way people think of smart phone battery. The process of creating the battery involves poking millions of miniscule holes in the graphene sheets so that the lithium clusters replace the silicon sheets that have been used in batteries so far. It increases the amount of lithium ions the battery can hold which increases battery life, and allows for a faster oxidation process so they charge faster. An article published by BBC claims that “a mobile phone battery built using the Northwestern techniques would charge from flat in 15 minutes and last a week before needing a recharge.” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15735478)
While this new technology would certainly benefit people since they would be able to stay mobile and do whatever they please for an entire week without having to worry about charging their mobiles, it could also lead to problems. First of all the makers of this technology said that “the downside is that the recharging and power gains fall off sharply after a battery has been charged about 150 times.” (see link above)This means that people would have to buy a new battery after charging their phone 150 times. While the new battery is certainly more efficient the batteries we use today, they are undoubtedly more expensive. Right now, something that separates people is how many are able to afford nice smart phones, and how many must stick to more basic models. With this expensive new battery factored into that, this margin would increase even more. So after increasing battery life, I think that the next important step is figuring out how to make these helpful new technologies available to the masses who may not be able to afford them.
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