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[BLagiver]

my N900 and Galaxy S2 need to be recharged every day. it sucks. and thts with moderate uses. i remember the ericson T28 needed to be a once per week charge kinda phone.

i guess the technology these things are running are pretty hardcore but batteries really havent made that huge leap forward...

well people keep wanting the dang phones to get thinner and smaller. Some of these phones don't have to be so gosh dang thin and small. As long as it can fit in my pocket with minimal bulge then the size is fine and girls carry their purse everywhere so they shouldn't be complaining about any size. Why again do people want their phone to be so skinny that you can fold it like paper.

Phone makers use that extra space you free up for a bigger battery.

 

[codhand]

Longer battery life = larger Lithium Ion battery = more cells = bigger devices = ppl hate anything thicker than an iPhone

 

[Rollo Lawson]

i wonder whats the issue with taking cues from solar powered calculators...

im sure its at least been researched

 

[commish]

Most handheld gaming is done at home anyways, so no biggie.

 

[Tim-E]

I never have the chance to play my 3DS outside of my house, so the 3 hour charge limit has never really affected me. *shrug*

 

[forrest]

These smaller times from full charge to dead wouldn't be so bad if they could make the recharge time take a couple minutes.

 

[Naked Snake]

When you think about it, it's actually pretty stunning our modern high-tech devices can be powered by a tiny battery at all. What we have today is the stuff of science fiction just a few years ago.

This is my feeling too. I jumped into the smartphone/tablet bandwagon late, and I still feel a jolt when I read a phone's specs in gigahertz and gigabytes... I'm like "Wait, what?" my mind is still associating these numbers with big, power-hungry desktop computers.

 

[beelzebozo]

These smaller times from full charge to dead wouldn't be so bad if they could make the recharge time take a couple minutes.

OR

 

[Shai-Tan]

I never have the chance to play my 3DS outside of my house, so the 3 hour charge limit has never really affected me. *shrug*

I've been playing Wagic on psp and I had to bring the charger down because I've been playing too much. Luckily my backyard was designed with sockets where seats are otherwise I'd be out there with an extension cord

When I'm not addicted to a game though theres no way I run out of battery. I wouldn't play many hours outside of the house, only on the train which is 1 hour each way.

 

[walking fiend]

1. Companies wasted a lot of R&D budget and resource on fuel cells.
2. The portable battery market wasn't that big to support heavy investment

why it will advance faster from now on:
1. Fuel Cell is dead outside very few companies and no more resource will be wasted on it
2. Electric vehicles, smartphone boom, and wind/solar power boom, has increased interest in better storage considerably
3. Other recent advancements, such as in nanotechnology, are very relevant in making better batteries.

 

[NeoandGeo]

Having a nuclear reactor in your hand would be nice, and provide days of gaming goodness. But it would probably be too dangerous.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Battery life doesn't "keep up" with other fields simply because other fields use battery performance as a design parameter.

Trying to put 7 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag is business as usual.

 

[Momo]

Having a nuclear reactor in your hand would be nice, and provide days of gaming goodness. But it would probably be too dangerous.

Having radiation poisoning would stimulate our evolution anyway

 

[Kazerei]

Yeah, Sony has fuel cells that would fit in the Vita and probably last for 12 hours, at least. There's problems though. The fuel cells can only put out so much power (3 watts, iirc), and they run off of methanol making refueling a bit of an issue.

Sounds about right. The article I read was about laptops actually. I can't recall the details, but I think it suggested having replaceable and disposable fuel cartridges.

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

People wear shirts...solar panel shirts. get people outside and active while charging their vitas.

 

[walking fiend]

fuel cell as conventional portable battery for any near future is wet dreams.

 

[Krauser Kat]

Where the fuck is our tony stark, chilling in a cave making infinite power replusor generators.

 

[lowrider007]

"Why isn't current technology made to be more power efficient to match current battery tech?"

 

[Shai-Tan]

theres new tech that would supposedly increase lithium ion more than 50% and other completely new cells but neither are proven for mass manufacturing i.e. easily repeatable without any major issues in the process or costs

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Physics, mostly.

yeah this,

batteries haven't had a leap forward in technology since forever. what is it, 25 years now we've had the current battery tech? I vaguely remember the older rechargeables that had the horrible 'memory' effect. NiCads or something?

 

[Septimius]

THE OIL INDUSTRY IS HAMPERING BATTERY INDUSTRY BECAUSE IT DOESN'T WANT ELECTRIC CARS

 

[Smash88]

Plutonium Batteries™

 

[SneakyStephan]

My 4yo clamshell (back then high end) sammy phone still stays charged for an entire week with light use, 3-4 days if I use it a lot.
But it is thicker so has room for a bigger battery, and it doesn't suck nearly as much power.

All in all as a PHONE it is way better suited than any smartphone (despite being able to do most of the same things like record video, send email and even stream video and use 3g).
If I drop it it doesn't break or get damaged, battery life is good, it fits in my pocket way better because it has a much smaller frame.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

Because processor power growth far outweighs any gains made in battery technology the last few years.

 

[Evlar]

I don't know why people expect these things... Integrated circuits and batteries are very different techs. There's no fundamental physical reason advances in one should induce advances in the other.

 

[nubbe]

Repost, but funny so totally worth it:

Kaz Hirai comments on vita battery life:

http://twitter.com/#!/KazHiraiSCE/status/114138555810459648

Is that really his twitter?
it is pretty funny

 

[Majine]

Is that really his twitter?
it is pretty funny

Ofcourse not, even says Parody in the description.

Tho it is really funny.

 

[protonion]

I read somewhere a while ago about a new battery technology with nanotubes or something. It is supposed to hold 100 times the charge of current batteries.

And yes handheld battery life is joke especially now that the games are getting "bigger".
4 hours for iphone is ok when you play in so short sessions. But how am I gonna organise my playtime for FFX Vita? I will be stressed just thinking I'll have to play in a place with a plug nearby.

 

[Emily Chu]

can't believe no smart phone or handhelds use motion or solar to charge up batteries

heres hoping iPhone 5 will pioneer this

 

[Hari Seldon]

I think it is because silicon valley and all of our smart people are too busy doing stupid get-rich-quick social network games and other stupid bullshit rather than doing actual fucking science like they used to. Now it is just universities doing all of the research rather than the epic private labs of yore.

 

[Barrett2]

idea:

"cloud battery." you play the game, but it draws on energy from a giant battery that is sitting in a warehouse somewhere. the battery, to maintain the integrity of its hull, is constantly cleared of corrosion by an elderly man with a hard-bristled toothbrush.

iBattery - Just one of the countless new innovations in the iPhone 9. If you don't have an iBattery.... well, you don't have an iBattery.

 

[Easy_D]

can't believe no smart phone or handhelds use motion or solar to charge up batteries

heres hoping iPhone 5 will pioneer this

I can see everyone recharge their phones like Travis Touchdown recharges his beam katana looking rather funky

 

[beelzebozo]

iBattery - Just one of the countless new innovations in the iPhone 9. If you don't have an iBattery.... well, you don't have an iBattery.

the scary thing is that you don't even own the battery. that old man just keeps scrubbing it, and at any point he can load it into his van and drive it away.

 

[Datschge]

Battery tech was never keeping up with bleeding edge. The difference now is that companies put in powerful tech regardless while earlier this was a sure fire way to fail (think GameGear).

 

[scorpscarx]

I love the crank idea, it's so awesome on my little radio and led flashlight, they actually really should implement a really high quality crank system to charge these devices.

Ie crank like hell for a minute, for like 1 hour of gameplay, that wouldn't bother me I'd love it.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Ie crank like hell for a minute, for like 1 hour of gameplay, that wouldn't bother me I'd love it.

It would probably be closer to the other way round...actually, now I'm interested in working out the maths behind it to answer the ultimate question "should Nintendo release a wind-up 3DS to go with the Circle Stick?"

 

[Datschge]

Ie crank like hell for a minute, for like 1 hour of gameplay, that wouldn't bother me I'd love it.

It would probably be more like the reverse though, crank for an hour for 1 minute of playing. =P
Edit. beaten =(

 

[The Technomancer]

Battery Technology is one of the most highly researched areas. If we can solve massive storage in much smaller places, things such as Wind Energy/Solar and other renewable energy sources become much more usable. It's not keeping up because scientists haven't been able to figure out new storage solutions that are orders of magnitude better than current.

Compounding this lack of more efficient storage is the issue that current technology (smaller transistors) leak more energy than other transistors. The faster we go and the smaller transistors we use, the more energy is required.

Its not just that. Better battery technology is going to be huge for future mechatronics and robotics applications. One of the biggest things holding us back from practical robots is that you need to strap a car battery to their back to get two hours of power.

Thats a huge area where its hard to improve the technology to do more with less. You're never going to get a servo with an efficiency greater then .99

 

[scorpscarx]

It would probably be more like the reverse though, crank for an hour for 1 minute of playing. =P
Edit. beaten =(

Yea, but if only there was a way to make the process very efficient.... Like lots of gears, lol. Cranking things is fun, it does get old, but if it was efficient I would be all over it.

 

[The Technomancer]

It would probably be closer to the other way round...actually, now I'm interested in working out the maths behind it to answer the ultimate question "should Nintendo release a wind-up 3DS to go with the Circle Stick?"

It should be a straightforward conversion if we can figure out the current draw and voltage needed by something like a 3DS.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

Where the fuck is our tony stark, chilling in a cave making infinite power replusor generators.

I'd rather just jump to the Vibranium arc reactor instead.

 

[Powdered Toastman]

We need some sort of device that could generate energy from our own body; i.e. burn your own fatreserves in exchanges for wattage. Loose weight while you game! Just buy an extra burger at MacDonalds when it signals you're running low

 

[milanbaros]

can't believe no smart phone or handhelds use motion or solar to charge up batteries

heres hoping iPhone 5 will pioneer this

I don't think lithium batteries can be tricle charged, could be wrong though.


Does anybody have a comparison of the power density of batteries today compared to 5, 10 years ago? Would be interesting to see how much progress has been made.

 

[Datschge]

We need some sort of device that could generate energy from our own body; i.e. burn your own fatreserves in exchanges for wattage. Loose weight while you game! Just buy an extra burger at MacDonalds when it signals you're running low

Body heat might become it. The next big energy source will be converting heat to energy through magnetism, look up Ni45Co5Mn40Sn10.

 

[Kadey]

Why make them better when you can charge customers for extras?

 

[The Technomancer]

Why make them better when you can charge customers for extras?

Am I delusional to think that there was at least one period in history where businesses followed the "win customers by producing long lasting quality products" model and not the "find every way to scrape extra money out of them" model?

 

[mclem]

Having radiation poisoning would stimulate our evolution anyway

Into SUPERHEROES!

 

[mclem]

It would probably be closer to the other way round...actually, now I'm interested in working out the maths behind it to answer the ultimate question "should Nintendo release a wind-up 3DS to go with the Circle Stick?"

Bonus points if they spruce it up with ports of Mario Party 1 minigames.

"Cycle fast to stop Boo catching up with you! If you win, you get a full charge."

 

[CamHostage]

There are a lot of new improved battery technologies out there. The problem is price and availability. Maybe in 5 years from now we have new batteries that are a lot better.

Right, you see some new polymer on Engadget every day, but it's always in testing phases.

It's a little hard to see where the money is going to come though in stirring inventions, except over OEM marketshare. If batteries are no longer disposable and there's no drive for consumers to upgrade (PSV and Nintendo handhelds and iPhones, you can't upgrade anyway because the battery is locked in,) the old way for battery producers is comfortable and profitable. Sure, some upstart with great juice will eventually revolutionize that market, but that'll take years of testing and safety approvals even if it's provable now. Meanwhile, these companies can stay doing what they've been doing for decades, they have already seen the threat of rechargeables fizzle and the demand for smaller/longer-lasting in cellphones is not yet creating a premium dollar demand yet, so they'll just safely stick with the old ways until they're forced to change.

The processors, however, have gotten PHENOMENALLY efficient and powerful for each clock cycle, that's where the savings has come in; screens have gotten much better too. The same basic 2200mAh battery is in Vita as was in PSP and it gets the same running time, that kind of horsepower and screen size would have cooked and drank years ago. Even though 3DS came in at a significantly lowered battery life, I think we were all surprised by the Vita news despite its horsepower; both machines are bucking the battery life trend that laptops are setting. (Cellphone drain isn't comparable yet because there's a huge difference between just being a phone and being an always-connected social network/HD multimedia device, we can't compare to Blackberries and we'll need another generation to see how we're doing.) I don't see future devices going down in battery life; I just don't know when we'll see life start to upswing against power demands.