On the brink of acceptable battery life in mobile

[Brink]

A perfect storm of hardware evolution and software improvement have mobile devices providing longer time away from an outlet than ever.

If you are like most folks, you remember how you had to structure your day around keeping your mobile gear running away from the power outlet.

Phones were likely to start running empty long before day's end. Laptops had to be topped off at an outlet at some point during the day to have any chance of lasting long enough. Even the newest member of the mobile family, the tablet, could start coughing before being put to bed.

That's all changing rapidly, and it won't be long until mobile device users will not even think about the time remaining on the battery.

We are on the brink of having acceptable battery life on almost all mobile devices, and we've gotten there in just the last couple of years. This improvement is the result of a number of advancements that work together to make gadgets run longer. While battery technology has improved incrementally over the years, it hasn't improved enough to deliver this advancement on its own.

Read more at: On the brink of acceptable battery life in mobile | ZDNet

 

[ThrashZone]

How is that Alien battery life Brink

 

[Brink]

Those cold fusion batteries last forever.

Just don't drop them though. :shock:

 

[Gornot]

If full 24h of battery life is what the industry is aiming at, we're looking at some sad, sad times.
I remember the time when I could charge my phone and not care about the battery for a week.

... I'm getting old xD

 

[marsmimar]

I've never been accused of being the sharpest tool in the shed. But people are asking their mobile devices to act like desktop computers. Then they add in a constant stream of music, videos, responses on social media sites, and an occasional phone call and expect the battery to give all day performance. I think it's going to take a radical change to hardware and software.

It wasn't too many years ago that people were saying things like , "I'll never need a hard drive that has gigabytes of storage." Or, "I'll never need more than 512MB of RAM." But as soon as they became widely available people needed even more. Same with mobile devices. As soon as manufacturers improve battery life, users find a way to greatly exceed that new technology with software and hardware that require even more power.

 

[Gornot]

Honestly, it's a cycle that has to stop.

 

[Iforgot]

I agree with this response to that blog.

"
So apparently it's a requirement to publish articles at ZD

Doesn't matter if there's anything to say or not - write an article anyway.

Doesn't matter if the little bit of anecdotal factoid you have has been written, published, and commented on ad nauseam already - publish anyway.

And as for the stream of "my old phone lasted for days / weeks" and "my new phone doesn't last at all" comments... again: doesn't matter if it's been discussed to death - comment anyway.

I came to this article thinking there would be something original, or at least noteworthy, to read here. I churned through the whole thing, hoping against hope that there might be some nugget of information, some gem of truth hiding somewhere... er, not so much. ZD is definitely competing with TechRepublic to become the "home of the content-free blog post".

I only posted this comment in retaliation. If someone can waste my time with a pointless post like this then I can at least try to return the favour.

chrisbedford
11 October, 2013 18:42 "

Battery technology needs to evolve too,,,
It hasn't in a long time.