Battery life is not a lot of an issue on telephones any longer, and most telephones I examined in 2024 — together with finances units — managed to simply final a day. Foldables normally lag behind sweet bar telephones, however even on units just like the Honor Magic V3, I managed to get a day’s value of use more often than not.
Hardwired
In Hardwired, AC Senior Editor Harish Jonnalagadda delves into all issues {hardware}, together with telephones, audio merchandise, storage servers, and routers.
There are thrilling modifications coming to Android units in 2025 that ought to ship noticeable positive factors in battery life. Most flagships I used this yr got here with 5500mAh batteries, and I managed to get a day and a half out of the likes of the OnePlus 12, Vivo X100 Professional, X100 Extremely, Discover X7 Extremely, and the Magic 6 Professional.
With 2025 flagships, manufacturers are growing battery sizes to go as much as 6000mAh. The OnePlus 13 and Vivo X200 Professional include 6000mAh batteries, with the Magic 7 Professional that includes a 5850mAh unit, the Xiaomi 15 Professional touting an enormous 6100mAh cell and the iQOO 13 going as much as 6150mAh.
What’s attention-grabbing about this shift is that even smaller units are getting in on the motion, with the Xiaomi 15 that includes a 5400mAh battery — up from 4610mAh on the Xiaomi 14 — the Discover X8 getting a 5610mAh unit and Vivo’s diminutive X200 Professional Mini choosing up a 5700mAh cell.
The rationale behind this improve? The change to silicon-carbon battery tech. At a high-level overview, the batteries on these units nonetheless have lithium-based cells, however they make the most of a silicon carbide anode.
Often, lithium-ion batteries have a lithium steel oxide that acts because the cathode, with graphite or one other by-product or carbon appearing because the anode. With silicon-carbon batteries, the cathode continues to be the identical, however the anode incorporates a combination of silicon and graphite, and this unlocks a bunch of advantages.
By including silicon to the combination, you get batteries with a lot larger density and better resilience in opposition to excessive climate. Honor showcased this to good impact on the Magic 6 Professional, with the gadget holding its cost even in -20 levels Celsius.
As silicon-based anodes have a lot better density, we get telephones with considerably larger batteries with none noticeable distinction in dimension or weight. The OnePlus 13 features a 6000mAh battery — 600mAh greater than the OnePlus 12 — however it’s thinner and 7g lighter. The identical is true of all 2025 flagships that use silicon-carbon battery tech.
Aside from the benefits round density and efficiency in inclement climate, silicon-carbon batteries ought to have higher sturdiness, so battery degradation will not be as noticeable even after prolonged use.
This change has additionally led to a change within the building of the battery itself; most telephones nowadays use a double-cell construction to maximise quick charging, however due to the elevated density, silicon-carbon batteries are made out a single cell, so they will not cost as quick.
The OnePlus 13 has a 36-minute quoted charging time to 100%, with the OnePlus 12 capable of do the identical in 26 minutes. Clearly, the OnePlus 13 has an even bigger battery, so it would take longer to cost, however it’s telling that it does not fairly hit the identical figures as final yr’s gadget. Having mentioned that, the minute distinction in charging occasions is well offset by all the opposite positive factors.
Whereas the tech is making its option to different producers now, Honor has been utilizing it to nice impact for 2 years, and the China-only Magic 5 Professional, Magic 6 Professional, Magic V2, and the latest Magic V3 all use a silicon-based anode to ship higher density and effectivity.
It is good to see different Chinese language producers combine the tech in their very own units, and it is going to be attention-grabbing to see if it trickles right down to mid-range units over the course of 2025. Mixed with the positive factors on provide with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek Dimensity 9400, 2025 could be a terrific yr for cellphone upgrades.
That mentioned, not all producers are getting in on the motion. Samsung is not probably to make use of the battery tech on the Galaxy S25 collection, and I do not see Apple or Google making the change both. These three manufacturers are on the backside finish of the dimensions with regards to battery innovation — whether or not it is densities or charging tech — so in case you’re seeking to improve to a cellphone that makes use of the newest battery tech, you may must go together with a Chinese language model.
