The pace of technological advancements in most smartphone components such as chipsets, displays, and cameras is rapid, yet battery capacity lags behind. However, Honor believes it has discovered a solution: the world’s first silicon-carbon battery.
This new technology offers a 12.8% increase in energy density compared to conventional lithium batteries that use graphite for their anode.
To illustrate this improvement, consider the Honor Magic 5 Pro, which currently features a 5,100 mAh battery. But it also has a silicon-carbon battery variant whose capacity is bumped up to 5,450 mAh while using the same space as the former. This variant is only available in China for now.
During his brief on-stage appearance, CEO George Zhao presented a couple of charts that demonstrated the superiority of the new battery technology. The charts revealed that when the voltage of a standard lithium battery drops to 3.5 volts, it has very little capacity remaining.
In contrast, silicon-carbon batteries exhibit 240% more capacity than conventional batteries at this voltage, leading to a 12.8% overall improvement.
Since the Chinese variant is advertised with a 5,450 mAh battery, it shows that the new battery technology is already being used, rather than just being tested in a laboratory. However, the international version is set to launch with a standard 5,100mAh battery.
It is unlikely that the silicon carbon battery variant will make it out of China, but we may get to see it on future phones later this year since the technology is already appearing on commercially available phones.
